Harleys \ helmets..

[peteO]

i got ripped apart on here for starting a similar thread arounf this time last year

at a petrol station saw 2 lads in topshop vests, short shorts, flip flops, ray bans, no gloves, open face metal flake helmets on brand new harelys....

saw them, randomly, later on in the day at a car show. one of them was using his helmet as a seat.

[Dr Jekyll]

RumpleFugly said:

It's no less of an oddity than wearing a race rep lid on a sports bike or a peaked lid on an adventure bike.

There's a certain aesthetic that is synonymous with a style of bike and many people chose to adopt said style.

I can understand that someone who just potters around in warm weather might prefer different clothing from someone who goes up and down motorways in all weathers, so there might be a vague correlation with style of bike, but only vague.

I asked a similar question a year or two back and the consensus was that it really was this 'aesthetic' nonsense. Something I'd suspected but couldn't quite bring myself to believe.

[LeftmostAardvark]

I'm wearing full face at the moment and it really is a pain - would much rather be open face for the comfort (HD softail). Back on normal bikes though, i wouldn't even consider anything but full face. Harleys do seem to recalibrate your mind about what is appropriate (cue backless leather chaps jokes)

[Stu R]

Where I live helmets are optional. Quite liberating riding without a lid

[cpl_payne]

The only reasonable justification for enforcing wearing protection is associated costs to NHS (and therefore the public). Apart from that - let people make up their own minds.

Besides - these days you can have your cake and eat it, too. I'm quite sure helmets like Arai Xtend and similar offer very high levels of protection while letting you enjoy pretty much everything an open face does apart from wind in your face.

As for the wind (flies, bees etc) in your face - it's one thing in town at up to 30 mph and a completely different kettle of fish at 50+.

[Hemingway]

bogie said:

I ride a Harley but I dont wear an open face lid ....im I doing something wrong? will the style Police pull me over ?

Same here, but we both like little plastic cars too. I use the same lid in the car and on the Harley.

[jhoneyball]

I wear my normal Arai GP7X (or whatever it is) on my harley. Has great ventilation. I had a BMW open face helmet, but that broke (st design, BMW said it was my fault)

[WinstonWolf]

black-k1 said:

There is a dress code, it's called the law, and both full face and open face helmets are acceptable within that dress code. what is strange about that?

Does anyone on here actually know of any other rider who, wearing an open face helmet, has suffered a facial injury in an accident that they possibly wouldn't have suffered had they been wearing a full face helmet?

Yes, me went face first into the A pillar of a car wearing an open faced lid. Other than some scars under my hairline where they pulled my cheek back out you wouldn't know...

there's always one...

[peteO]

WinstonWolf said:

Yes, me went face first into the A pillar of a car wearing an open faced lid. Other than some scars under my hairline where they pulled my cheek back out you wouldn't know...

there's always one...

ouchie!

[WinstonWolf]

Obviously I was wearing WWII fighter pilot goggles at the time and yes, they filled up with blood just like they do in the movies.

[Rawwr]

I had a bit of an off at 60mph last week. The only area my helmet had damage was around the chin. Personally speaking, there's nothing in the world that would ever convince me to use an open-face helmet but I'd certainly defend others' rights to do so.

[Prof Prolapse]

Rawwr said:

Personally speaking, there's nothing in the world that would ever convince me to use an open-face helmet but I'd certainly defend others' rights to do so.

I think that's pretty much where I am when all these safety things come up. As you correctly say there's a failure of reason in our increasingly risk averse society where people think because they are "safer", they also have some moral high ground and can talk down to people.

The best illustration of safety gear I saw was the immediate aftermath of a motorcycle crash in LA just on the freeway, blood smeared on tarmac off over a good 10-20 metres followed by a torso shaped pool where it rested. I think it's pretty obvious the guy wasn't wearing protection in the 35 degree heat, and binned it at considerable pace. The amount of blood reminded me of a time I saw a horse hit by car as a child.

But I will still wear T-shirts on the bike. I just take it easy. That's my mitigation of risk and my choice.

[rat840771]

It's roasting outside and I am not going to wear full leather gear on a scooter to get around town.

So I am at risk, but again I take it easy.

It seems to be acceptable for Cycle riders to travel at break neck speeds across wet cobbles wearing lycra and a bit of polystyrene! They can get upto speeds of 70MPH on TDF.

[Prof Prolapse]

rat840771 said:

I
It seems to be acceptable for Cycle riders to travel at break neck speeds across wet cobbles wearing lycra and a bit of polystyrene! They can get upto speeds of 70MPH on TDF.

Lol, the best and least listend to argument. Regardless of speed bikes are more dangerous.

Maybe in the 1970s they were.

[srob]

That's the thing that frustrates me. We all choose to take risks to ride a motorcycle.

Imagine if Cpt Sensible car driver came on here bleating on about how we'll all lose our legs/arms/break our back/bust our ribs/puncture our lungs etc etc if we have a crash as we're on a motorcycle and not in a multi-airbagged car. He'd be torn to shreds. Yet for some reason it seems ok for people who choose to wear slightly more safety equipment to do basically that to anyone who doesn't have the same choice of protection.

I've been on here many years now, and absolutely every time I've seen a thread about open faced helmets someone has to mention 'losing a face'. And for the record (and hoping to not tempt fate) I don't know anyone that's had any of those injuries either.

[Disastrous]

I find it odd that safety has become such a massive concern amongst the majority. Is it down to the lack of anything else serious to worry about (no war, Great Depression, famine in modern Europe?) so the natural human tendency to worry filters down to the more banal things?

It always seems as if being safe is the primary concern when undertaking anything and I find that a very odd state of mind. Freedom and enjoyment are my primary drivers for doing anything.

[amancalledrob]

Prof Prolapse said:

Lol, the best and least listend to argument. Regardless of speed bikes are more dangerous.

Maybe in the 1970s they were.

I guess an off at, say, 50mph could be more dangerous on a motorbike than on a pushbike simply because there's more heavy machinery sliding around and which you could be trapped beneath, which would be pretty grim if things have yet to come to a standstill. That said, I agree wholeheartedly with this:

Rawwr said:

I had a bit of an off at 60mph last week. The only area my helmet had damage was around the chin. Personally speaking, there's nothing in the world that would ever convince me to use an open-face helmet but I'd certainly defend others' rights to do so.

[Hooli]

I've come off three or four times & the one bit of my lids that have never been touched are the visor & chin guard.

[Gusto]

On a Harley, a beard is the only chin guard you need.

I think you'd get called a Mug from all sides if you wore a one piece on a FatBoy.

[black-k1]

I find this perennial debate about safety gear and hot weather frustrating on two counts. Firstly, the already mentioned ‘holier than thou’ brigade who think that others should be banned/financially charged/otherwise chastised for not wearing the same amount of safety gear as they are. (This is especially annoying from those riders who are not wearing CE approved clothing thus have no real idea how safe their kit is but can only assume because it looks "ruffty tuffty" that it must be good.)

The second issue for me is the assumption by those who don’t necessarily preach to others, but still take ‘the moral high ground’ that it’s OK for others to choose to ride without safety equipment ‘but wouldn’t be that stupid do it.’

We, in the UK get a handful of hot days per year, which (as today) cause the press to tell everyone to keep granny in doors, drink a swimming pools worth of water and cover the kids with enough sun block to save Superman from the effects of Kryptonite. Yet most bikers still wear their dark/black suits while sat on top of a hot engine while wearing a helmet full of polystyrene (a superb insulator!).

I am sure that people who live in hot countries value their skin/life just as much as I value mine. Joe public in Southern Europe, USA, Australia etc. has similar amounts of disposable income to Joe public in the UK and I’m very sure that those living around the Med, the southern states of the US and Australia know a good deal more about surviving heat than we in the UK do. If the majority of motorcyclist in these areas choose to ride with little protective clothing is it because they are all stupid expressing their individuality or is it because they know the risks associate with overheating in protective gear outweigh the risks associated with riding without it?

Look at what the police motorcyclist in hot climates wear. America, Australia and Southern European all have police forces with enough money to pay for decent protective clothing for their biker cops and have legal systems that will allow for the state to be sued should it be shown to be negligent in providing appropriate protective clothing yet in all such countries biker cops in short sleeve shirts are the norm.