Helmet or No Helmet, Not a debate! A simple do you wear always or sometimes.

[CaptRob]

A full face Simpson saved my life in 1986 on a Honda Nighthawk 650! ( hence my 30 years old comment above ) I was on lunch break and a stoplight runner and hit and run A hole pulled out in front of me! Not my fault ( except riding in right lane on 4 lane and not paying attention) at 19 my melon was safe but my body took many months to recover and at my age now I am paying for that damage in my back and knees.
So I decide to be a bad ass Harley rider and wear novelty lids to look cool for many years as a middle aged man. With my experience you would think I know better!:bang head: It just is not in style to wear a big helmet on HD. But now with my F6…I bought a new Shoei Full face and have DOT half helmets as well. I get too hot in the Full Face in Summer but I am going to try to use it as much as I can stand.

[Steve 0080]

A very smart young man from your area told me....." it is better to sweat than bleed" ...... made me stop and think!!!!!

[CaptRob]

A very smart young man from your area told me....." it is better to sweat than bleed" ...... made me stop and think!!!!!

Sounds wise indeed.

[Hogzilla]

Depends on where I am going. I have been known to ride without one but 90 to 95 percent of the time I have a helmet on. Sometimes I feel like a nut, sometimes I don't! I know all the statistics and have been riding since I was 10 years old. I am now 51 so I have been around this riding thing a long time. Seems like when I was younger, I always wore a helmet and now I don't really care as much. Go figure!!

[Arkf6bRider]

6 yrs ago I was at a stop sign on a county rd. A fellow cut a corner and hit me. I was standing still. Knocked me 25 ft. Totalled my 06 wing and gave me my first ride in an ambulance. Rattled my cage. The thing I remember most was my head bouncing on the asphalt. I lived to tell about it. Yes I was wearing a helmet. Full face in cold weather, and 3/4 for summer time. I know for a fact they work.

[hiflyer]

A full face Simpson saved my life in 1986 on a Honda Nighthawk 650! ( hence my 30 years old comment above ) I was on lunch break and a stoplight runner and hit and run A hole pulled out in front of me! Not my fault ( except riding in right lane on 4 lane and not paying attention) at 19 my melon was safe but my body took many months to recover and at my age now I am paying for that damage in my back and knees.
So I decide to be a bad ass Harley rider and wear novelty lids to look cool for many years as a middle aged man. With my experience you would think I know better!:bang head: It just is not in style to wear a big helmet on HD. But now with my F6…I bought a new Shoei Full face and have DOT half helmets as well. I get too hot in the Full Face in Summer but I am going to try to use it as much as I can stand.

My best friend always wore a full face helmet until he got an HD Ultra, he died 3 years ago after a high side while wearing a 1/2 helmet. I miss him every single day, he was also my pastor.

[CaptRob]

My best friend always wore a full face helmet until he got an HD Ultra, he died 3 years ago after a high side while wearing a 1/2 helmet. I miss him every single day, he was also my pastor.

DANG! That is horrible. I am sorry for your loss of your friend. Im glad it didn't stop you from riding motorcycles!! It is a dangerous hobby and something inside just been nagging me to ride with gear lately. I will learn to deal with the summer heat. I have to talk my wife into looking (unharleylike too) for lack of a better word. She doesn't ride with me often but I sure would hate to survive a crash where she died in a brain bucket that I bought her!

I gotta tell you that while at THE TALE OF THE DRAGON I was people watching and all that while my younger riding buddy wanted to race up and down a few more times than I did. I was wearing all of my new gear on my new Honda and all of the sudden the Harley guys look so lame all dressed the same some with no helmet and most with novelty caps. Ripped off sleeves on denim shirts blah blah blah etc..you know what I'm saying I'm sure. Keep in mind I still own my 2011 Street Glide (until it sells!) I don't really want to associate with that crowd any more. I read in a post last night that I can now sell all of my Village People clothing!! Funny. Anyway thanks for your advise and stories as that will help me to remember to wear the full face even when its HOT!

[grendl]

I live in Colorado, no helmet laws. But long ago when I learned to ride, I treated the helmet as mandatory.Heavy shoes jeans and sturdy gloves. I always wear it. In my day I drag raced a lot and have seen what happens with and without the helmets. Without it is not pretty and kind of nightmarish. With the helmets what I observed is the scratches from the pavement,one that cracked in half(no damage to the rider) and so on. I have a freind that crashed ,no helmet tore up her face. when she recovered enough to ride - still no helmet.
Another nice thing abut the helmet is bug prevention. I have run through a swarm of bees - a couple still got in but I imagine it would have been worse with no helmet.Got caught in a hailstorm good ol helmet... A June bug feels like a bullet at high speed to me it just makes sense but this IS America
To each his /her own but I ALWAYS wear mine......I'm still a speed freak

[winginitrick]

ya know? it is funny. times they are a changing! im 64 now, still riding! been riding for a lot of years. yea, ive gone down twice. one of our (me and my riding buds) favorite sayings to each other was (SUCK IT UP MAN, THATS WHAT HAPPENS ON A MOTORCYCLE!) our bald heads, arms, legs, hands, ears, everything, burned up by the sun!!! people would say, you guys are burned the **** up! and we would just say, yea, that happens when you ride a bike! it was like a badge of HONOR!!!!! one of my buds got hit by a bird right in the neck, while riding and went down and got got rashed up but good. we said, yea, **** happens when you ride a bike!!! when a lady "leffted" right in front of number one in line, and me number two, and he hit the side of her car, and flew over it, and landed in the ditch on the side of the road, while i crashed and burned, to keep from crashing into the side as he did, and we missed four weeks of work, we said, yup, when you ride, ya gotta take the bitter with the sweet. we never even gave ATGATT a second thought! in ohio, at that time, there was no helmet law. even when there was one, if we were not going to ride on the main roads, we would just strap them on the back seat, and stay on the back roads. and really it wasnt the cool factor at that time, cause hell, whos gonna see you on the back roads? we just hated wearing helmets. just sayin, MAN, TIMES ARE SURE DIFFERENT NOW. now its cover your arms so you dont get sunburned, wear a helmet to cover and protect your head, wear an armoured jacket to protect your hide, wear steeled toed boots to protect your feet, and so on and on and on!!!!! but, like we say now, TO EACH HIS OR HER OWN. yall keep on winginit rick

[MSGT-R]

Let me share a little pic with you guys.

The picture is in the ER after a left turner took me out. I was wearing ALL the gear and a flip up helmet. The side impact with the ground broke the mechanism and the chin bar flipped up while I was still tumbling and knocked out. Thankfully my face is small enough in comparison to the helmet shell to prevent any teeth from being lost.

What do you think my head would look like if I wasn't wearing a helmet when I went over the bars and through my windshield @ 40 mph?

I have another flip up, but it's a $600 Shoei.