Is a helmet actually necessary?

[allycatz]

Well ive seen first hand what a head looks like thats stopped a tree with no protection (my 17 year old daughter deceased). Her brother gears up to ride his dirt bike no probs but its taken ages to get him to see sense and do the same on the scooter...yep wears a helmet but buggerall else...

[kevfromcoro]

Thats cool dude... wear a condom too.. just don't assume that you have the right to use force (the law) to stop me doing stuff, because it might be less safe than the stuff you do.

Cos if you have that right, so does my mum.

And she thinks motorcycles should be banned, as guess what, they are dangerous, and there are much better alternatives.

Actually, my um has more rights than you, cos you are a motorcyclist. Thats a minority. And as my mum likes to remind me, its a democracy. If she and her pals want, they CAN ban dangerous bikes.

Just got to do the boy racers first.

Condoms?? WELL I JUST BEen to thailand and put a condom on
the girl said to me dont take it of...that was 3 months ago..
wish i could
iam busting for a piss

[davereid]

Well ive seen first hand what a head looks like thats stopped a tree with no protection (my 17 year old daughter deceased). Her brother gears up to ride his dirt bike no probs but its taken ages to get him to see sense and do the same on the scooter...yep wears a helmet but buggerall else...

With all respect ally, I think you are playing the "Doctor Game".

Thats where, when someone has an accident and dies of a head injury, everyone sighs, and says "gee if only they were wearing a helmet."

It makes the logical assesment that a helmet would have prevented the death, and the medical profession usually link the death with the failure to wear a helmet.

But we actually it not true.

In general, there is no doubt that wearing a helmet improves crash outcomes. But its not a 100% solution. In fact, it improves outcomes so much, that we can't really see it in statistics, without endless data processing and debate.

I would suggest that statistically, wearing a helmet would have not improved your daughters outcome significantly.

[allycatz]

No it wouldnt of helped, her neck was broken but it sure makes for prettier viewing in an open casket if the head is still in one peice aye!

[Brian d marge]

No they aren't needed , but if you crash they have their uses .. Lived in a country where they weren't needed. Worked there as a bike mechanic, fell off a lot ..all good
In a country where the health care is paid for by the state you will get laws designed to reduce the costs..
I personally wear ( min ) helmet ,gloves and boots .. Why , it's more comfortable
If I do get a bit pissy when A: a stupid wastes my money, either a polly or a darwin candidate, but if it's their money ... And they want to be a dick ,,
Ain't my prob..
Stephen

[Laxi]

The stupid one would be you then Laxi.

As you have chosen to ride a motorcycle, it makes you at least 16 times and up to 25 times more likely to die on the roads than a car driver.

You failed the Darwin test by hopping on your mtorcycle instead of hopping in a car or getting the bus.

harden up dude, how was it a lecture when i said i dont care what you do, I chose to ride a bike because to me thats living, it dosnt mean i want to increase my chances of dying, you do what you want, as i said its really not my problem if you want to increase your chances wind up as greasy stain on the road and your only excuse is either "it messes up my hair" or "but I dont look cool with a helmet on"

[SARGE]

i learned to ride and did most of my riding in the States ..only ever wore one if i was gonna get Sporty or the weather dictated it .. (snow, hail, driving rain...)


most of the time .. i went sans helmet .. crashed a few times at differing speeds and i dont think i died ...

[Ojai]

My face is far to pretty to risk riding without a helmet.

One saying I took to heart is "Too hot for armour? Too hot to ride!"

[Tink]

I you don't think you need a helmet, you probably don't.

Good reasoning... no brain no pain!

i learned to ride and did most of my riding in the States ..only ever wore one if i was gonna get Sporty or the weather dictated it .. (snow, hail, driving rain...)
most of the time .. i went sans helmet .. crashed a few times at differing speeds and i dont think i died ...

How is this for really stupid... there is no licence in Utah to wear a helmet or wasn't when I lived there... so I didn't wear one... at the age of 18 I had no clue other than (mmm I am sure I should where a helmet.. but peer pressure depicted otherwise...) prior to that moment... aged 16 dirt biking at the beach... always wore a helmet but no gear.

I have come a long way in my thinking... and I still love to fly!

[robboh]

Well, When I want to drive around the streets at up to 300km/hr I too will ensure my helmet is firmly fastened to my head inside my cage.
Along with the five point harness and 3 layer flame suit....
Amazing how the steering wheel gets out of the way for your head to hit the dash though....

In my standard 4 wheel vehicle in an accident there is a chance of a head injury, but not as great....
However on the bike, any off will result in lost skin....

So for me, either my leathers/ cordura/ or at least draggan jeans are on the list of safety gear.... Gloves and boots are standard, but a choice on the others, depending on the ride.

Well, we never used to wear helmets on the farms, or on the roads around the farm. But generally lower speeds. Took several tumbles at various stages, but usually just bumps and bruises.

The worst accident I had on farm bikes were flipping the quad on a weird ditch/bump that was hidden in the grass on a flat paddock (broken collar bone, which pierced a lung, and broken shoulder blade). The other was just about garroting myself on a piece of unseen poly-wire when I was trying a cut off a heifer in a paddock.

On the track, had a couple. One involved landing on my shoulders/head, and then quite a long slide... which severely munted the helmet (including in the face area) and wore through my glove on the little finger (and quite a bit of the side of my finger too). Heat burns under leathers hurt too!!! Had a mate flung off a bucket chair and wrapped backwards around a powerpole at a bucket street race in feilding. Thank god he was wearing my back protector, but the protector was stuffed afterwards.

Have had a couple of low-speed tumbles on the road. One in leathers (unmarked pea gravel on the pihiatua track), no issues. A front-end washout turning into a shopping centre in the wet, and hit a wet slick patch, big cut/graze on the knee and fracked jeans. And a really weird one on cold tyres where I just lost the arse-end, was expecting the bike (and me) to be grazed to all hell, but not a scratch on either of us.

As for the cars... well, if the LTSA would let me use the 4pt harness thats in my car, and a helmet, on the road, I would.

The skill-level of the drivers around at present is starting to seriously worry me. The latest one I have seen a LOT recently is people just not giving way to the right on T intersections (where they turning left out onto the 'main' road, and I going straight). They just bowl up to the corner, dont seem to bother actually looking and pound round right in front of you. You have to seriously slow down, and then they toodle onward at their damned 40kph, holding you up.

[Elysium]

If ACC (and that means my tax dollars) didn't pay for motorcyclists who crashed without a helmet, then yes I would have no problem if people choose to wear no helmets.

But because we end up paying if some morons do crash without a helmet, I strongly recommend a helmet. Anyway a helmet is nice and cosy when it pisses down with rain, stones flying, kamakazi bugs, cold weather? Makes no sense unless you're a Harley rider.

[Laxi]

mates helmet, after accident at 40-45kph, he walked away with hardly a scratch on him, what if that helmet was your head? NUF SAID!

[Insanity_rules]

mates helmet, after accident at 40-45kph, he walked away with hardly a scratch on him, what if that helmet was your head? NUF SAID!

I think most of you Welly bikers can guess who the rider was cough cough!

[jimmay]

Honestly, for a long while I agreed that helmets didn't really protect you as much as people make it out to be. Some people treat it as though if you put on a helmet suddenly you're invulnerable. The reality of course is that it's just not like that.

But I think I should contribute this one story. I was at a friend's house, and I was about to leave, and she always had this thing that she would beg me to put on my helmet (which honestly I didn't feel like wearing sometimes). So I told her "yeah yeah, i will" and she says "No, please put it on." I saw she really looked concerned so I did wear it. On my way back home I took an alternate route which was pretty dark, and as I'm driving, suddenly the ground below me was gravel -- there had been incomplete road work without any warning (they're, by law, supposed to put some sort of warning that the road ahead is being worked on, but they failed to do so). I was driving suddenly on an incomplete road.

I immediately stood up on the pedals to keep my balance, and almost made it all the way through, but there was a sudden steep drop. My bike ended up landing on its side HARD, and I was plunged into the ground... the first thing the hit the ground was my head! The left side of my head slammed down into the gravel. I ended up having my whole left leg bruised and scrapes on my elbow. But had I not put on my helmet I probably would have been knocked unconscious, or worse.

Ever since then I took it pretty seriously. It may not do much, but your head is the most important part of you, and should something like that happen, it's a lot more serious than if you hit any other part of you.

Also, one side story.. lol.
One time I was headed to that very same friend's house, and I thought "ugh, she's gonna be upset that I don't have my helmet on".. so i pulled over and put it on, then on the way to her house, going 45 mph, a bee struck the front of my helmet with such force that it threw my head back!! lol
So I guess she saved me twice. Had I not had it on, it would have been like a gunshot to my head! (well, maybe not so dramatic)

-j

[jimmay]

With all respect ally, I think you are playing the "Doctor Game".
...
I would suggest that statistically, wearing a helmet would have not improved your daughters outcome significantly.

I have to agree.

And to your main point about making it law to wear helmets... Sometimes a guy just wants to ride without one. Frankly, if I were to go riding without one, and I end up dieing because of it, at least I died a free man.

I think with laws in general, our government has to just have a little faith in people and stop meddling with our lives. If someone's gonna go racing, he's probably gonna wear a helmet. If someone's gonna go get some food at the corner, he probably won't need it.

We should just let go, accept death as a part of life, and stop trying to control every aspect of the world around us.

-j