Not mad or angry about it just calling it like I see it. And this is an extremely important topic IMO. I bet there are a lot of other users and lurkers that will read this thread too, so I'm gonna lay it out how I see it:
valuing fashion over safety is retarded. not a ATGATT nazi, but even in the 100+ degree summer I don't wear flip flops, shorts or single tshirts when I ride, unless going to gas station at less than 25mph (pedal speeds). Even then I wear my full face. Though this summer I think I will ditch the sweatshirt for some armor over a tshirt.
To survive in this life one needs to make good judgement a habit, in this case wearing the safest gear you can afford. Sometimes when you make too many bad decisions they can combine and form an accident. Its been a rough week for me and my family. a couple days ago my cousin died at 31 literally from a habit of bad decisions, for at least 8 months prior, right up to every day of the weekend leading up to her death. Very sad and a vaguely pointless death. What the inspector said above is right. The pain goes to your grave and beyond, in the people around you. What I learned is: it is very, very easy to die early with bad habits in judgement.
Riding a motorbike is generally a bad decision. So if you're gonna wear protective gear, don't half-ass it. Open face bad decision #1. black helmet >> overheating >> dehydration >> worse awareness and reflexes, bad #2. Another mistake here or there, throw in some plain old bad luck and you have an accident that in worst case sends the openfacer to the hospital for weeks getting reconstructive facial and dental surgery, and for me would have been sit on the curb and chill for 5 minutes, then keep riding.
Edit: the helmet I got is the safest option for the least money. If I had more money I would get a lightweight cf helmet with the built in rearview mirror, which would also probably have better quality vents, lower noise, visor etc. There are a number of full face helmet styles that are fashionable too. Retro styles , regular, MX, dual sport, even those gay modulars are probably better than open etc. with so many styles out there there's just no excuse not to have a chin cage IMO.
I'll say that first, in all honesty, with all the impacts I've had on various vehicles, the chin guard was a "life saver" many many times over... Even as a stupid 13 year old kid something put me off about the idea of just smashing my chin off a snowmobile dash let alone a tree or boulder. So my first pick was a chinned helmet, and still is.
As far as picking fashion over protection you have a clear point. But to take a page right from the Snell foundation it's obvious to even them that an ugly helmet is less likely to be worn even to an uncomfortable helmet. Yeah get that? People actually willing to wear NOTHING instead of wearing a helmet that's ugly, stupid is what stupid does as they say.
Now the only foreseeable option with stupid people being stupid and many laws lacking in requirements for even full size motorcycles in regards to head protection would be to encourage ANY helmet, even if it's oversized and one of those retarded as s**t skull caps (halfers) since at least there's a tiny chance the person will be slightly more likely to survive. In the off chance they end up with full reconstructive face surgery then I would hope the regret the bad helmet choice, and they will probably wear a better one if they ever go out riding again, if at least to protect the million dollars and months of agony that was just invested in their face.
At the very least they will make for good candidates for helmet safety commercials, kinda like the burn victims they put on the side of gas cans nowadays,and act as a solom reminder to us folks with operable brains and good looking faces why helmets are so important.
As far as Snell regulations go I'm rather certain than chin bars are required for all Snell certification except for horse riding helmets. As a quick test I punched in to Google the words "Snell helmet" and "dot helmet," and results for Snell helmets all were closed face, while dot helmets were primarily open face as browsing through images revealed. The only thing that pisses me off is that my hard earned tax dollars are going to a federal regulation agency that regulates safety on the road would let any old guy with a paintbrush simply draw the letters dot on the back of the cheapest piece of plastic imaginable and say it's OK, but God forbid I slow down and roll through a stop sign at 2mph when there's obviously nobody there!
Funny enough if you start comparing European traffic anything to the United States you'll start to think our regulations and ideas were written by a huge f***ing flock of clowns with crayons since over there they simply have their s**t together for the most part.
Anyways, I won't be able to stop people from wearing less than adequate helmets, and in their opinion the one they have is probably good enough, and I'll promote wearing a carved out open faced cantaloupe with duct tape chin straps if I think it will lessen the chances a person will die.
You can make your own rear view mirror as an add on for your helmet, no bolts needed, velcro and surface area are key and effective.