Who needs a helmet?

[dawnrazor]

Apparently not the chap on a GN250 that I followed from fanshawe street through town to parnell!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

He looked sober to me

Was just waiting for a cop car to pass, to see if they would notice

I know it was a nice day yesterday and we can all get a little hot around town, the boardies, jandals and wife-beater I have no problem with, but no lid - come on!!!!!!!!!

[outlawtorn]

There is an idiot born every day....unfortuneatly people who are on the 50cc scooters are often car drivers and are oblivious to the laws governing bikers and their own safety. Fuck em.

[davereid]

You have all swallowed the "no helmet is a death sentence" drivel.

Get real.
To be really safe spend your life at home watching TV.
To be not very safe, but better than others drive a Volvo.
To be 16x more likely to die than the car user drive a motorcycle.
To be 1.04x more likely to die don't wear a helmet on that motorcycle.

So if you want to be safe, and you think you have the right to enforce your safety obsession on me then lobby the government to have motorcycles banned. Because that would save a lot of lives.

Choosing to ride a motorcyle is the dangerous choice. Choosing not to wear a helmet is all buried in the statistical noise.

[Patrick]

Just a Darwin Award winner awaiting his call up...

Jeez Dave... facts are that when your head hits the road at 100kmph, wether you're at fault or most likely not at fault, your brains splatter all over the place...

[Bonez]

Apparently not the chap on a GN250 that I followed from fanshawe street through town to parnell!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

He looked sober to me

Was just waiting for a cop car to pass, to see if they would notice

I know it was a nice day yesterday and we can all get a little hot around town, the boardies, jandals and wife-beater I have no problem with, but no lid - come on!!!!!!!!!

Ever thought the helmet may have been pinched? I hear that happens quite over your way..................

[outlawtorn]

You have all swallowed the "no helmet is a death sentence" drivel.

Get real.
To be really safe spend your life at home watching TV.
To be not very safe, but better than others drive a Volvo.
To be 16x more likely to die than the car user drive a motorcycle.
To be 1.04x more likely to die don't wear a helmet on that motorcycle.

So if you want to be safe, and you think you have the right to enforce your safety obsession on me then lobby the government to have motorcycles banned. Because that would save a lot of lives.

Choosing to ride a motorcyle is the dangerous choice. Choosing not to wear a helmet is all buried in the statistical noise.

this just goes to show it's different strokes for different folks, personally I'd never ride without a helmet as I see it as dangerous, obviously you don't. And no we aren't enforcing any safety obsessions on you Mr WiredUp-Paranoid-ToHellWithThePigs-ILoveSpeeding dude, just take a chill pill and relax, dawnrazor was simply reporting an observation to which I agreed, we aint gonna make you sign anything nor will we pamphlet your home.....honest.....we love bikes too.....

[Motu]

facts are that when your head hits the road at 100kmph, wether you're at fault or most likely not at fault, your brains splatter all over the place...

True - but does your head have to hit the road when you crash at 100kph? Have you ever tried it? I have,and no,my head didn't hit the road,my brains are still inside my head and I'm still here.I certainly don't advocate riding without a helmet - but it is not certain death to do so.Just some facts,that's all.

[doc]

True - but does your head have to hit the road when you crash at 100kph? Have you ever tried it? I have,and no,my head didn't hit the road,my brains are still inside my head and I'm still here.I certainly don't advocate riding without a helmet - but it is not certain death to do so.Just some facts,that's all.

You never use to have to wear a helmet until you exceeded 30 mph (50kph)
I financed half the government travel with fines for that offence. Surely riding a scooter around town ie Aucklands "Jaffa Bowl" without a helmet can't be all that dangerous. Pedestrians get hurt too and what are they wearing to protect themselves (JUST ADVENTURE FREAKS) the lot of them.

[Lou Girardin]

Who bloody cares.
Do we HAVE to protect everyone from themselves?
If stupidity doesn't take a toll, do you realise how huge the world's population will grow? (And starve)
Then we'll have more of Bono's bleating inflicted on us.

[outlawtorn]

Who bloody cares.
Do we HAVE to protect everyone from themselves?
If stupidity doesn't take a toll, do you realise how huge the world's population will grow? (And starve)
Then we'll have more of Bono's bleating inflicted on us.

yeah bono is a bit of a pratt isn't he?

[DougB]

When I got my first bike in 1953 helmets were not worn.
For several years I did not have one then a Doctor friend gave me one of the first produced called a Corker. He had seen what happened to riders who had crashes without them.

When the government decided to make them compulsary
many people objected loudly and often.

The tenor of this thread shows how far we have progressed in our thinking and awareness during the fifty years I have been riding.

[Ixion]

"Corker Skid Lid" - that was actually the brand and model. I had one, quite unusual it was then, my Mum kept insisting I wore it." Aww Muuuuum, jeezz".

Not many riders wore a helmet, though leather flying caps were quite popular.

In theory you were supposed to wear a helmet over 30mph , but no-one did. I later got quite an early 'Jet' type helmet (what would now be called an open face), and got quite a bit of flack from the traffic cops for it - cos it proved you were speeding, see. Was regarded as an affectation, like wearing racing leathers on a Vespa would be nowdays .

No-one (hardly) wore helmets and noone I knew suffered brain injury. Which isn't to say it didn't happen - or that it doesn't happen now, despite helmets.

But I don't think riders crashed as often back then , it wasn't regarded as cool - only plonkers crashed, and if you did have an off, you tried very hard to keep it a secret.

[Patrick]

[QUOTE=Ixion;924650
But I don't think riders crashed as often back then , it wasn't regarded as cool - only plonkers crashed, and if you did have an off, you tried very hard to keep it a secret.[/QUOTE]

Thats because there were not too many cars about... dang horse and carriages though...!!! Unpredictable bastidges!!

[davereid]

Just a Darwin Award winner awaiting his call up...

Thanks for nominating me for a Darwin award Patrick... Actually I accept !

But not because I advocate freedom of choice in helmet wearing.

I accept because I know I am doing something really stupid every time I hop on my motorcycle.

- Its inherently unstable
- It has an unsafe power to weight ratio
- It offers no protection in a crash
- Even low speed accidents can be fatal
- Its completely un-necessary while safer cars are available.
- Even used entirely within the manufacturers recommendations it remains the least safe vehicle on the roads by a large margin.

The helmet ? well, it does improve my odds. but the dumb decision was getting on the bike. That was the one thing I could have changed which would significantly increase my chances of surviving my next trip.

By way of an analogy, its like smoking. Choosing to smoke is also a poor life decision. Like bikes, its unsafe, un-necessary, and hated by many.

Using a filtered cigarette is like wearing a helmet.
It improves your odds.

But, the bad decision was the one to smoke, or ride that motorbike in the first place.