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I’m not quite sure what forum to put this in, so I’ll try here. It’s kind of a training question. Does anyone make a filter mask suitable for use while riding? I’ve always been a little disgusted by getting bugs in my mouth, particularly at twilight when there are lots of them about. Today I had an encounter with an insect that was a bit more serious. I was going downhill into a stiff headwind at around 20 MPH. What I believe was a bumblebee was going in the other direction at probably the same speed. The impact was wicked. It felt like a punch. I was spitting bee parts out a lot longer than I wanted to. The stinger lodged in my lip and it took me half a minute to clean off the bee debris enough to find it and remove it. I’m going to try to attach a photo of the result.
Bad as it was (I’m mildly allergic to bee sting) it got me thinking that it could have been worse. An inch over and it might have gone straight down my throat like so many unfortunate gnats already have, and I wouldn’t want that kind of swelling there.
So, we already wear helmets to keep our skulls safe in the event of a spill. We wear glasses to keep the bugs out of our eyes. Does anyone make a filter mask designed for athletes? Dust filters would be too constrictive. Heat exchange masks are out for obvious reasons. It would have to be made of something like screen door material so it wouldn’t restrict breathing but would keep nasty things out of our mouths.
Bad as it was (I’m mildly allergic to bee sting) it got me thinking that it could have been worse. An inch over and it might have gone straight down my throat like so many unfortunate gnats already have, and I wouldn’t want that kind of swelling there.
So, we already wear helmets to keep our skulls safe in the event of a spill. We wear glasses to keep the bugs out of our eyes. Does anyone make a filter mask designed for athletes? Dust filters would be too constrictive. Heat exchange masks are out for obvious reasons. It would have to be made of something like screen door material so it wouldn’t restrict breathing but would keep nasty things out of our mouths.