I too choose to wear one.
Back in the days (younger) I tried riding with one and without. I found that I was a bit more reckless wearing one. What I mean is, I would go 60 in a 30 mph curve. So being older but not necessarily smarter, I choose to wear one.
But I will add, in the 2 accidents I was involved in, once my half helmet flew off as soon as I hit the ground.

BUT I'll defend your right to choose has long as I breath air!

Since Iam back in the wind now, in Jersey. I have a question for the full face helmet riders. While I bought a half helmet to ride with, its 20-30 degrees now.
I took a ride with my full face NHRA racing helmet. The wind noise was outragous!
Is that something that separates motorcycle helmet from a racing helmet.

btw...its not a cheap helmet, unless you consider a $450 helmet cheap

 

I don't wear a helmet most of the time, I'm from ohio and will wear one in the winter, too much ice and it keeps me warm. That being said, I understand the theory of wearing a helmet saving your life if in an accident, but for me if it's a choice between being an invalid or disabled wearing a lid, and not wearing a lid and dying, I'll choose the latter. I'm pretty stubborn about caring for myself. I wouldn't want to inconvenience any of my family or friends (not that I have any that would go that far), and have them care for me. I'd rather go out in a blaze of glory than lay in a bed because my helmet protected my head.

No disrespect to anyone who is in the situation, I would just not want to do it for myself.

 

Amen. Don't tell me I'm not cool because I wear a helmet and I won't tell you you're stupid if you don't.

Bill

 

I believe that when my time is up on this earth, then there is nothing I can do about it. That being said, I also know that very few if any cage pilots look out for those of us on a 2 wheeler, reguardless if its powered by a gasoline engine or peddle power, and I will be damned if I am going to allow those people to deny me my right to a normal life because it wasnt my time to die yet and somehow still ended up flying head first into thier car or truck without something on my head!!!!! Here in town there is a young man (15yo) who's dad teaches the Motorcycle saftey coarse thru a local collage, yet this young man made a choice 2 months ago that he will pay for the rest of his life. I am following this persons recovery on a daily bases and believe me, it is nothing I would wish on my closest enemy.

I do wear a helmet of some form every single day that I throw a leg over my bike and hit the starter. Helmets are not required here in Utah, but I dont care. In my younger days living in California I made a stupid mistake on a road wide enough to call a four lane road, in front of a high school, following a student of the school who chose to stop in the middle of the lane to talk to friends on school grounds, and as I came to almost a stop I desided to avoid oncoming traffic and go around him on the right. Just as I cleared his rear bumper he suddenly desided he would pull over and park, slamming into my left leg and forcing me and the motorcycle to skid sideways a good 10 feet before he realized what was happening. Well he and my bike stopped almost imediatly but I kept going, over the bars head first to the ground. I know what the helmet looked like afterwards and I am thankfull it was on my head that day and not in the garage or strapped to the back of the bike. It wasnt my time then and luckly I was only givin a brused leg and some minor scratches to my palms as I went down.

Ok Im done.
Yes I wear a helmet. I will always wear one. Its my choice.

 

If this were the case, I don't think anyone would wear a helmet. Unfortuantely it seems to me from doing some research and personal experience, that helmets rarely save lives. If you're going to die, you're going to die. In that research, I ran across a lot of heart and other internal torso injuries that actually cause death in motorcycle crashes. The helmets seem to do their best work in more moderate crashes where the difference is: helmet = you walk/limp/stagger away, and no helmet = wearing diapers and relearning how to count to three.

For example, a local rider ended up with a significant brain injury from a crash that occured at about 5 mph, because he flopped down and smacked his head on the pavement. He just couldnt get his arm out fast enough to brace against the fall. He was in a coma for weeks. If he'd had a helmet on, he probably would have stood the bike up and continued on the ride.

All purely my personal experience and opinion though...

 

the faster i ride the more i feel like i need that helmet.plus it keeps my bald head from getting sunbuned!

 

I wear a non-dot , uselss beanie just to keep the cops off my *** in the wonderful state of NJ. I go to PA and CT as much as possible to ride free.

 

I use a Shoei RF-1000 with the little chin wind guard. I have very little wind noise. My friend rides with an Arai racing and he has to wear earplugs.
It may be how the helmet fits around your ears more than anything, but they also sell aftermarket wind guards. Never tried them though.

Here is a link to a site I found that helped me narrow my search down to models I wanted, then had to find which of them fit. They address wind noise as well.
Clicky

I'd love to ride without a helmet, but I love my head/face much better.
There is a picture I have of a guy that landed on his face without a helmet. Everytime I think I dont want to wear one, I think about the pic and helmet goes right on my head.

 

edited: decided to make this a new thread

 

I always wear a helmet. I know its the smart thing to do, and its my choice. BUT I don't think anyone else should be denied their choice... with one provision. My only problem comes when someone else's choices cost ME or the general public, money. So I think that states who that get rid of their helmet law should replace it with a mandatory "really big insurance policy" law like FL and PA did.