ALWAYS
I'm not that smart to begin with - can't afford to lose any more brain cells. I've had a helmet save me twice on a bicycle, and I got a serious concussion snowboarding (stupidly) without one. I don't buy the reasoning that it's safe if there's no traffic, or if you're just going down the street. Nor do I buy the idea that a traumatic brain injury is the business of the individual only - talk to the family of someone who's sustained one. Unless you're one of those people who has no one in the world who cares about you, cracking your punkin' head open will have an effect on other people.
I don't know why I get sucked into responding to these threads - no good can come of it
I don't know why I get sucked in either, I guess I am a glutton for punishment!
But I do need to respond to this. First off, let me remind everyone that man has been doing things for centuries that are far more un-safe than riding a motorcycle.
How many thousands of years has man ridden Horses without a helmet? Hoisted 2 ton blocks of rock without a back brace to build pyramids? Rowed Viking ships across the atlantic ocean with no mandatory 10 hour rest period between 11 hour shifts?
Bottom line is if you prevent humans from natural selection, prevent them from dieing from cancer and disease, make them wear seat-belts and helmets so they can't die in a crash, ect. You create a population growth that the earth will soon not be able to support. You can not prevent death! And if man ever finds out a way to do it? God help us all!!
It's already happening all around us. Leave nature alone and stop trying to artificially control populations of living species on this planet! Protect the ones who can't protect them selves but leave me the hell alone, I can choose for my self.
But besides the reasons why you should let nature take it's course, what about a persons right to choose?
There is a big difference between putting a gun to your head and choosing not to wear a helmet!
If I took EVERY precaution to protect my self in every way while riding a motorcycle, I would not own one, the fun and freedom would be gone!
Please tell me what it matters if I get in a wreck and become a vegetable instead of dieing? What good did it do me to have ZERO road Rash because of protective gear but now in a wheel chair the rest of my life paralyzed from the neck down?
Or maybe no broken bones at all and no road rash but suffered a concussion and went into a coma then die 10 years later?
If people are really worried about protecting them self from injury on a Bike, The only true answer with guaranteed results is to NOT RIDE ONE!!
Do helmets save lives?? Ah the big question, I think they save skulls and that is all. There are many many ways to die. And there are many ways to get injured and wish you were dead.
And either one of these will have negative impacts on your loved ones. So using that logic, Why would you risk it at all even getting on a bike??
All That said, It is MY BODY, MY LIFE and no one on this earth has a say in what I can or can't do with it!
I also happen to WEAR A HELMET Most of the time. But I have, do and will go without one from time to time.
