You hit the nail on the head. Exactly what I see. As an old guy though my perspective is from the riding fun to be had without the restrictions younger riders are accepting as cool today. Especially the full head bucket, especially that with very little other safety gear is really weird, and especially when they ridicule those with lesser helmet choices. To me it boils down to personal priority between riding safety vs crashing safety rather than what is cool. I never knew anyone who rode without a helmet to be cool. It's the same as riding a bicycle, a horse, skateboarding, skiing, or driving. You do it to do it. The element of added danger is just part of the experience for doing it, thus riders are rebels, at least the older generation.
Then it gets blown out of proportion. As a tax payer, your payment of motorcycle medical bills is minuscule compared to your tax dollars going to auto accident victims. Your premiums are not going down with helmet laws, only when motorcycles are banned. Lies repeated repeated repeated.

 

Not sure the FF is for safety so much.

If you're in a helmet state, you have to wear one. Half helmet gets you by the law requirement. FF now brings more to the table. Safety, yea. But now you get everything a smartphone can give you too all voice activated and hands free. Turn by turn directions, music, audiobooks, phone, etc... The FF allows more of that without all the wind noise of the half helmet and some of these buckets have pretty good acoustics. Yea, old people who's hearing is going away or has been wrecked by years of wind noise, guns, and concerts probably isn't going to appreciate that.

I enjoy a weekend cruise with a good Audiobook and I don't have to return to calls to friends or family when I get back, explaining "where the hell I've been and why haven't I been answering the phone."

 

Nine year old thread keeps going like the energizer bunny. I may have responded before, but at my age I have no memory of what I've done in the past.
I wear full face helmets on all my bikes. I don't give a rats butt what I look like .... I'm enjoying myself.

 

All the things in bold are just the things that I don't want when I'm out riding. Part of what I enjoy about riding is that it provides me time to "turn it off and tune out." I'd don't want people to be able to reach me when I'm out. I don't listen to music much anymore and have absolutely no need for it when I'm riding. Couldn't listen to music even if I wanted to. Due to the location of my pipes my FF acts like an echo chamber. I have to have my earplugs in (which I prefer anyway). Audiobooks on a bike? I wonder if that would make your mind wonder when it should be more focused. Directions? I do take my cell with me (either carried in fork bag, pocket, or small tank bag for gadgets), but I only check it for directions when I stop somewhere for a break. If I need to, I do it the old fashioned way and write down my turns on a piece of paper (or sometimes a napkin obtained at a gas station). I have this small tank bag with a clear window on it. I put the paper in the bag with the directions/turns displayed through the window. Works fine. Actually that bag was made to house a GPS/phone, but I found that the sun shinning through the plastic window makes things too hot for electronic gadgets. Still carry my phone in the bag, but paper (with directions) over the window keeps things from getting hot.

This is one of the reasons that I would have little interest in one of the Glides. Don't what all the infotainment etc. I'd rather have a RK or Heritage.

Everybody has their thing... Being "connected" while riding is not one of mine.

 

[QUOTE=Mozvader;17343098]Nobody's arguing safety benefits just reasoning.

If we lived by the stats, none of us would be on bikes to begin with. We'd all be in cages.

The safety argument comes down to how you live your life. After you decided you didn't want to live in the cheap seats it's a matter of how close to the field you want to get and how comfortable you want be with where you want to sit.

My sky diving days are over, I sit about 3/4 up now with radios, phones, and plush seats.

 

[QUOTE=Mozvader;17343098]Yep, pretty crazy that CA has the law and Fla does not. All should have the lane splitting, but this is about ff... OK, you got me with the gps and audiobook stuff, definitely not old school but I get it.Yep, other injuries are much more common.
Your 20% stat just opens up questions like what percent are fatal, and would they have died from other bodily injuries anyway? Knowing someone, and worst case stories properly affect someones decision, but simplified gov stats are one sided and don't affect my riding safety rules but sadly affect my rights.
Most reasons justifying a ff are in error. a 3/4 with a sealing flip down shield and air vents gives much better air cooling, the same protection from splatter, rain, and cold, and the same in wind reduction, all with much better view, easier head turning, and less bulk. Other reasons are perfectly justified like crash better, and stunts and racing.

 

Yeah, I have a 60 mile commute to work, and in the AM it's pre-dawn. 2 years ago or so, I was zipping down the interstate on the way in and got hit in the side of my face at 80 MPH while wearing my 1/2 helmet. I didn't know what it was at the time, as there were no vehicles in front of me to kick up anything, but my face was numb and my mouth was bleeding. I hit the next rest area, and lo and behold, I found feathers and blood. I didn't even see it coming as I rode along the coast in the dark.

That begat a journey of multiple helmets, all of them with some sort of facial protection...a Bell Rogue, a Scorpion Covert, and even an HJC Modular on colder days. I'm a pretty tough guy but catching a bird in the face at that speed in the dark could have ended very poorly for me. No time to brace or prepare for it, just an impact out of the dark, and you can't exactly walk it off while in the saddle.

That said ... your life, your ride, your rules. Me personally, I don't plan on giving my wife of 20 years that life insurance payout any earlier than I have to. YMMV

 

Reminds me of the time there was a huge vulture in the road. I LITERALLY scared the **** out of him and it covered my visor and part of the top of my full-face helmet.

As it is, i'm lucky. My visor was down. My wife says i always flip my visor up, but i don't ever remember doing it. Must be the claustrophobia again. But I'm glad it was down then.

if i'd had even a 3/4 helmet i would have LITERALLY been ****-faced

 

 

I wear a half helmet and Red Baron style goggles from England, They keep the bugs and dirt out of my eyes and fit over my glasses. They work great for me.