FORGOTTEN MOTOCROSS TECH: TORSTEN HALLMAN RACING SEE-THRU ROCK GUARD

Lars Larsson, one of the founders of Torsten Hallman Racing, was the model for the See-Thru Rock Guard ad.

Motocross history is filled with examples of creative ideas that were heralded as groundbreaking, but, because of the rapid rate of change in development, sank into the swamp of forgotten technology. Although some ideas are best left abandoned, others were truly innovative (if not ultimately successful). MXA loves to reveal motocross’ tech trivia. Do you remember this idea? The Torsten Hallman Racing See-Thru Rock Guard.

In the 1970s, racers wore open-face helmets. At the time, only two high-profile racers wore full-coverage Bell Star road race helmets—Tim Hart and Billy Payne. Everyone else wore an open-face helmet with a Jofa face guard. The Jofa came from hockey, where it kept a skater from cracking his chin on the ice. Motocrossers adopted it to protect their faces from roost. It wasn’t very protective.

Jody Weisel at Saddleback Park on a Suzuki RM125C. The Torsten HalLman Rock Guard’s rubber strap is just below the Super Seer goggle strap.

To solve this problem, the aftermarket started making face guards, some that turned an open-face helmet into a facsimile of a full-coverage helmet and some that attached to your goggles to block roost. There were Koho, Scott, Race Face, JT, Pacifico, MXL, Skyway, Oakley and Jofa face guards. All were better than nothing at protecting your face, nose and teeth from roost. Perhaps the most unique of the face guards was the Torsten Hallman See-Thru Rock Guard. It was designed by Anders Persson, who also designed the popular Hallman Flip-Up visor. It consisted of a clear plastic guard with rubber trim on its edges. The plastic guard clipped to your helmet via a rubber strap that went around the helmet to attach to the other end of the See-Thru guard. It was more securely mounted than face guards that snapped to your helmet or goggles. According to Hallman’s Lars Larsson, it didn’t sell very well.

When Roger DeCoster crashed at the Livermore Trans-AMA and cut his face, the motocross world switched en masse to full-coverage Bell Moto-Star helmets.