Posted on 04/26/2014 2:51:15 PM PDT by Decombobulator
That is very important. A car vs. a motorcycle accidents are not that rare. If a rider is well equipped, he may get some road rash, or a broken bone; if he has no helmet he may die. The car driver will be in far deeper trouble if that happens; it's no longer an accidental injury where everyone lives - it's now an involuntary homicide. If the police wants, they will be investigating every action of the driver, and if they discover that he tuned the radio a few seconds before the accident, or that his phone rang, he may become a murderer.
In other words, it's indeed up to the motorbike rider to live or to die; in a free country this should be nobody's else concern. However it becomes someone else's concern when this rider chooses a random driver as an instrument of his death.
After a long ride in the country, my helmet visor is covered with hundreds of dead mosquitoes and bugs. I’ve always wondered what happens if you’re not wearing a full face helmet, do those bugs just bounce off your face, or stick to it, or what?
You can get a skull fracture just moving your bike in a parking lot.
In 1994 I left Lyons, Colorado to ride to Cheyenne, Wyoming to meet a bunch of friends riding to Sturgis. (27 hawgs and 1 duck). Just north of Longmont on I25 I passed an 18-wheeler and his tires kicked up a pretty good sized rock.
It was just like a scene fro Victory at Sea as I could track the rock looping toward me. Bounced off my right hand (thankfully gloved) caromed off and hit the front of the Shoei.
Left a pretty good groove. If that had been my unprotected head I’m sure I would have laid myself and the bike down at 80MPH.
Now, having said that, I think one is an idiot not to ride without a helmet. However, if one wants to, do it.
Just don’t come crying if it doesn’t go well.
I get the occasional bug in the eye when I’m riding my mountain bike. That’s bad enough, but at least I’m not going over 50 MPH on a bike that weights 500+ lbs.
“Seasoned riders don’t take as many risks,” he said. “But the reflexes go, the eyesight goes.”
I actually agree with this, because I’m one of these guys. My first vehicle was a motorcycle, I’ve had maybe 5 to 8 of them throughout my life. But i sold my last one about 24 years ago and had not ridden since. Until last year when I bought the bike I’ve always wanted, a BMW R1200RT. I’m the proud owner of a shiny new motorcycle and a shiny new Medicare card, so you see where I stand. My skills are certainly not what they used to be but they are improving daily. The biggest difference is the younger me rode without any safety equipment at all. The older me doesn’t get on the bike without full gear, armored pants and armored HiViz jacket, boots, gloves, and a superb full face helmet. it’s called ATGATT - all the gear all the time. Oh yeah, and a MCSF rider course. I know its a risk, but I have almost 6000 hours in Navy aircraft of various types and this ain’t nothing compared to that! and its almost as fun. In other words, understand that risk and mitigate it to the best of you ability. and leave riders alone to do what they want. OFF SOAPBOX.
I ride. I wear a helmet. It’s as natural as putting on a seatbelt for me.
I think you are crazy if you don’t wear a helmet.
But, it’s not my call. Nor is it a public safety issue. If you want to ride naked...go for it.
The missed point is that riders unfamiliar with a new or borrowed motorcycle are significantly more likely to be involved in an accident than riders who have been riding the same bike for over 6 months. New riders are also at greater risk. Those new registrations were likely all in the group most likely to be involved in accidents.
The other question is one of how many more attended Daytona Bike Week because the laws were relaxed, and how much of an effect that had.
Daytona, for those who do not know, it the East Coast equivalent of Sturgis.
Why indeed. Why do you have to pay, or care, what another person does or doesn't do? Because there is a law that hospitals have to treat anyone who comes into the emergency room.
A hospital is a business, but our legislators, in their effete wisdom, have decided to interfere with business and free choices to enlist people like you can aid them in their goal of running everyones' life but their own. Please, don't get down on our fellow Americans who are actually living their lives and having fun. It is called being responsible for your own actions, not your fellow man's.
I love the guy on the Ninja with a $300.0 full face bucket on his head, wearing a tank top, shorts and sandals.
Brain intact so he can feel every moment of the skin debriding as he lays in the burn ward for a month with ‘road rash’.
PPE is an ensemble, not just one item. That having been said, grown ups are responsible for their own decisions and their consequences. The gubmint needs to stay out of it.
The only time i go without a helmet is when I am literally going around the block to just give the bike some turnover - seems it sits there for weeks without being used.
Otherwise always a full helmet for noise reduction ( serious issue right there ) and bugs. They sting and one embedded itself in my neck - had to extract it like a tick - that was the last straw. Florida has insect aviators all year round.
WHY do motorcyclist crash?
How do we stop that?
This is no game and you need to hear how we are crashed and killed new, like the first time.
Let’s fix that and see what the numbers are.
The failure of (STUPID cage drivers) motorists to detect and recognize motorcycles in traffic is the predominating cause of motorcycle accidents.
Is the predominating cause of motorcycle accidents. Let’s not put the cart before the horse.
The driver of the other vehicle involved in collision with the motorcycle did not see the motorcycle before the collision, or did not see the motorcycle until too late to avoid the collision. oops.
The most frequent accident configuration is the motorcycle proceeding straight then the automobile makes a left turn in front of the oncoming motorcycle. oops.
Intersections are the most likely place for the motorcycle accident, with the other vehicle violating the motorcycle right-of-way, and often violating traffic controls.
When car drivers do the above, only taking 1 second, HELMET or not y’all tear us to pieces and kills us and get off scot free.
If we started getting you car drivers locked up for attempted murder for killing motorcycle riders we could make y’all pay better attention on the road. That would cut the kill ratio down a lot to.
Using 1000’s of pounds of metal cars as a weapon.
You know what the last words of the news cast always is???
The report said the motorcycle ride was not wearing a helmet, even if a tractor trailer ran over us......twice.
I swear if I ever get hit a third time and am able to get my hands on the driver at the scene I will do a little house cleaning of my own. I only missed getting to the second guy by a mere few feet before I was stopped. His lucky day.
MC riding nearly 50 years.
2 MC total loss by bad car drivers. Insurance paid
1 was fined 25 dollar fine didn’t hear why just 25.00,
1 for 35 dollars for speeding to fast for conditions but I totaled his dam car out.
2 best MC friends killed by bad car drivers their fault.
It wasn’t the not wearing a helmet that killed them. It was being torn apart or rib cage crushed.
Nothing touch the head.
When a ton car rides over you with your 900 pound motorcycle still firmly attached, you die, helmet or not.
my 2 cents
True. I've seen folks die from very slow accidents that produced head injuries, but I agree that it's their right to take that chance. What I find ironic is that many who don't wear helmets still wear leathers to protect the rest of their bodies.
Of course, i really cringe when I see a motorcycle being driven by a person with flip-flops, shorts and a wife-beater shirt - when I rode, I had a desire to stay in one piece.
Didn’t use to wear a helmet when I ride then I came upon a guy who was showing off a pocket rocket he’d actually sold when he pulled a wheelie, lost it and cracked his skull open like a kasaba melon and died.
I wear one ALL the time now.
But still it is simply the legislature kissing up to insurance companies on this helmet law as well as the seat belt law.
Of course it would be best if All folks did both but is it the job of the nanny state to force you?
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