white helmets

[FROSTY:Me]

My ride of choice has been the XJ900 or xj750p for many years.
They looked a lot like cop bikes with running lights and the white fairing.
I wore a white helmet for sure.
Funny innit how the tintop drivers noticed me and diddn't notice other bikes.
I mighta lost a bit of street cred with other bikers but I didn't have any of those little incidents that bikers have every day-The having to brake or swerve kinda stuff.
Seems to me car drivers only see things that could cause them harm

[Jackrat]

My ride of choice has been the XJ900 or xj750p for many years.
They looked a lot like cop bikes with running lights and the white fairing.
I wore a white helmet for sure.
Funny innit how the tintop drivers noticed me and diddn't notice other bikes.
I mighta lost a bit of street cred with other bikers but I didn't have any of those little incidents that bikers have every day-The having to brake or swerve kinda stuff.
Seems to me car drivers only see things that could cause them harm

Yeah ain't that the truth mate.
Years ago there was an urban legend about a bloke getting around with a white fairing that had TERIFFIC in big letters on the front.Seems he never had a problem either.If we all carryed guns the buggers would see us.

[Hitcher]

I lie awake at nights dreaming about having a choice of colour when buying a helmet... *Sigh*

God bless you, Mr Shoei! (apologies to Kurt Vonnegut)

[vifferman]

The biggest problem is that it is a retrospective study where the riders chose their own preferred helmet colour. Therefore more "conservative" riders may have chosen white helmets as they were perceived to be "safer". So what the study is probably telling us is that people who wear white helmets ride more cautiously?

Bingo! The study is obviously just inane use of stats, as is the application of higher ACC fees to motorcyclists because we are more likely to be injured in an accident.

Regardless of whether a particular colour of helmet, jacket or whatever is safer, I'm not buying a white/yellow/lime green/fluro orange helmet or jacket.
I just assume people don't see me, and act accordingly. Although, I suspect my wife would probably fully approve of me buying a new helmet to replace my 3 years old Black/Gold/Silver AGV helmet on safety grounds.... Then I could get a red one to match my VTR. Hmmmmm. So, was there anything in the study about how insanely safe RED helmets are?

[SPman]

Yeah ain't that the truth mate.
Years ago there was an urban legend about a bloke getting around with a white fairing that had TERIFFIC in big letters on the front.Seems he never had a problem either.If we all carryed guns the buggers would see us.

Urban legend be damned! It was a Triumph Saint with MOT style fairing and Triffic painted across the front. Caused me a double take the first time I saw it.
Shit, thats going back a bit......early 70's?

[Jackrat]

Urban legend be damned! It was a Triumph Saint with MOT style fairing and Triffic painted across the front. Caused me a double take the first time I saw it.
Shit, thats going back a bit......early 70's?

Yeah I didn't to say there WAS a guy doing it because it could of started an argument.You know how it is

[750Y]

If tin-top steerer's (notice I did not use the word 'drivers') cannot manage to see a tail light or a head light, what the hell is the colour a helmet got to do with it???

good point many driver's barely look if at all...
but, when you're hauling along a road in the country and a cager/farmer/whatever is approaching from a side road where often vegetation obscures the lower portion of view, they will 'hopefully' see your helmet moving along towards them but may not see your lights etc cos they're a couple feet lower.(same way as how You see the top of a car approaching partially obscured from a side road. Now if Your helmet is say dark green or camo colours you aint gonna stick out like a white helmet. I like to admire nice looking helmets but when i choose i choose boring old white.

[Motoracer]

Wouldn't mind one of thoes highly visable Rossi helmets myself. The suit, boots and gloves would be a bonus too...

[Coldkiwi]

I like to admire nice looking helmets but when i choose i choose boring old white.

...which I'm afraid to say is why I'll never own one. They just look too damn boring and cheap. (even if it the latest $1500 offering from Arai). I'll stick with other bright colours and keep riding like a paranoid on P. (unless i'm lane splitting and then I loose my mind)

[Lou Girardin]

Strangely enough, drivers don't pull out in front of bike cops. They wear white helmets.
Coincidence?
Lou

[FROSTY:Me]

Yeah ain't that the truth mate.
Years ago there was an urban legend about a bloke getting around with a white fairing that had TERIFFIC in big letters on the front.Seems he never had a problem either.If we all carryed guns the buggers would see us.

Um er actually -it was an ex MOT XJ750 and the stickers were TRAFFICO
-from the clothes company traffico.
It stayed on there untill the guy concerned got too much shite from his freinds
I admit nothing and DO NOT have pictures of the offending bike parked in my garage

[Motu]

I remember the TIRIFFIC bike,and it was before the jap cop bikes,I'm with SPman on this one.At the same time a mate came over from OZ,bringing a Falcone with a big fairing like the MOT BSA Lightnings had - he was amaized at how polite us Kiwi drivers were....huh,you gotta be joking mate! as he came up behind cars they would just pull over and let him by.I rode the bike often,and yeah,they really did get out of the way in a hurry!

I've got a white helmet because that's the only colour they had at Cash Converters,otherwise I go for black.

[FROSTY:Me]

I guess a good idea just keeps going round again and again

[pete376403]

I remember the TIRIFFIC bike,and it was before the jap cop bikes,I'm with SPman on this one.At the same time a mate came over from OZ,bringing a Falcone with a big fairing like the MOT BSA Lightnings had - he was amaized at how polite us Kiwi drivers were....huh,you gotta be joking mate! as he came up behind cars they would just pull over and let him by.I rode the bike often,and yeah,they really did get out of the way in a hurry!

I've got a white helmet because that's the only colour they had at Cash Converters,otherwise I go for black.

My GS has a big barndoor fairing, which is vaguely cop-like, but in browny/purple. When the headlight is on the front indicators, big orange things set into the fairing, come on, also. I have a silvery-blue BMW system III lid. None of these colours are anything like what the HP use, yet many is the time I have seen a cager glance into the mirror, then suddenly move over. maybe its the shape, size and presence, rather than the colour.

And Motu, I'd buy many things from Cash Converters, but never a second hand helmet.

[scumdog]

As I said in another thread, I have two of those really bright and annoying mini-spotlights on my bike, one each side of the headlight.
They are no good at night as they just cause a big glare for 30yards or so so I leave them off then, in the daytime the are brilliant (couldn't help the pun!) and I noticed a big difference after I put them on, cars that would have pulled out on front of me now hit the brakes, i,e, at intersection and also if I am 3rd or so vehicle in a line of traffic I don't have the cage on front of my pull out (and then indicate) to overtake as I am alongside them - a few have started to pull out and then got the "bright-eyes" in the morrir and pulled back into line.
I don't rely on them totally but just have them to help that little bit - I still treat all other road users as some kind of blind f---wit until they rpove otherwise.
Like somebody else sais, it is pretty scary when in a national road test the average was 40%!!!!!!, hell I only dipped down to 85% when they started with the non-road rule stuff like "if you crashed at 70kmh it would be the same as falling off a three story building - true or false?" how are ya meant to know that shit? never mind if I T-bone a blind cager at 70kmh I at least would know what falling off a 5 story buiding would feel like crashit