In order to participate in the GunBroker Member forums, you must be logged in with your GunBroker.com account. Click the sign-in button at the top right of the forums page to get connected.

Scooterdudes and Dudettes!!

interstatepawnllcinterstatepawnllc Member Posts: 9,390
edited August 2002 in General Discussion
Nunns post on seatbelts has gotten me to a pondering. I would like to hear opinions both for and against wearing a skid lid, (helmet) whislt riding one's scoot. All imput appreciated.
· Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

Comments

  • nunnnunn Forums Admins, Member, Moderator Posts: 36,085 ******
    edited November -1
    I saw a fellow once who went outside on a curve and lost it. Went through and along a barbed wire fence. One strand of wire just sort of sawed a big groove into his skull, front to back, from the crown of his head down to nearly the eyebrow.

    He lived, but he sits in a wheelchair and drools a lot.

    Yes to helmets. Yes to heavy boots and gloves. Yes to leathers.



    SIG pistol armorer/FFL Dealer/Full time Peace Officer, Moderator of General Discussion Board on Gunbroker. Visit www.gunbroker.com, the best gun auction site on the Net! Email davidnunn@texoma.net
    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • Harleeman1030Harleeman1030 Member Posts: 1,505 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    RIDE FREE i have always hoped to just die instead of some helment making me a VEG..(i know not haveing one on can do the same)..I have had lots of friends with and without them die...Lived in texas when they let us decide..lived back home in La. when the did the same..Now i live in florida no helment law...I always wear my seatbelt by the way...If you have ever ridden more then 50 miles doing 70 + MPH...With the dang thing pulling your head back making your neck sore well that sucks...If the freedom is mine to choose then i will choose not to wear one..Even when i had to wear one it was illegal with a fake DOT sticker on it anyway..I do not drive crazy on it a little wheelie on the fxr every once in a while but no outright drag racing in the streets..I have been riding for 20 years..

    LIVE TO RIDE/RIDE TO LIVE

    Harleeman1030@aol.com
    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • mudgemudge Member Posts: 4,225 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    I won't get into an extended editorial tirade here about my reason but I wouldn't ride without a helmet. I'm for "rider's right to choose" and I choose to wear one.

    Mudge of the low threshold of pain

    I can't come to work today. The voices said, STAY HOME AND CLEAN THE GUNS!
    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • pickenuppickenup Member Posts: 22,844 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    I am pro choice. Because they limit your vision and hearing, I choose not to. I also have known people who have died with and without. Quite a few people I know have had their necks broke because they wore one. In a high speed crash manufacturer says they will not help much. They used to have a sticker on them that said something about for (slow speed) or (low impact) only, or something like that.

    If I knew then, what I know now.
    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • LowriderLowrider Member Posts: 6,587
    edited November -1
    Washington State has a helmet law, so I wear one around home. When I lived in Oklahoma, with no helmet law, I didn't even own a helmet. When I'm on the road, if I'm just passing through a no-helmet state, I usually just leave it on. But if I stop for the night in a no-helmet state, or if my destination is a helmet-free state, you'll find me riding without.

    I don't like the government telling me how to live my life.

    Lord Lowrider the LoquaciousMember:Secret Select Society of Suave Stylish Smoking Jackets She was only a fisherman's daughter,But when she saw my rod she reeled.
    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • idsman75idsman75 Member Posts: 13,398 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    I'm curious. I don't know if it holds any water but I once heard it said that the increased severity in injuries by those who do not wear helmets creates a greater insurance (medical/auto) for those that do.

    Any comments?
    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • RembrandtRembrandt Member Posts: 4,486 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    I posted this on the seat belt thread, it's probably more appropriate on this one.

    I've heard all the reasons and why bikers feel their rights are infringed.....hearing reduced by a helmet, side vision hampered, bugs obstructing vision on face shield....Two weeks ago Mrs Rembrandt's brother who lives in Florida was riding his Harley (no helmet) when he hit some water and lost the bike....he's now in a coma with massive head injuries and paralaysis,....if he survives, he will probably be in a vegetable state. The medical bills are soaring, he'll no doubt loose his home, vehicles, assets, and ability to ever earn a living....no way to explain how hard this has been on the entire family. My mother in-law sits by his side in the hospital each day watching her only son, breathing with tubes attached, hoping for the best....
    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • PearywPearyw Member Posts: 3,699
    edited November -1
    I once hit a Buick at 50mph, went thru the windshield of my fairing, totaled my Moto-Guzzi, went 50 feet down the road, and broke my leg. I was wearing a good Bell helmet and leather jacket. I didn't get any head injury. I still ride, and I sure don't go out without a good helmet.
    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • IconoclastIconoclast Member Posts: 10,515 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    When I was young, I had a rice rocket. Laid it down from sand on the road, just missed being hit by a car (actually the car was the real cause of the accident - it swung wide on a sharp corner & forced me into the breakdown lane where the state had thoughtfully swept a winter's worth of sand). No serious injurt due to leathers & helmet. But lying there with a running motorcycle on top of me & being drenched in the gasoline from a ruptured fuel line cured me of any desire to ride a bike again.

    NH is pro-choice. My stepson chose not to. He's dead. Helmet would have prevented the injury.

    My youngest boy craves a bike. Gave him the same answer as I did on tatoos, piercings & earrings: if you're 18 or older and not in my house, I can't stop you, but give it some serious, mature thought first.

    I won't get into a debate, either.
    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • LowriderLowrider Member Posts: 6,587
    edited November -1
    How many people suffer serious head injury in automobile accidents? Lots of them. Even with airbags and seat belts, there are still lots of head injuries. So why not extend the helmet law to all drivers? After all, professional racers don't take their cars on the track without a helmet. If helmets are necessary to make motorcyclists safe, they could sure serve the same purpose in cars.

    This business about the public burden from injuries sustained by helmetless motorcyclists is a load of crap. If the govt. was really interested in reducing public burden, there are other ways that would be much more effective. The helmet laws are nothing more than people control. Motorcyclists are a small minority of motorists so, just like gun owners, they're easy to screw with. The general public doesn't get too worked up over laws that don't concern them. Now if someone were to suggest a helmet law for drivers of cars, then you'd see and hear some objections.

    Lord Lowrider the LoquaciousMember:Secret Select Society of Suave Stylish Smoking Jackets She was only a fisherman's daughter,But when she saw my rod she reeled.
    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • RembrandtRembrandt Member Posts: 4,486 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    Lowrider is correct about head injuries in cars, it can happen there too....years ago we saw a huge number of windshields being replaced each time a front end collision occured. Can't tell you how many windshields I changed that still had scalps and hair inbedded in them. After the seat belt laws came about we started seeing $5000-$10,000 crashes and the windshield were undamaged. The Insurance Companies were the big pushers of this legislation, why?.....they didn't care if the car windshield got broke or not, that was nothing compared to $50,000-$500,000 in medical claims and legal bills.

    No question seat belts stopped a lot of the head injuries, does it stop them all....no, but it did reduce a large number of them. A biker doesn't have the luxury of being encapsulated in a small protected area. No one is advocating seat belts for bikes, but a helmet sure helps.
    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • mvandmvand Member Posts: 26 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    I started riding at about age 20 (1980) and there were the same discussions going on at that time. I was fortunate enough to have come across a research report when I was considering owning a bike that made the difference in deciding on the helmet issue. It's been a while, and so I no longer remember all the details, but a guy named Harry Hurt (If I remember correctly) did a very objective and thorough study of motorcycle accidents across California. Helmets were not his primary issue, but he did draw some conclusions regarding their use. Among many very interesting statistics that arose from his study was that a very large percentage of those individuals that died while wearing a helmet had 3-5 additional injuries other than head injuries that were potentially fatal. I'll look around for information on that study, but even though old now, I would strongly recommend it as at least interesting reading on the issue of motorcycle safety (especially to beginners). It wasn't long after I started riding that CA enacted their helmet law, and though I still struggle with whether or not it should be a legal issue, because of this report I had already determined I would wear one.



    Edited by - mvand on 08/11/2002 14:18:20
    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • NighthawkNighthawk Member Posts: 12,022 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    I have Personaly seen Helmets save life,and serious injury on Motor Cycle Accidents.I would advise anyone to wear a Helmet.I wear mine when riding my Mountain Bike.


    Best!!

    Rugster
    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • mudgemudge Member Posts: 4,225 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    Had a 75/5 Beemer. Guy in a Cougar in front of me tried to avoid another car and got sideways in front of me. I tried to go around him by rolling into the right lane. He kept coming across the road and I buried the front wheel in the wheel well of the Cougar. Did a "swan dive" over his hood and came down on my right shoulder and the side of my HELMETED head. Dislocated my shoulder and made a HUGE * in the helmet that COULD have been in my head. That was a full face helmet. I now wear a shorty (sometimes a full face) and I really fail to see how anyone can claim that a shorty impairs anything.

    Mudge the helmed

    ps. The Beemer was still buried in the wheel well and RUNNING when I finally got to my feet.

    I can't come to work today. The voices said, STAY HOME AND CLEAN THE GUNS!

    Edited by - mudge on 08/11/2002 17:07:57
    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • TxsTxs Member Posts: 17,809 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    I feel the same way about helmets as I do about seat belts. It should be a matter of personal choice, not a law. I could care less if other people wear them or not.

    I used to race and followed the old racers creed-If you don't go down every now and then you ain't going fast enough! I can't count the number of times I went down over the years, including being smacked by a couple of cars, but I learned some valuable lessons along the way. I wore one before it was a law and still do, even though mine's only a half helmet.

    It seems like a good amount of newbie riders who don't wear one because it doesn't look cool have just never experienced how hard of an impact you can receive when things go bad. These are also the types that own one bike and sell it after the first time they dump it hard.
    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • wundudneewundudnee Member Posts: 6,108 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    When my son was in high school, he and his friends all had trail-street bikes. We live on a gravel road and three of those kids got tangled up one day. Lots of road rash, but nothing major. I still have my boy's helmut out in the garage. I am really glad that damage was done to the helmut and not his face and head. Personal choice.

    ....................
    AD ASTRA PER ASPERA

    To the stars through difficulties
    standard.jpg
    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • Harleeman1030Harleeman1030 Member Posts: 1,505 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Just to let you know..When the family goes out on the 4 wheelers we all wear helments.....Also when we go bike riding with my kids i wear a safety helment..

    Harleeman1030@aol.com
    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • MercuryMercury Member Posts: 7,840 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    When I had a bike, I wore a helmet. They help, no doubt about it.

    I have an old helmet my aunt gave me after she hit a deer on her bike. She slid on her head for about 50-75' and the helmet wore down all the way to the styrofoam! Nice cut-away view of the inside of the helmet.

    It is basically a stupid person law, much like seatbelts......it shouldn't be mandatory, though.

    Merc



    NO! You may not have my guns! Now go crawl back into your hole!

    ****************************************

    "Tolerating things you may not necessarily like is part of being free" - Larry Flynt
    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • Big Sky RedneckBig Sky Redneck Member Posts: 19,752 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    What is the real problem on the highways? Should seatbelts and helmets be the answer? I think not. I drive on the average of 120,000 miles a year on all kinds of roads and I will honestly say that 95% of the accidents are caused by STUPIDITY!! Now instead of trying to find ways to keep people from dying in the crashes, why the hell don'e we try to avoid the accidents? Look at trucking regulations, we have a book 3" thick to protect people in cars from us, but who causes most of the accidents? Sure it is easy to blame a truck but if people didnt drive like complete dicks we wouldnt need all those rules. Same goes with bikes, most of the bikers out there are some of the safest drivers on the road, but add the stupid woman in her Ford Explorer into the picture and you have a disaster waiting to happen. I see wrecks every week, cars, pickups, big trucks and bikes. Do you know who causes most of them?? The morons in the cars. They drive like they have blinders on, drive like they have sex, all speed and no control. Coming up I81 in VA last week I saw three accidents in 5 miles, all of them rearend accidents with injuries. STUPID!! Name one good excuse for a rearend accident, there is none.

    Sure, there are goofballs on bikes(me being one of them) and there are goofballs in trucks, but the biggest majority of them are in cars and SUVs and then the biggest percentage of them are women. Watch how they drive, they sit there yaking on the phone or flirting with their boyfriends or messing with the kids. The whole time they are not driving, they are just pointing the thing down the road hoping it takes them where they want to go.

    All the rules in the world will not save lives, you can force everybody to wear a belt and a helmet but it will not work. people will still die. Until people learn to take driving serious and pay attention to whats happening around them, people will continue to die. Take the aggressive drivers and put them in jail for a week, take their license and fine the crap out of them. Do the same with the lame brain morrons who could care less what is happening around them as long as they get to where they are going. It is sad to see how people drive and it is maddening. Just like we say there are some who should not have guns, there are 10 times as many who should not have a car.
    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • TrinityScrimshawTrinityScrimshaw Member Posts: 9,350 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Helmets suck. I hate them, but I wear them because I have seen what they can & can't do. Blaze Orange sucks, Condoms suck, Seat belts suck too, but I wear one. I personaly hate being told it is a law to do something that I do because I feel safe doing it. I'm an adult, it should be my right if I want to go out and risk my life by doing something stupid, as long as it doesn't put someone else at risk.

    Bottom line, helmets suck!

    Trinity+++

    "Train up a child in the way he should go, even when he is old he will not depart from it."(Proverbs 22:6)
    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • The firearms consultantThe firearms consultant Member Posts: 716 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    If you don't wear a helmut, you've got nothing to put in it anyway.

    I might not always tell you the truth, but I will never lie to you!
    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • LowriderLowrider Member Posts: 6,587
    edited November -1
    Sometimes I don't wear one, but evidently this "unsafe" practice hasn't yet scrambled my brains, because I still know that helmet is spelled with an "e", not a "u."

    Lord Lowrider the LoquaciousMember:Secret Select Society of Suave Stylish Smoking Jackets She was only a fisherman's daughter,But when she saw my rod she reeled.
    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • 96harley96harley Member Posts: 3,992 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    Wear one 90% of the time. It's that 10% when I don't that frightens me. Just found out from a fellow rider who is insured with Dairyland
    Ins. his rates doubled for no reason. We can only surmise the insurance company is doing so because of no helmet law in IN. They get you one way or the other.
    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • Judge DreadJudge Dread Member Posts: 2,372 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    My opinion........?

    Wear all the exo-skeletal protection you can,no ones make love
    to a drooling veggy on a weelchair (Unless he or she is a nicromaniac)

    In that case you are better off dead......

    JD

    400 million cows can't be wrong ( EAT GRASS !!! )
    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • He DogHe Dog Member Posts: 51,593 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Helmet laws are like laws against suicide. That said, I never ride without one. It is not a question of if you will go down, only when. I crawled out from under a car with my helmet on. Knee didn't work so well, but the head was just fine though the helmet was not. Made a believer out of me. Besides Low Rider, I just hate bugs in my teeth, so I wear a full face helmet.

    A balanced diet is a cookie in each hand
    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • interstatepawnllcinterstatepawnllc Member Posts: 9,390
    edited November -1
    Thank you all for your imput. I will be wearing mine once again. It was nice to come to KS. and have the choice of wearing or not. Where I last lived, NC. says it is mandatory. I agree with all on the point of choice. The Govt has no place to tell us we have to ride helmeted or seatbelted, after all we are grown-up's are we not? Don't answer.
    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • LightningLightning Member Posts: 945 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    I only wear one where the law says I have too.
    Just a matter of choice and I dont think the goverment should have the right to tell me to.
    Biggest problem with helmets is the attitude of people wearing them:
    They think if they put one on they are invincible, Not smart enough to know that there is lots of other ways to get killed other than a head injury.
    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • LightningLightning Member Posts: 945 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    I only wear one where the law says I have too.
    Just a matter of choice and I dont think the goverment should have the right to tell me to.
    Biggest problem with helmets is the attitude of people wearing them:
    They think if they put one on they are invincible, Not smart enough to know that there is lots of other ways to get killed other than a head injury.
    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • LagoLago Member Posts: 464 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    I don't ride cycles but I once HAD a nephew that did without the helmet. He hit the curb at about 35mph, went over the handlebars, and hit the grass median strip. Probably would have survived if the concrete base for an old sign had been removed. He had one scratch on the forehead and was in a coma for about a week before he passed away.
    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • homer4homer4 Member Posts: 128 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    One of the senceable laws here in Maryland.

    "...Abby someone""Abby who"..."Abby Normal"
    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • BufflerBuffler Member Posts: 821 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Your Money,Your Bike,Your Choice!! 'Nuff said,BE SAFE!Buffler
    Just my Opinion, It's YOURS, YOU should be able to decide, not
    STATE or Govt. IMHO Buffler BE SAFE!!!
    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • Warpig883Warpig883 Member Posts: 6,459
    edited November -1
    anyone who believes it should be a law to wear helmets by all rights probably believes in anti gun laws. And anyone who chooses to shoot those evil guns that kill people and should be outlawed should be wearing shooting glasses and kevlar gloves and a helmet. Maybe these things should be laws??????




    It is ALL about FREEDOM and the option to CHOOSE

    moc.murofsmraerifeht.www



    Edited by - warpig883 on 08/13/2002 17:48:54
    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
Sign In or Register to comment.