Riding a motorcycle is unsafe, even with a helmet

Question

People in cars have to wear seatbelts...........you should have to wear helmets.

But even with a helmet, motorcycles are very unsafe......if you crash, your body can go flying. How wreckless.

Regular, non-motor bikes are very beneficial and serve as healthy exercise....but still wreckless to ride them without a helmet.

Why don't you people wear helmets? Do you not mind if your head gets busted open?

Answer 1

You are right, motorcycles are unsafe. Some other things that are unsafe: s*x, airplanes, elevators, earthquakes, sharks, boats, ocean, trains, wilderness, cars, dogs, bicycles, skateboards, drugs, running. Now if you check statistics you'll find motorcycling doesn't need you attention as much as many other things. s*x causes more injury and death that motorcycles ever could, perhaps you should spend your efforts to fix s*x. What do you care if someone busts their head open, does it somehow effect your life OR does your life suck and you choose to harass people about wearing a helmet cause it makes you feel better. If you just want to help people then I'd suggest doing something about the terrible drivers that choose to crash into people with motorcycles, if they are hard at seeing then maybe they shouldn't drive, fix that if you want to make a difference. By the way, I wear a helmet and I know it's not up to me if other people do.  Maybe make a deal with some non helmet wearers, You'll do what they tell you to do if they do what you want.  

Answer 2

You must be a genius. Imagine your perception. You see a 2 wheeled vehicle and decide all by yourself it will not stand up by itself and is thus unsafe. I feel much better knowing all the automibles surrounding me are driven by problem solving folks just like you. I thank you for meddling in my day.

Wear your seat belt, keep the cell phone in your ear, read the paper and eat your breakfast while driving to work and  somehow managing to solve your  perception of our safety problems.

Answer 3

let me answer your question like this....

if we have to explain why we ride (with or without helmets) then you cannot possibly understand the answer..

so go and get into your beige tracksuit, hop into your beige (volvo, prius etc) and drive very carefully off a very high cliff......

Answer 4

Freedom is a common benefit all riders share no matter the machine. I'm proud to see this is one issue sport bikers and cruiser guys can unite on. The sense of freedom and excitement from riding without a helmet cannot be topped.

I've only done it around a parking lot or strolling through the open areas at the track 40MPH tops but it was a totally different experience and very fun. I'm considering buying a half shell for the days when I'm just cruising in town, (no highway).

It's riders choice if it's not law. It does prevent or absorb impact damage but increases neck injury risk. I say it's better to have and not need than to need and not have. But that's just my opinion and I don't make the laws.

I think there should be an entire chapter about motorcycle awareness during the 5 hour course to get a license. People in cars are so secure they are just oblivious to what is going on around them. I see people all the time who don't even do mirror or shoulder checks for miles at a time on the highway.

Answer 5

as someone else put it so ellegantly.....

If I am wearing a helmet and get into a wreck I am screwed.

If I am not wearing a helmet and I get into a wreck I am screwed.

(more commonly known as damned if i do damned if i don't)

i don't wear a helmet.. am i gonna pay for it some day? probably... but i don't wear a helmet when i jump in the shower either.... my head would be safer if i slipped in the shower with a helmet on.... but the chances of it happening at all are minimal (so is a motorcycle wreck... it may be higher then a cars average, but that doesn't mean it's 'high' all together) and either way i'm likely to be hurt....

it doesn't really matter...

BTW

seat belts ONLY  save lives when people drive the speed limit.... how many people speed with the mentallity that seat belt is going to save them? sorry doesn't work that way... at a certain point a seat belt will not save you from **** in a car wreck... it'll just add to injury (btw, i wrecked at over 100mph with no seat belt on and wasn't hurt.... how much you wanna bet if i had, had one on i'd be going to the hospital that night?) don't take my word for it... you can look up the statistics yourself.

now go hide underneath your bridge, troll.

Answer 6

Why don't you go to a religous site if you want to preach? It's my head, not yours, if you want to wear a helmet have at it, otherwise mind your own business.

Answer 7

would you please let darwinism do it's job!?!

Answer 8

"People in cars have to wear seatbelts...........you should have to wear helmets."

you have it backwards, we shouldn't have to do either.  if i am not wearing a seatbelt or a helmet, i will be the only victim of that decision.  i do wear a helmet and seatbelt, but i feel it should be my choice to do so.  unless i am riding on the interstate for a couple hundred miles at a time, i take the helmet off.  the wind pulls on it and its very uncomfortable and distracting, i'd rather avoid the accident all together since the helmet isn't likely to do much good at 70+mph anyway.    

Answer 9

You can not legislate safety. Dale Earnhardt was driving a professionally built stock car that was roughly 100X safer than anything on the street, wearing a helmet, a five point seat belt, was surrounded by a roll cage, had a fire extinguisher & still is deader than a mackrel. Of course bikes are dangerous & anyone that rides should take it for granted that sooner or later, you will get hurt, but that's a risk we're willing to take. Just as many riders die wearing helmets as non helmet wearers & most riders die from blunt force injury to the body, which would not be prevented by a helmet.

Answer 10

why dont you mind your own business? why dont you learn the facts? the snell institute government impact standard for motorcycle helmets is only 13 miles per hour.The helmet cuts down peripheral vision and hearing.States with mandatory rider education classes have lower fatalities than states with helmet laws. most people who die in auto accidents die from head injuries so they should wear helmets. And by the way FREEDOM OF CHOICE is part of what this country was founded on!!!!!!

Answer 11

riders who would choose not to wear a helmet are probably the same riders that never use the front brake, and never really learn to fully control their bike.  This shows to me that they are not really enthusiastic about riding, since an enthusiast would strive to constantly improve their technique.  

I would stop and help them out if they crashed, and try and keep their broken body awake while the ambulance arrives, but I wouldn't be sorry for them, because they made their choices freely.

Answer 12

You have obviously never ridden (or ridden on)  a motorcycle before.  If you had, you would know that it is well worth the risk.  

Go take a ride.....you will be back on here in no time asking, "where to learn" (and we'll tell you to take a MSF course) and "which bike to get" (where you will learn about the division between sport bike and cruiser riders on here).

Ya know, as riders, we all have one thing in common.....we are at risk because of "cage-rs" (like you) who hit us, or cause us to hit you because you don't pay attention when driving your car so you don't see us.....h**l, you probably posted this question using your lap top while driving down the road !!!  Please put the lap top away and pay attention to the road before you hit one of my buds on two wheels.

BTW......there are PLENTY of things that can kill us out there.....One shouldn't go thru life not enjoying it because of fear.

Answer 13

First of all, helmets should only be the rider's choice. If you get into a collision, a helmet can make you paralyzed from neck down. I don't know about anybody else, but it should be a rider's choice if they want to live the rest of their lives having no movement in their body and having to have someone take care of them. So, I ride but the only time I wear a helmet is when I ride at nigh because of the bugs. They hit your face at about 65 mph, then it feels like you just got shot by a gun.

Answer 14

it's a freedom of choice issue.  look at it this way, think how much safer driving a car would be if everyone wore a helmet. would you wear a helmet while driving a car?  Personally,  i wear a helmet when i ride.  it's my choice.  I don't need the safety police telling me what to do. And BTW, I know of more people killed or injured while driving a car than a motorcycle.  

Answer 15

More people are killed in auto accidents each year than motorcycle accidents - even with seatbelts. Maybe people in cars ought to wear helmets? I know there are more cars on the road than motorcycles, but you don't need to concern yourself with what I do while riding my motorcycle.

Answer 16

im pretty sure you will find that the majority or people that ride are safe and wear helmets and more than adequite protective gear. If you dont wear a helmet you do deserve to get your head busted in, but with riding there is obviously a big risk involved and yes you will fall off time and time again and in some cases you may break bones, but you get back on the bike...Why do you think that is? it is the love of riding, ask any rider how many bones they have broken or how many times they needed surgery and they will wothout a doubt be more than happy to tell you the 20 minute detailed  story and laugh about it. So yes of course we care about getting our head busted in but any rider that is riding for the love of it will tell you that the feeling of starting your bike up in the morning and going out on the open trails,a motocross track or the open road is by far the best feeling.....this is why we ride

Answer 17

It has much to do with personal freedom. Most people who desire to ride motorcycles are on the independent side of things in life. You are correct that if we wreck, our bodies will go flying because on impact there there are no restraints. But you assume that we think about this happening to ourselves. Riding a motorcycle is a choice and we accept the risk that go along with this choice but many of us also accept the responsibility in being safe riders. I wear a helmet and your assumptions, overall are not very accurate. More times then not accidents are caused by careless motorist. With motorcycles the number 1 reason is because a person operating a car was not paying proper attention to their surroundings or the other vehicles on the roads. Since that's a cold hard fact, who is the reckless one now?  

As far as telling someone else what they should have to do when it doesn't pertain to you or your choices in life then I'd like to ask you a question: "Who appointed you God to decide for us?" This is where the argument really begins, you've decided what we do is unsafe and have called us "reckless" although you spell it "wreckless" what qualifies you to judge other peoples lives and choices? You have also made a blanket statement and used an unfair advantage because you have categorized us and grouped us as motorcycle riders. Therefore you know something about us and we know nothing about you. That makes your comments pompous and arrogant in nature. If we knew about your life and the choices you make are you sure you'd want any of us telling you how to live and decide? That's pretty one sided on your part.

Ride Free, Live Free is not just a motto it's a lifestyle. Because it's a lifestyle the people you have attacked also respect other peoples choices and don't interfere with telling other people how to live and choose. I say "why not worry about your own life and how you live it in regards to how that affects the world instead of worrying about us and telling us how to live our lives?" Unless playing God and viewing yourself as better is how you are.... "Healthy Person" with a questionable mind.... Did someone close to you get hurt or worse? I could understand your bitterness in that case.... otherwise "how's being perfect going for you these days?"

Answer 18

You have expressed an opinion. It's your's, and you're entitled to it.

I am just as entitled to disagree.

Riding a motorcycle is no more safe, or unsafe, than riding in a car.

I choose not to wear my helmet at times. It is my right.

BTW, it is also my right to decide not to wear a seatbelt, as well.

I may have landed on my skull a few times, yet I'm still coherent.

"......if you crash, your body can go flying. How wreckless."

Wreckless means no wreck, or absence of a wreck.

When I crashed, I did go flying. It was certainly not wreckless. The bike was totalled.

Why do you attack motorcyclists?

Do you not mind showing ignorance and lack of effort?

People should have opinions, but they should be informed ones.

Answer 19

Helmet on, you might not die in a crash.  The brain trauma you suffer will be mitigated by the helmet, along with breaking a few of your vertebrae and severing your spinal cord.  You'll be forced to spend the rest of your life being carried around and spoon fed and diaper changes, the whole nine yards, but it won't be fun cause you'll have no sensation from the chin down.

No helmet, you (and your loved ones) get spared all that.  Instead of being bankrupted by medical bills, your family gets rich off your life insurance proceeds.

It's just a better deal all around.

Answer 20

I honestly don't know why people would want to ride without one. I know a lot of it is peer pressure. People don't want to be the only one in a group doing it. Some people have the strange idea that helmets are actually dangerous in some way.

That statistics are clear. If you don't wear a helmet, you are at a greater risk of death or serious injury. Even an accident at 25mph which wouldn't do much at all to a fully protected rider can kill someone who is unprotected.

I still think it's a matter of personal choice though. Everybody in a state that doesn't require a helmet has to make the decision for themselves.

I wear one even though I don't have to.  

Answer 21

Thank you for your concern.....now go away.

Answer 22

Most people look at it this way;

If I am wearing a helmet and get into a wreck I am screwed.

If I am not wearing a helmet and I get into a wreck I am screwed.

So either way your screwed the question is how bad.

Answer 23

Showers and bathtubs are very unsafe, even with a helmet.

People slip and crack their heads open all the time . How reckless !

Why don't people wear helmets in the shower  ? Do they not mind if their head gets busted open ?

Answer 24

You are incredibly uninformed and should take this kind of nonsense to another section.