Motorcycle Helmets

[LinuxRandal]

I saw a argument on another forum, that I kinda liked. Allow a person to ride without a helmet, legally, if they have an insurance rider on themselves, incase of accident (paralysis or death). Insurance is still required to drive (at least in most states to my knowledge).
I've been on a true motorcycle once; no helmet, and no head injury (in part due to Judo training years ago). But it was offroad and I was a kid. (I've told it before, riding a bike a kid was restoring, and he failed to mention no rear brakes until I came back and stopped, flipped and the bike landed on me).

[jon_ramp]

Don't ride motorcycles anymore, but always used a helmet. Felt very uncomfortable without one. Have been wearing a seat belt since '78. My parents then had bought a new car and my mom said we're going to start wearing seat belts from this point forward. Now I would feel uncomfortable not wearing one. Not using a helmet or seat belt would make me feel as unsafe as using my thumb as a push stick to rip 1" strips.

[herb fellows]

There are very few riders who have not taken a spill at least once. If you survived it, it has to make you think 'what if the first thing that hit the ground was my head?'
If that doesn't make you a believer, I don't know what would.

[gsmittle]

All safety gear, all the time, whether it's the car, bicycle (don't own a motorcycle), or shop. I enjoy my brain and other bodily appendages.

I even feel weird moving the car in the driveway without wearing a seat belt.

g.

[JSUPreston]

I have a little Honda Rebel 250 that I ride on a regular basis to/from work. Had it just over a year. The only times I have ridden without a helmet were when I first got it as was going up/down the driveway at a whopping 5 MPH. When I hit 7, I got a helmet. Now, if I ride it without a helmet, it's because I have just performed a little maintenance and want to ride up/down driveway to make sure I can change gears, etc. If I do make it onto the street, I go 100 yards at most and come right back. And yes, helmets are mandatory in AL.

Would I ride on the regular roads (not my circle that even the city has forgotten exists) without a helmet? H*** NO! I don't trust the idiots in this town when I'm in my full size crew cab Dodge Ram. I've nearly been run over, run into, cut off, etc. on the bike. When I ride daily, I usually experience someone else's stupidity at least once a week.

I admit that recently I've been riding without my padded jacket. When the heat index is 110F with high humidity, you just about want to ride naked if you could get away with it. I think the only reason why I haven't tried is I am still traumatized from the vinly burns on the back of my legs that I got as a child in my grandmother's old Nova.

In all seriousness, I try to ride with the jacket when it won't cause a heat stroke. I use a full face helmet and leather gloves at all times. Unless I am performing maintenance and doing the very short test ride, I always wear pants. I haven't gotten riding pants or boots yet, but I'm in the market for them. As far as the pants go, I want something with padding that I can slip on over my work clothes.

Just my $.02 worth.

[buckeye95]

I do not own a motorcycle, but the thing that would push me to want to wear one (other then wanting to see my kids grow up), is the fact that there are so many distracted and poor drivers out there. I could literally be the best motorcycle driver in town, but all it takes is someone not paying attention and my life is changed forever. You still have to deal with them when I drive a car, but at least it is big enough that people should see it and offers several thousand pounds of protection between me and the road should there be an accident.

As a sidenote, a friend of mine has a daughter who is an Orthopedic Surgeon. She told him that if motorcycles were taken off the streets, her patient load would drop by 50% - scary statistics.

Pete

[cgallery]

There are very few riders who have not taken a spill at least once. If you survived it, it has to make you think 'what if the first thing that hit the ground was my head?'
If that doesn't make you a believer, I don't know what would.

I sorta doubt that. Laying a bike down does lots of damage to the bike. Based upon my 15k of miles on a bike (never laying one down), and my experience looking at used bikes, I'd imagine the percentage at substantially less than 10%. Probably less than 5%.

[LarryG]

Now, if I ride it without a helmet, it's because I have just performed a little maintenance and want to ride up/down driveway to make sure I can change gears, etc. If I do make it onto the street, I go 100 yards at most and come right back.

Funny you should mention this. Shortly after I bought my first motorcycle, I was doing some tune-up work one day in my parent's driveway. I was trying to track down a misfire and would tinker a while, pull on my helmet, ride once around the block, repeat. After eight or ten iterations I was getting frustrated with my lack of progress, and jumped on the bike without bothering with my helmet. Naturally that was the very lap on which I met a police cruiser, three quarters of the way around and within a hundred yards of home. I was 18 then. I'm now almost 57, and to this day that remains my only moving violation.

I've not owned a motorcycle for 20+ years -- still got the bug, just too many other, higher priorities -- but I would never ride one without a helmet.

OTOH, when I was in my late teens and early 20s and was a fairly serious cyclist, I never wore a bicycle helmet. No one did, in those days. I'm not sure they even made bicycle-specific helmets then, aside from the so-called "hairnets" that some of the pro racers wore. When I resumed riding at age 40 I didn't own a helmet initially, but because of my motorcycle experience I had good intentions of getting one. I kept putting it off until one day I was in my car and, for whatever reason, slowed down to about my normal riding speed of 15-20mph and thoughtfully contemplated the pavement as it slid by below my open car window. I said to myself, "If I fell off and hit my head at this speed, I could really get hurt." I bought a helmet right away, and 17 years later I wouldn't think of climbing aboard my bicycle without first putting one on.

[reddog552]

Brain Buckets

I have ridden motercycles forover 40 yrs. 1 million miles + . Nothing personal SCREW THEM.