I’m all for the motorcycle helmets – I’ve been riding for more than 10 years on motorcycles now and I don’t imagine riding without the helmet on the roads. It gives protection not only in accidents in crashes, but because I had a good motorcycle helmet with hard visior it saved my eyes few times already – stones, flies and dirt flying with high speed hurts, belive me :)))

Of course make sure that you are getting a quality helmet with safety standards – this won’t make you invincible on your bike but will make sure that the helmet won’t split into 2 parts (like the cheap, plastic ones do) leaving you without any protection – you could wear a plastic bowl and it would do the same, of course don’t, better wear a proper motorcycle helmet 😉

I don’t want to get into a pissing match with you, but I would put up my IQ against yours anytime.

My father put a helmet on my head when I was 4 or 5 years old, while riding a mini bike while dirt biking. This is a bit different than an adult making an informed decision as to whether they want to wear a helmet or not.

There are valid arguments that wearing helmets can be dangerous in certain circumstances. When I wear a full face helmet my peripheral vision is certainly not as good which could cause me to be in an accident. However, I am probably safer in an accident with a helmet on.

Debate all you want, however we don’t need the personal attacks on my blog.

Norm

Check out this link:

http://www.motorcyclecruiser.com/streetsurvival/motorcycle_helmet_guide/

You have to cut and paste the entire link in your browser to get it to work. It is an article about finding the right helmet for you. You can also do a Google search for “motorcycle comparisons” to see some good articles on the subject.

Hope this helps,

Norm

You made a good choice.

Norm

I am glad you survived!!

Norm

Riding back home to California from Arizona Bike Week 2005 I took the scenic route. We rode to Las Vegas spent the night and rode the next day to Reno. The ride up Hwy 395 was very windy and the wind would change directions frequently being that close to the mountains. I was wearing a Harley Davidson half helmet with a small visor. The wind would often get around the windshield and catch the helmet, enough to jerk my head.

When I got to Reno I had the worst headache of my life. Later that night I lost vision in my right eye completely. I rested the next day and things cleared although slowly. The following morning while packing to leave my left leg collapsed under me and I couldnÂ’t get up. The paramedics rushed me to the hospital where tests showed I had suffered a massive stroke.

I was airlifted to UC San Francisco where a battery of tests showed my right carotid artery had dissected. This is a major break in the internal lining of the artery, similar to what happens if you crush a plastic straw. Dissections of this type are caused by blunt trauma. There have been many cases documented of riders receiving an injury like this during an accident, but mine is the only one I can find that occurred without an accident. Or perhaps others have had the same thing happen where the stroke hit while riding and caused the accident. That would be impossible to tell if you were lucky enough to survive.

My purpose in writing and sharing my story is to hopefully educate other riders. As long as helmets are manufactured with the strap across the throat rather than the chin, wearing one does put you at risk for carotid artery damage. My life has been changed with limited use of my left side and IÂ’d like to help others avoid the same fate. If you do choose to wear a helmet as long as you still have the choice please consider a full face model.

Please check out this website: This website describes how a chin strap across your throat can crush and damage the carotid arteries.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=15605698&dopt=Abstract

Randy

Why do so many people have to witness nastiness firsthand before they get a clue? This applies to all aspects of life, like global warming denial. Show them just data and they’ll deny it. Take them to Alaska, THEN they’ll understand.