Should I wear a helmet when riding a motorcycle?

Factual Questions
21

I have spoken with many people on both sides of the issue, and my conclusion from the anecdotal evidence is that people who argue in favor of wearing helmets do so because they value their lives, and people who argue against wearing helmets do so because they are trying to justify factually that desire for the wind-in-the-hair feeling, and resent any effort to legislate or otherwise influence their behavior. (There are smokers who still claim that the studies the show that smoking cause cancer are all flawed.) I can accept an argument about how to interpret statistics but I have never seen any factual evidence that wearing a helmet is actually harmful, statistically.

Because you think the Hurt report is flawed I am willing to reserve judgement, but you are offering no facts to bolster your side of the debate.

Suggesting that helmets cause accidents due to fatigue, restrict hearing & vision is not evidence; it is a hypothesis. Is there any support for this based on accident statistics? I logged about 30K miles over a few years, all with a full-face helmet, and never experienced any significant fatigue or restriction of vision and hearing. (This was on a bike with a full fairing, BTW. Somebody riding a sport bike at high (i.e., twice the speed limit) speeds may have a different experience.)

Can you give at least one example? I won’t even ask for data, just tell me the state.

Get thee behind me, Satan. . .

22

I have a simple experiment for you to try.

  1. Put on a full face helmet, and hold a belt sander to your face for 60 seconds.

  2. Repeat, this time without the helmet.

  3. Decide which you like better.

I never ride without mine. Road rash on your head cannot be pleasant, never mind the impact issue.

23

bdgr

Please post the links showing the hurt study is garbage.

24

This might be of interest… (sorry no hard data though)

25

Did I insult you somehow Athena? Is this the pit? Yet you call me a posuer because I disagree with you.

I already said I dont wear leathers whenit is hot outside, but yes, I do believe loud pipes save lives. In fact, they have saved mine more than once, although my current ride is not obnoxiously loud. We debated this subject to death on this board, and didnt get anywhere, but thats no reason to go hurling insults.

I ride nearly every day of the week, weather permiting, and have for almost 20 years, yet because I have differance of oppion I’m a poseur? This isnt the pit so I will not respond to this like I should

26

Next time I am attacked with a belt sander, I will be sure to wear my full face(I do own one, in fact)

27

Well, I cant speak for the people you know, but as for me, I started out wearing a full face snell aproved helmet. Never once road with out it. Then a friend pointed me to some info on helmet saftey, I read everything I could on it, and reluctantly started riding without one. I found I was more aware of what was going on around me, and when I was forced to wear one after that, I felt very unsafe. Just my personal experiances.

I will try and find a link for the hurt study, as well as the injury after law thing…give me a bit though, I’m still at work

28

Well…Here is one old thread where we went round and round on this before
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=83179
Some of my links are dead now
This one works
http://usff.com/hldl/hoax/goldstein/reviews/index.html
Some more info about helmets
http://usff.com/hldl/report/3rdEditiona.html#R302

and another one
http://usff.com/hldl/hoax/goldstein/index2.html

Helmet law states have more injuries than free choice states
http://home.tampabay.rr.com/ourplace/Biker/facts.htm
From here
http://www.abate.org/lio/lobby_pkg/ab2700pkg.htm

This supports it as well
http://www.abate-of-maryland.org/xhmt_pa.htm

and this
http://home.europa.com/~frankie/fact_sheet.htm

I will try to find some more later.

HOWEVER, I dont expect this to convince anybody.

It really depends on how you cook the statistics. When a state inacts a helmet law, the number of people who ride motorcycles goes down, and the amount of time people who do still ride spend on thier motorcycles goes down as well. Especially in hot climates. I know when there was a helmet law here in Texas, I didnt ride as much as I do now, or before the law took effect. A good part of the summer it was to damn hot, and just wasnt fun. This of couse will contribute to the stats, as less time on the road means less accidents.

Also, about the time in texas the law was repealed, the yuppie harley buying frenzy was in full swing, with tons of people who had either never ridden, or had ridden only small bikes were now climbing on big 80 cubic inch softails and trying to play peter fonda. The accident rate went up as more of these guys bought bikes.

There a lot of factors to the whole motorcycle saftey thing. I dont ask that you agree with me, only STOP TRYING TO TELL ME I’m an idiot, or ignorant, or macho, or what ever the label you want to put on me because I looked at the info that was available, and I chose a differant route.

I have been riding for quite a while, I have a lot of personal experiances that shape my decision, and I have in fact had a motorcycle accident at highways speeds and walked away from it…I know enough and I am intelegent enough to make an informed opinion for myself.

29

Actually, it has some quite good info…>Thanks…

30

So all those Grand Prix and Superbike riders must be pretty stupid eh? To be wearing those helmets which are going to break their necks. You’d think that with the number of times those guys fall they’d know that helmets are dangerous.

31

Differant situation, In fact, I know racers who wear a helmet on the track, but not on the street.

ON a track, most people know what they are doing, and you dont have some idiot turning left in front of you without using a turn signal.

So the types of accidents you get into are differant, and the things that cause those accidents are differant.

Like I said, I personally believe it is pretty close to a wash anyway, but on the street the scales tip to not wearing one is safer, on the track they might tip the other way just a bit.

32

I am pretty sure that you understood the point I was trying to make.

Is abrasion not a risk in a motorcycle accident? Or is it not a great enough risk to worry about?

33

Ok, hands up, everyone who’s got a “not wearing a helmet saved my ass” story to tell. I’ve personally had a full face helmet save me. I was pretty amazed at how hard your face is pushed into the asphalt when sliding forward on your chest, and I was only going 20mph.
Let’s see, the helmet law is enacted in CA in 92, and fatalities immediately drop. Then over the course of 5 years, they increase to higher levels than there were in 92. This is your argument that helmets cause injuries? Are you really trying to claim that helmets were the deciding factor in that gradual increase over 5 years? That’s ludicrous.

34

Do you not consider abrasion to be a serious consequence of a motorcycle accident? Or is it just not worth the risk of wearing a helmet?

35

I had an accident when I was a teenager which was indeed aggravated by the helmet stricking my neck (it was also slightly aggravated by a minor unrelated flaw at chin level, which caused the helmet to be withdrew from the market some months later). But who knows? Perhaps I would have had my skull broken without it…

I tend to give credence to the specialists (I mean the people who produce the helmets, people who test them) rather than to people who ride a lot, since the latter are unlikely to have experienced many accidents and to have make comparative studies. So, despite my negative experience, I would stlii wear a helmet.

36

Protecting your noggin aside, if you’ve ever riden a motorcycle for any amount of time you would know that you get hit with all types of stuff, road debri, insects, you name it. I wouldn’t think of riding without a helmet or a jacket and pants, wearing all of these things makes riding more comfortable.

Who needs a study to see the obvious? If your head is protected it is a lot less likely to get injured as opposed to if it isn’t.

37

I find a lot of the reasoning for the anti-helmet crowd ridiculous and ill-thought out. I see it this way:

You get in an accident that involves you hitting your head on the ground. If you are wearing a helmet, the helmet absorbs the impact. If not, your head absorbs the impact. How long do you think you can slide your head across the ground and live? Not long.

Now, I am sure that there have been some situations where the helmet caused the neck to break. However, if your head hit the ground hard enough to break your neck with the helmet on, don’t you think that without the helmet, the fatal damage would have been to your head (crushed skull, internal bleeding, etc.)? It’s just changing the cause of death - the end result would probably be the same in either case.

I have crashed somewhere around 10 times riding and racing motorcycles, hitting my head hard in several cases. In all cases I was wearing a helmet. I have crashed at up to 120mph (on the track) and walked away without a scratch due to wearing the proper protective equipment. However, I have also crashed at 20 mph and broken bones. If I can break my arm at 20 mph, I would hate to see what might happen to my unhelmeted head at 60 mph.

I think the statistic of interest is not cause of death for helmeted vs. unhelmeted riders, but simply % of riders who died in accidents wearing helmets vs. not. I’d bet that less people die with helmets. That’s all I need.

38

I find a lot of the reasoning for the anti-helmet crowd ridiculous and ill-thought out. I see it this way:

You get in an accident that involves you hitting your head on the ground. If you are wearing a helmet, the helmet absorbs the impact. If not, your head absorbs the impact. How long do you think you can slide your head across the ground and live? Not long.

Now, I am sure that there have been some situations where the helmet caused the neck to break. However, if your head hit the ground hard enough to break your neck with the helmet on, don’t you think that without the helmet, the fatal damage would have been to your head (crushed skull, internal bleeding, etc.)? It’s just changing the cause of death - the end result would probably be the same in either case.

I have crashed somewhere around 10 times riding and racing motorcycles, hitting my head hard in several cases. In all cases I was wearing a helmet. I have crashed at up to 120mph (on the track) and walked away without a scratch due to wearing the proper protective equipment. However, I have also crashed at 20 mph and broken bones. If I can break my arm at 20 mph, I would hate to see what might happen to my unhelmeted head at 60 mph.

I think the statistic of interest is not cause of death for helmeted vs. unhelmeted riders, but simply % of riders who died in accidents wearing helmets vs. not. I’d bet that less people die with helmets. That’s all I need.

39

As an automobile driver, I’d prefer that donorcyclists not involve me in their deaths by failing to wear helmets. I would find it hard to live with, even if your organs went to needy people.

40

I still doubt this. It’s already been brought up about racers, and just because every one on the track knows how to ride because I’ve seen some pretty serious high sides at over 100mph landing on their heads.

I’ve already said that any DOT approved helmet will not have any periphreal vision loss so this is just wrong. Unless as I said before you are not turning your head and just moving your eyes. I’ve riden without a helmet for a few hours once just to see what I was missing. I had to stop and put in ear plugs because I could not hear. I can hear more on my motorcycle with a helmet then I can without.

A helmet causes fatigue? This is the first I’ve heard of this, and I don’t believe it for a second. I’ve done 1000 mile days before and not once had a problem with my neck being fatigued. I don’t see how a helmet is going to make you any more tired then the wind in your face. I’m going to suggest that you’ll get more tired faster without a helmet then with, but more on that in a sec.

Nope, not a chance. Heat fatigue comes from not drinking enough water. This does not include soft drinks or other drinks with caffeine as it pulls water from your system. I’ve ridden through all sorts of heat and only once had problems with the heat. Riding without gear is actually pretty bad for you because you get more sun on your skin which will also pull the water out of your system and leave you with dry skin. One of the best ways that I have found to ride in the heat is with full gear and a damp t-shirt.

Not to take a shot at you but you really should have known someone was there. If they were moving too fast for you to have seen them then they were already past you when you would have heard them. Yes some helmets are noiser than others, but it still doesn’t cause a total loss of hearing. As I’ve said I have to wear ear plugs because it’s just to loud for me otherwise, with or without a helmet.