Patent ID: 7814579

Claim:
A helmet comprising: a hard outer cap body having a top, a left side, a right side, and a crushable inner liner; a chin guard having a left and right side, said left and right chin guard sides being pivotally connected respectively to the left and right sides of the cap body by a pair of chin guard hinges; and a recess on each of the left and right sides of the cap body, one each of said pair of hinges being disposed in one of the recesses, and each said hinge including a pair of rotational joints, one of which has a fixed axis and one of which has a floating axis, and a swivel arm coupling the rotational joint of the fixed axis and the rotational joint of the floating axis, wherein each chin guard hinge recess on the cap body includes a raised section configured to cause the hinges to move the left side and right side of the chin guard away from the respective sides of the cap body during rotation of the chin guard and a lower section configured to cause the hinges to secure the chin guard in a fully raised and fully lowered position such that the helmet may be worn with the chin guard in the fully raised or fully lowered position.