"BTW - In my opinion, riding with a group of bikers is way more dangerous than riding alone."
Depends on how often they ride together. If they do daily breakfast of coffee rides, okay. But riding with a strange group, or with just one hot head, makes it far more dangerous then riding alone or with a friend.
Still, any way you cut it, I'm gonna die. If God spanks me for riding without a helmet, so be it. If the CA non-riding prejudices ever waiver helmets, I'll takes my chances.
Ride free, die free.
"If God spanks me for riding without a helmet, so be it."
I had a bike that I used almost exclusively for commuting to work during the mid 90's. Put about 34000 miles on it. I'd ridden bikes since 68. One grey morning in 96 I came around a curve for probably the 500th time. The fine pebbles spilled on the road blended in perfect. I was on the inside lane, and thankfully, no oncoming traffic. Wiped out, smacked my head pretty good. The helmet was trash. The bike was operational, so I went on to work. My boss told me to go home, but outside of a few bruises, I felt fine and stayed.
I've always used a helmet, appreciating the years since that crash, enjoying my family, and just plain living.
You can't live life to the fullest if you're dead.