The pleasure of riding without a helmet?

[BCKRider]

OK, I suspect few of you on this forum do so now, whatever the laws in your jurisdiction. But I bet quite a few of you did in the "old days." Do you in any way miss having your naked head out in the breeze?

Just read on ADV Rider the most recent MC fatality reports by state. (If anyone can transport that document to this site, their is definitely some "food for thought.")

One thing that struck me is that, in states where helmet use is optional, only 50% of riders wore helmuts. (Yeah, how did they obtain that statistic? But let's say it is reasonably accurate, and the compliance rate in states which DO require helmets is something like 86%.)

I just wonder what wonderful experience these helmetless riders get? When I started riding (after taking the MSF course and getting my MC endorsement) I rode for a couple months on a borrowed bike (an ancient single cylinder Honda that was street legal) with a borrowed open face helmet. I used the bike to commute to a playing gig about 15 miles away every day. It was fun until the day the rain fell. At 50 mph that rain in the face HURT.

I bought my first full-face helmet before I bought my first bike, a $1000 Honda CB750. (The rest of my gear consisted of a leather jacket from a thrift store, leather work gloves, jeans, and hiking boots.) Luckily, I never had a crash and they served me well until I decided motorcycling was for me and gradually upgradaded both bikes and garb.

Back to the original question: what is the pleasure of riding without a helmet?

 

[jogitu]

This does not answer your question but this is what stood out to me:

Increase helmet use.
Helmets are by far the single most effective method to prevent motorcyclist fatalities and serious injuries. Helmets are 37% effective in preventing fatal injuries to motorcycle riders (operators) and 41% effective for passengers (nHtSa, 2011a). in 2008, 43%
of fatally-injured motorcyclists were not wearing helmets. that rose to 44% in 2009. nHtSa estimates that helmets saved 1,829 motorcyclistsÔÇÖ lives in 2008 and that 822 of the unhelmeted motorcyclists who died would have survived if they had worn helmets (nHtSa, 2009).
more than 30 years of experience demonstrate conclusively that state motorcycle helmet use laws are the best way to increase helmet use. in 2011, use of helmets meeting department of transportation safety requirements was 84% in states with laws requiring helmet use by all motorcyclists (universal helmet laws) and 50% in other states (nHtSa, 2012c).
a universal helmet law is the only motorcycle safety strategy whose effectiveness is rated as five-star (ÔÇ£demonstrated to be effective by several high-quality evaluations
with consistent resultsÔÇØ) in Countermeasures that Work (CmtW), nHtSaÔÇÖs guide for states (nHtSa, 2011b, Section 5). Similarly, increasing the use of helmets is the only motorcycle safety strategy rated as proven (ÔÇ£used in one or more locations, and for which properly designed evaluations have been conducted that show it to be effectiveÔÇØ) in the american association of State Highway and transportation Officials (aaSHtO) ÔÇ£Guide for addressing Collisions involving motorcyclesÔÇØ (Potts et al., 2008, Strategy 11.1e1)
and the only strategy rated ÔÇ£scientifically provenÔÇØ in the Center for disease Control and PreventionÔÇÖs ÔÇ£motorcycle SafetyÔÇØ (CdC, 2011).

 

[pjjj3386]

Our frequent riding partners are our good friends, a husband and wife who both ride their own Harleys. Great people. Neither wear a helmet if they don't need to.
2 intelligent, succesful, classy people. I don't get it.

I can't imagine riding without a helmet. Put safety aside, when I count the bugs on the face shield, that's all I need to know.

 

[35634]

I think image is very important for some types of bikers, and helmets make you look, well, not quite the right image.

The convenience of just hopping on the bike without any cumbersome gear is a plus.

Riding a motorcycle involves risk, riding without a helmet just ups that risk. I have cage bound friends that look at me with my helmet and gear the same way I look at helmet-less HD and crotch rocket friends.

On the other hand, I see some riders so safety conscious I have to wonder why they didn't drive their Volvo.

 

[Ken F]

I started riding at age 14 in Kansas with no helmet back in those days, and continued the practice for the following 15 years in California, and New Mexico.

During a SS1000 two summers ago, I was traveling across Oklahoma in 109 degree heat when I noticed lots of people riding without helmets. Partly giving in to nastalgia, and partly due to the heat I decided at my next fuel stop to strap my helmet to the pillion, since I was going to be slabing it for the next God-knows-how-many-miles.

I only lasted 5 miles and pulled off on the shoulder to put it back on. What a miserable experience...hot wind blasting you in the face, hair blowing everywhere...and the noise was unbearable! The wind noise was the worst part.

I really don't understand why so many people insist on wearing the "uniform" half-eggshell helmets. If you have to wear one anyway, why not wear one that is going to do you some good, and offers some protection from wind, rain, and bugs?

Ken

 

[martinph]

I have been riding 50 years next month, in all that time I have ridden about 10 miles without a helmet; hated it! I just dont get it either!

 

[greenwald]

To answer your original question, .... NONE.

 

[MCMXCIVRS]

I once rode my bike from the front street to the back alley to parkit without wearing a helmet. I felt weird and vulnerable. That's the extent of my helmetless riding in over 35 years of riding motorcycles, dirt bikes, ATVs, mini-bikes, etc.

I see no value or appeal in the helmetless experience.

 

[35634]

The choir is alive and well. We need the noise & chrome crowd!

 

[marchyman]

Partly giving in to nastalgia, and partly due to the heat I decided at my next fuel stop to strap my helmet to the pillion, since I was going to be slabing it for the next God-knows-how-many-miles.

Heh... If you are going to go helmetless the last place you want to do that is on the slab for all the reasons you mentioned. On the other hand it's a completely different experience at 25 MPH.

Before helmet laws I ended every service and the occasional bike washing session with a short ride around the local neighborhood. The wind and noise wasn't an issue at 25 MPH. Sure, it was more dangerous than wearing a helmet. Somehow I survived. These days I put the helmet on for the around the neighborhood test ride. I don't wear my earplugs on the test rides, though, so I can better listen to the bike. I suppose that can kill me, too.

The only other way helmet laws have had an effect on me is in helping broken down motorists on the side of the road. I used to be able to offer someone standing by their broken car a lift and once in a while was taken up on that offer. Of course in those days the ride was typically to the nearest phone... not much of an issue any more with ubiquitous cell phone use. Except that cell phones rarely work on back roads far away from major freeways or population centers.

 

[oldnslow]

I have lived and rode in 'helmet optional' states, and in my younger days I frequently went with out. I mean how could the girls see me with a helmet on!

Now in my wiser years, the idea with out a helmet seems crazy. Plus, the noise and the wind drive me crazy. I NEVER go with out a helmet anymore.

 

[David13]

When I was younger there were no helmet laws. So I did go without a helmet. I can't say as I ever enjoyed it.
After my head got banged a few times, and I fell a few times, and I realized what getting the head banged felt like I came to like wearing the helmet.
And I still don't like the idea of having my head banged even with the helmet on.
And I always wear the full face.
I do not believe that you need to learn about that the hard way.
dc

 

[henzilla]

As David13 mentions, banging your head changes attitudes. Done it on bicycles and motorized bikes. Was one of the first of my buds to wear a Bell bicycle helmet many years ago...very bulky...but my head thanked me a few times.

I rode a few bikes without a skidlid in earlier years and am still here so it must have been fun and OK at the time. I thought windshields were for wimps as well...times have changed .

I had a Jeep with no doors or top when I was in my twenties Was a lot of fun to have the wind blowin' flying down the road.

 

[rkoreis]

NFW would I ride without a full face helmet on a motorcycle. I don't even get on my bicycle without the helmet on first. The big, runny bug splatter was bad enough, but a buddy has a helmet with the shield side scraped up from a low side. His face would be a mess without it. A helmet saved me from something worse than a concussion following an endo during a bicycle race pile-up.

I just don't get the desire to not wear a helmet.

 

[BCKRider]

NOBODY, so far, including those who rode helmetless in their younger days, has had a single good thing to say about that experience. Noise, bugs, rain and hot wind in your face are not part of the pleasure we get from riding.

Of course, if your only helmet experience is a beanie or half face, you have still suffered most of the consequences of riding without a helmet, so why bother if it is not a legal requirement. That is the only explanation which makes sense to me.

As states have dropped their helmet requirement laws, it seems certain that the percentage of riders who wear helmets has dropped off greatly. But are older riders ditching their full-face helmets or flipups for this new-found freedom? Judging by the replys to this thread, I would guess not. I think it is the folk who wore useless or near useless helmets who are chucking them when they legally can.

The statistics are more than a little shy on this point. I believe GOOD helmets may save well more than 37% of lives of people involved in serious crashes. And we seem to agree, they just make riding more enjoyable in all conditions. How do so many folk seem not to get that?

I believe education, is the best answer. Anyone here also on a Harley or Goldwing forum? Be interesting to understand a position I don't think we will see expressed here.

 

[AKsuited]

In helmet debates no one seems to point out an obvious consideration, so I will. Wearing a white helmet lowers your accident rate by 24 percent compared to a black helmet according to a study done in New Zealand.

The fact is I have never gotten any crash protection out of a helmet, but wearing my white Arai or HJC helmet has served to protect me every time I get the bike out.

Harry

 

[ANDYVH]

Wisconsin, in my 40 years of riding has been a helmet choice state. And my choice has always been to wear a helmet, no fail.

I simply cannot be comfortable without a helmet. Too much noise, wind, airblown crap, BUGS! I get whapped on my FF helmet face shield, sitting behind a windshield, on my RS, by so many bugs, that I cannot imagine putting up with that on my face all the time. A June bug in the forehead would hurt!

But, I feel that mandatory helmet laws do not address the real safety issue, which is riders with marginal riding skills, poor traffic strategies, and the wrong attitude about riding (that being it's everyone's else's fault first). I feel mandatory training of ALL licensed riders would do as much if not more than mandatory helmet laws.

All this, "its my RIGHT to ride without a helmet", or "it limits my hearing or blocks my vision", or "I like the freedom", all right, maybe I can accept the last one, is mostly bunk in my view. To me the real reason people don't wear helmets? Convenience. People don't want to pay for helmets, don't want flattened out hair, don't want to carry, store, lock up helmets. They can say all they want about "rights" but I say it's nothing but convenience. Go out, walk to the bike. climb on, and go is really what they want. Don't want to be "inconvenienced" by having to put on a helmet.

 

[David13]

Education.
Indeed. But there is no education for car drivers, either. I think all education has degenerated in recent years. So how would they ever improve driving education?
I don't think they could.
dc

 

[henzilla]

In helmet debates no one seems to point out an obvious consideration, so I will. Wearing a white helmet lowers your accident rate by 24 percent compared to a black helmet according to a study done in New Zealand.
Harry

I know this has been stated before...but, I have not been able to distingiush helmet color until a bike was fairly close to me. I played that game on a recent weekend and helmets are a small target.
Yellow and white do stand out once you are in range more than a darker one ...but to be what drivers notice, I'll bet triangle lighting helps more. YRMV

Anyways, back to the original question... what others do isn't my business, most learn the hard way in all aspects of life...this isn't much different and peer pressure is pretty amazing in both sides of this choice.

 

[stagewex]

When in Daytona this last March the heat got to me and I was tempted not to wear my helmet (Full-Face & White). Not all the time but just until I could buy a half-helmet. My FF would not fit in my system bags so I decided to leave it in my motel room (Flaggers Beach) and just go without anything for the 15 miles to Daytona where I planned to purchase a cheapo brain bucket. I got on the bike and drove less than a mile before turning around and getting my full-face. As someone said earlier it just doesnÔÇÖt feel right and I felt vulnerable. I live 8 miles from Ct. and do a lot of riding there, sometimes with my Chrome & Loud buddies too. No helmet law. But I just donÔÇÖt go without one and don't care what you "look" like with one on. I suppose a personal choice ingrained from 41 years of riding with one. I did ride a few times in a tee-shirt, without my leather jacket which is probably just as bad. But didnÔÇÖt have that guilt felling about it.
With the amount of bugs and rocks that seem to be magnetic to my head IÔÇÖm glad I wear one anyway. No pleasure here.

MW
ÔÇÖ96 r1100rt