Please Wear A Helmet – Illustrated

Folks, you’ve seen pics of me in my riding gear a couple of times now.  I always wear my helmet anytime I ride – even if I’m just going to a different parking place in my apartment complex.  Helmets are meant to protect your head from the impact of hitting the ground from the height your head is at when you come off the bike.  They’re not made to save you if you manage to hit an obstacle at speed, but they’re much better than nothing in that case as well

There are quite a few styles of helmets out there that meet DOT (Department of Transportation) standards.  You can get a half helmet, 3/4 or open face helmet, modular helmet, or a full-face helmet.  I choose to ride with a full face helmet for many reasons.  It keeps the blast furnace of 100°+ heat from scorching my face at 80+ MPH.  Sand and bugs do not become a permanent part of my facial features

Helmet after its intended use - Photo courtesy of rgiroux at advrider.com

There’s another reason I wear a full face helmet – I don’t want facial reconstructive surgery   Full face helmets are designed to ensure your face does not undergo modification by asphalt.  The photo above was taken by rgiroux who’s a fellow inmate (inmate = member for those of you who don’t know the site ) at Adventure Rider.  He posted in a discussion titled Wear a Helmet! in “The perfect line and other riding myths” – the section of the site dedicated to discussion of “The dark arts of motorcycling” and has kindly given me permission to share it here in the interests of education.  In that post, he wrote:

My friend is glad he was wearing this last Monday. My own souvenir only looks half as bad as the one above.

I rode before the mandatory helmet laws and wore helmets 95% of the time back then. That went to almost 100% when my next door neighbor brought his souvenir helmet over.

That seemed to be the only intervention I’ve ever needed when it came to wearing or not. Don’t think we need laws to make us wear. But, you will hear me telling you to wear them whenever and every time I get the chance. Should be all it takes.

Motorcycling is one of the greatest things I’ve ever done.  It gets me out of my apartment, engages my mind, and helps clear my mind of anything else that may be bothering me.  It’s also exercise – even on a cruiser like my V-Star as you can’t just sit on the bike like you do in a car.  Riding is definitely taking a risk every time you throw a leg over the machine and twist the grip, but you have a say in just how much of a risk you take.  Some ride in shorts, flip flops, a tank top, and (where legal) only a bandanna on their heads.  I’m not going to stop them as they’re adults, but I know the pain of crashing a BMX bike at 45 MPH on asphalt without gear.  I’ve also done a “Superman” from a BMX which ended on old asphalt with my hands and chin taking the impact.   Concussions, facial road rash, and tearing facial skin which requires nine outer and six inner stitches suck so I’ll stick to wearing a quality full face helmet when I ride

Have fun, ride safely, and please wear a helmet