If helmets were optional...
Discussion
This seems to be one of the staple discussions on every bike forum I go to, in every country. Might as well chime in then. 
I'm not a fan of riding with no helmet above a certain speed because of the noise, but then again, if you got good wind protection... why not. I have no wife or kids, no mortgage to pay, and after some of the things I've seen in my service, risk and danger honestly become relative terms. So f*** it, might as well enjoy the experience, providing my insurance covers cleaning my splattered brains from the tarmac once I crash. Wouldn't want to be a burden on the taxpayer, right?
Same story with cars and seat belts. If I'm in the car alone, doing a 5-hour run on the American interstate highway, with good visibility and few cars around me - do I really need the belt to "protect" me at this point? Protect me from what exactly?
Overall, I'd say it's a personal issue having to do with risk management. As long as you don't hurt anyone else in the process (other than your grieving family), I don't see why the law should have a problem with riding sans helmet or seat belt. Healthy paternalism has it's limits, and this just about crosses them.
Just my opinion.
I'm not a fan of riding with no helmet above a certain speed because of the noise, but then again, if you got good wind protection... why not. I have no wife or kids, no mortgage to pay, and after some of the things I've seen in my service, risk and danger honestly become relative terms. So f*** it, might as well enjoy the experience, providing my insurance covers cleaning my splattered brains from the tarmac once I crash. Wouldn't want to be a burden on the taxpayer, right?
Same story with cars and seat belts. If I'm in the car alone, doing a 5-hour run on the American interstate highway, with good visibility and few cars around me - do I really need the belt to "protect" me at this point? Protect me from what exactly?
Overall, I'd say it's a personal issue having to do with risk management. As long as you don't hurt anyone else in the process (other than your grieving family), I don't see why the law should have a problem with riding sans helmet or seat belt. Healthy paternalism has it's limits, and this just about crosses them.
Just my opinion.
Interesting article on just this subject from the US of A
Anyone know comparative organ donor data from UK? are motorcyclists the number 1 source of organs here ?;)
http://www.motorcycle.com/features/skidmarks-donor...
Anyone know comparative organ donor data from UK? are motorcyclists the number 1 source of organs here ?;)
http://www.motorcycle.com/features/skidmarks-donor...
bogie said:
Interesting article on just this subject from the US of A
Anyone know comparative organ donor data from UK? are motorcyclists the number 1 source of organs here ?;)
http://www.motorcycle.com/features/skidmarks-donor...
Unless they have a central registry with this information, and the deceased previously agreed for their data to be used in this way you'd struggle to do this because of our fragmented NHS system, and the nature of confidentiality in Europe.Anyone know comparative organ donor data from UK? are motorcyclists the number 1 source of organs here ?;)
http://www.motorcycle.com/features/skidmarks-donor...
On the bright side, if anyone has looked at this, the results should be published and freely available.
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