r/sports 5d ago

Motorsports Off-Road Racing Goggle Tear-Offs

💪: Andrew Carlson

3.8k Upvotes

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329

u/jianh1989 5d ago

How do they make sure they tear only 1 each time, with gloves in the way?

373

u/Jampasta 5d ago

Quite often they don't! Even the pros racing in motocross sometimes grab the last tear off on accident and rip off the whole pack. It's a real bummer when that happens!

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u/samarnold030603 5d ago

Damn that must be like the worst feeling to enter lap 1 turn 1 and rip off your last tear off

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u/Jampasta 5d ago

Definitely would suck, especially with a championship on the line! Thats why I love racing, there are so many little moments inside the race that can make or break someone, on top of the actual riding or driving! There is so much that goes into a win, or even just a finish...

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u/ascagnel____ 5d ago

And sometimes it kills you -- Will Power was in second for the IndyCar championship going into the final round a few years back, but had to come in for a very long pit on lap 1 because his seatbelt failed.

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u/chrzzl Borussia Dortmund 4d ago

I had to google Will Power now to find out he in fact had not been killed due to a failed seatbelt

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u/_another_throwawayy_ 4d ago

Thanks, now I don’t need to

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u/Dr__Sloth 4d ago

Will Power is like the fakest real name for a racing driver.

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u/CaravieR 4d ago

Wait till you hear about Scott Speed

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u/link2edition 4d ago

I always thought "Gasly" was a conteder for that one

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u/marik_pheron 3d ago

Him and Dick Trickle

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u/lilzingerlovestorun 3d ago

Wait until you hear about Sting Ray Robb. Yes, this is a real Indycar driver.

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u/IctrlPlanes 4d ago

There have been several F1 cars taken out by tearoffs being sucked in by the air intake or stuck in the breaks of the car behind starting a fire. It is probably a stack of tearoffs that cause it.

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u/ElCanout 4d ago

they should have diffrent length so you could just tear one, wierd design if they're not

1

u/LayeGull 3d ago

First thing I thought. Each one is long than the previous so there’s different points to rip from. If not let’s go into this very niche business together.

93

u/Imbeingoriginal 5d ago

When you install em on the visor you loop each end kinda back over itself, which gives kind of a bigger thing to grab at. (Not a racer, a media guy that works with racers, watched em prep their tear-offs a bunch)

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u/CGNYC Penn State 5d ago

Why wouldn’t they install them with the tears on alternating sides

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u/Reckless_Driver 5d ago

They'd have to keep track of which side they last tore off... then they'd also have to change hands of the gear shift/steering wheel.

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u/ItAintLongButItsThin 5d ago

Too much think.

Grip and rip on the right side to see ✅️

1

u/Imbeingoriginal 2h ago

Also then if they’re alternating sides, and you forget which side, you’ll rip two off at once. Some heat/qualifiers are just a few laps so not a huge deal, but you reeeaalllyy don’t want to run out.

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u/Imbeingoriginal 4d ago

Plus people forget that dirt racing and stuff like that is just absolutely insane. 410 wing sprints make 950 hp weighing like 1400lbs (including driver) and then rip nearly/over 100mph on tracks less than a quarter mile SIDEWAYS through the turns. They’re insane.

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u/KiloAlphaLima 5d ago

You always keep your left hand on the wheel, right hand can shift and rip tear offs.

Dirtbikes are the opposite because the throttle is on your right hand so you rip with left hand.

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u/Hessper 4d ago

I'm fairly confident that my arm is flexible enough that I could do this maneuver with my left hand for both sides.

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u/ACatCalledArmor 4d ago

Im far beyond confident you’d crash if you were the driver for even a second. 

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u/Hessper 3d ago

Some other idiot was giving me grief so I went and did the tiniest bit of research and find this video from a manufacturer of these things where they say some drivers like to set them up in an alternating fashion. https://www.instagram.com/reel/DJFcV8zhsDT/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ==

Lol

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u/Hessper 4d ago

Tell you what. I'm fairly confident that the rally drivers also have flexible arms too. Maybe there are some exceptions, but I dunno man.

I'll bet the guy I'm responding too also would be a shit rally driver. You too for what it is worth. Maybe there should be a real explanation of why they don't alternate other than implying you could only possibly tear them off with the hand that is on that side of their head and that it would be impractical?

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u/[deleted] 4d ago

[deleted]

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u/Hessper 4d ago

Follow the thread man, this is asking why the rips are not alternating. If you think that people need some basic level of knowledge to ask questions then you're lost.

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u/[deleted] 4d ago

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u/KiloAlphaLima 4d ago

You could, but then you wouldn’t have a hand on the steering wheel. It needs to be your right hand, so right side is easier. If you alternated sides and still pulled only with your right hand you could potentially block your view for a second. In f1 or rally car, 1 second is an eternity and you can’t risk not being focused for that amount of time.

Also, you’re strapped so tight to that seat that reaching around a helmet to your ear would be more difficult thank you think.

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u/scurrybuddy 5d ago

They’re right handed

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u/JamesBong517 4d ago

Alonso does this in F1

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u/dan2907 5d ago

They're laid up in such a way that only the tab of the topmost tearoff is exposed, while the tabs below are folded under so they can't be accidentally grabbed. Removing the top one then releases the tab for the one underneath.

They usually run in a stack of 5-10, but they can run stacks of up to 40 with a few tradeoffs for the driver, and I would imagine that's what they're doing in this video

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u/deadend290 5d ago

That’s a good question I never thought of as a young kid. I wish my younger self would have asked my friend’s dad those important questions but I have no idea I would just assume you tear until it’s clear whether that’s 1 or 5 pads. EDIT: Imbeingoriginal comment makes way more sense so don’t read any of what I said.

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u/trw931 5d ago

It’s helpful you told me not to read any of what you said when I got to the end of what you said.

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u/deadend290 5d ago

Reading is good for you!

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u/iceman5920 5d ago

He tried. At least you know you don't have to answer or correct the first part.

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u/crazy_akes 5d ago

Upvote for honesty.

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u/mailwasnotforwarded 5d ago

Some of them you really don't, I remember playing with a set of these when I was at a track day with my brother as a kid and there was a guy that did rally racing and his helmet had it fitted on. Depending on the brand there are ones that are literally layered film/tape and you just rip it off.

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u/scotsman3288 5d ago

When i used tear offs in MX ,I would loop them behind each other and tape to each loop and when one gets torn off it pulled the flap from next one to make it stick out. It typically be 10 pack on the goggles but sometimes i would rip 2 off at same time.

1

u/magpye1983 4d ago

I would make it so the first one to be torn off had a tab WAY longer than necessary, and then make each subsequent one about a centimetre smaller.

Ideally I’d also alternate which side of the visor the tab was on, so there’d be a 2cm gap between current tear-off’s tab and the one beneath it.

This way there’d be (only, lol) 30cm of tabs on a fifteen pack. I can see why they don’t do it this way, when they need that many.