I had a serious wreck during my last desert race. A few months prior I received a third place trophy for my finish in the 1974 Nevada state championship hare and hound. Add this to my decades, and hundreds of thousands of miles, of daily riding in big city traffic and that adds up to feeling fully confident in my abilities. The truth is I have forgotten more about riding motorcycles then most people, none of you of course, will ever learn.

The reason for my posts is to support 'freedom of choice'. Of course this freedom depends on people making their decisions not using misinformation. Things like 'an accident while wearing a helmet WILL result in a broken neck', 'a helmet affects hearing and peripheral vision enough to be dangerous', etc..

I never tell anybody to wear, or not wear a helmet. Just be sure and give the proper weight to the 'pros or cons' of any decision you make. And keep in mind that whatever reason anybody has for riding a motorcycle, i.e. freedom, sticking it to the man, saving money on gas, etc. only has any meaning during the time they are actually riding their motrorcycle.
Death, or a head injury, are full time and permanent.

I guess the posts from people that claim "I am a new, or first time harley, rider. My Harley is GREAT. It is the best thing since sliced bread." are more important? Don't we 'helmet lovers' deserve the same respect? Or does the truth about possible bad affects of a head injury scare the 'helmet haters'? It shouldn't because while the affects are pretty bad, they are not something to dwell on. At least not after you have enough experience to be confident in your riding ability. So when there is a post about wearing a helmet, you have already made your decision. You might as well move on, there is nothing for you to see here.

Ron

 

Why does wearing a helmet turn one into a helmet "lover"? What about those who some times wear one and some times don't - are they helmet "likers"?

Posting reasons why they wear one? You mean like
- "If you wear a helmet, you will break your neck."
- "If you wear a helmet, you have no peripheral vision"
- "If you wear a helmet, you can't hear anything"
- "If you wear a helmet, your head gets way too hot"

... are those the type reasons you see "helmet lovers" posting?

On a similar note, I some times wonder why some people who choose to not wear a helmet feel the need to repeat tire, worn out myths, to support their decision, rather than simply saying "I don't wear a helmet because I don't want to." Perhaps you see the "helmet lovers" dispelling these myths and mistake it for something other than providing facts for new riders, or, uneducated older riders.

 

Sorry, I live in the desert, where it can get over 115 degrees during the summer. If my nanny state would let me I might never wear a helmet again.

The vents help on FF but not that much. When the sun is beating down and I am lucky to be riding outside of my Communist minded state, I wear my baseball cap backwards.

That being the case, I am forced by the government (Who thinks that the American people need more regulations to keep us sheple in line then to ever give a **** about personal liberty and freedoms) to wear a friken helmet.


I used to wear a FF when I raced streetbikes on the Autobahn in Germany. 153mph+. The FF is a necessity at those speeds due to wind resistance. But those days are long gone and I do not feel the need to wear a giant basketball on my head anymore.

 

I wish it was that simple
To answer your question, It is because the some of us are getting sick and tired of being told we are stupid and we need our government to step in a force us to wear helmets like the good minded and compliant helmet wearers. I pray they never get to the point of outlawing Motorcycles, but then you will see why we fight for our freedoms.

Has anyone ever wondered why Bell helmet is one of the biggest supporters and financiers of mandatory helmet laws???

Hmmmm.

Also DOT does not create safety standards for helmets.


I hated to post this link again, but some people need to reread this.

http://www.easyrider.com/fact_sheet.htm

 

Better the helmet than the head, eh!

 

My helmet looks as bad as that from just falling off the bike onto the ground.

 

To each their own, but I'd suggest that in terms of comfort being hot wins out every time over having your jaw ground off on the pavement.

Matt

 

If you have your jaw ground off on the pavement everytime you go out to ride, maybe you need more training instead of a helmet.

 

I had crash back in the 70's with out a helmet and would of die if I was wearing a helmet at that time. I have to wear a helmet in my state now. The next time there the same type of crash will I live. Do to state law you must wear a helmet in this state. They are not looking into the whole helmet protection thing as safety as to use side and back bracing on your helmet. You are told the helmet is for your protection and what about everything else on your body? A T-Shirt wearing helmet rider is safer. There is something wrong with that picture.

 

I don't think you've seen anyone here supporting helmet laws.

I first joined ABATE back in the early 1980's, when I was in the Navy. I continue to support ABATE and anyone else fighting against helmet laws. I'm also a big 2nd Amendment supporter and gun owner. I have no problem seeing why we fight for our freedoms.

I know facts go much farther than myths in supporting those fights. Some anti-helmet or anti-helmet law people do more harm than good, and some times make themselves appear stupid, when they use ridiculous myths or other claims in their efforts to support anti-helmet laws.

Some of those people also make themselves appear foolish by calling people who choose to wear helmets "Helmet Lovers", while ignoring the reality that many "helmet lovers" are very strong supporters of the fight to eliminate helmet laws.

It's not about freedom from wearing a helmet - it's about having the freedom to make the CHOICE to wear a helmet or not.


I suppose some people have. It would make good business sense for them to do so, although, I've never heard this possible fact before. How much money has Bell spent in support of mandatory helmet laws? I don't recall Bell having much of a lobbying effort in DC.

On the other hand, I do know the insurance industry has a huge, powerful, lobbying arm in DC. Whereas a company like bell has an extremely limited financial ability to support much of a lobbying effort, the insurance industry can easily spend millions of dollars on lobbyists and other support.

I don't know if anyone has ever wondered why the insurance industry spends millions of dollars in DC, but, if they have, they just aren't thinking about this **** as it would seem, to me at least, to be very obvious why they would spend so much in support of seat belt laws, helmet laws and other regulation which benefits their industry.


How is this relevant to the discussion?