Helmets or No Helmets
Seasoned HDF Member
Joined: Feb 2006
Posts: 5,351
Likes: 648
From: Vegas, baby!
I say do what you want. When your times up, your times up. Helmet or Not.
My friends that are LEOs have told me too many stories about peoples heads being ground into the pavement. Would a helmet have saved anyone? Probably not as often as youd think, but I still wear mine for my families piece of mind.
My friends that are LEOs have told me too many stories about peoples heads being ground into the pavement. Would a helmet have saved anyone? Probably not as often as youd think, but I still wear mine for my families piece of mind.
Speaking from experience, the real benefit of a helmet is preventing an injury to the head/brain. Death is almost irrelevant.
After a person is dead, he or she won't know it. Or the effects on their survivors. It is the difficulties faced by survivors of head injuries,
and their families, that really matter IMO.
Your LEO friends haven't seen the results of every, or even most, incidents during which a helmet is ground, or 'merely' bounces, on the pavement
or something else solid. Nobody, except those that personally experience or witness the aftereffects of a head injury can understand said
injury's ramifications.
I agree nobody can know "Would a helmet have saved anyone? Probably not as often as youd think," It could be far greater then "you'd think"
because nobody can know about every incident during which a helmet may have prevented a head injury, which isn't difficult to receive, or deaths. Most people don't even know that the accident happened.
Nobody knows about the accidents in which a rider gets up and walks away because a helmet prevented a head injury.
Cruiser
Joined: Oct 2022
Posts: 171
Likes: 80
From: Sacramento County, California
California requires Helmets
California where I am requires helmets. That said, I'd wear one anyway since i used to ride scrambles, hare and hounds and flat track and I've seen what can happen. All that said, if a cop sees you riding in California without a helmet, it's an automatic traffic stop. No thanks for that.
Grand HDF Member
Joined: Sep 2022
Posts: 4,471
Likes: 3,853
From: Florida
The “choice” wasn’t taken from me from laws or where I live. The “choice”was taken by sexting, texting, tweeting…. Times changed. In just a 10 year window it went from a choice to just plain foolishness. People are so much more dangerous and distracted. Tourists, elderly, soccer moms… they are so dangerous it’s not really much of a choice, fight back. My “choice” was to continue riding and I fight back by changing my ways. Wearing a helmet, gloves and a jacket with protective CE armor.
Road Warrior
Joined: Sep 2016
Posts: 1,385
Likes: 1,416
From: Northern NJ
The “choice” wasn’t taken from me from laws or where I live. The “choice”was taken by sexting, texting, tweeting…. Times changed. In just a 10 year window it went from a choice to just plain foolishness. People are so much more dangerous and distracted. Tourists, elderly, soccer moms… they are so dangerous it’s not really much of a choice, fight back. My “choice” was to continue riding and I fight back by changing my ways. Wearing a helmet, gloves and a jacket with protective CE armor.
There have been safety improvements in that time too, most notable virtually every car on the road now has anti-lock brakes.
While there are shocking statistics on how dangerous texting while driving is, which is not my question; I want to know if, all things considered, are the roads less safe. This page does not show it.
https://www.iihs.org/topics/fatality...early-snapshot
Last edited by hairymoth; Aug 20, 2023 at 07:40 AM.
Grand HDF Member
Joined: Sep 2022
Posts: 4,471
Likes: 3,853
From: Florida
While this seems obvious, that drivers are more distracted with phones and the roads are more dangerous for bikes (which I tend to agree with BTW) I wonder if it is true. I wonder if statistics actually show a greater percentage of riders being struck by distracted drivers than there were, say 10 or 20 years ago (before texting really took off). Though not a frequent as texting, there were distractions back then too, e.g., looking at paper maps or directions, changing the CD or cassette tape, ...
There have been safety improvements in that time too, most notable virtually every car on the road now has anti-lock brakes.
While there are shocking statistics on how dangerous texting while driving is, which is not my question; I want to know if, all things considered, are the roads less safe. This page does not show it.
https://www.iihs.org/topics/fatality...early-snapshot
There have been safety improvements in that time too, most notable virtually every car on the road now has anti-lock brakes.
While there are shocking statistics on how dangerous texting while driving is, which is not my question; I want to know if, all things considered, are the roads less safe. This page does not show it.
https://www.iihs.org/topics/fatality...early-snapshot
On a daily basis I see things like last week, a woman two lanes to my right at a light… decide to make a left turn at a 4 lane 4 way crossing. I see cars flipped, on their side in ditches intersections and sidewalks all the time. Last Saturday two motorcyclists were killed at once By being rear ended by an explorer and it didn’t even make the news. Traffic was held up an additional 30 minutes, by the time I could see, all I saw were the two bodies on the ground covered and the remains of two very destroyed motorcycles.
Last edited by Rains2much; Aug 20, 2023 at 11:48 AM.
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