Btw, I never wore a helmet when I was younger. Helmets just weren’t cool. As I got older, looking down at the pavement going by, I started to see the pavement as a giant grinding wheel...lol. Helmets can be pretty cool after all.☺
During my teenage mini bike/enduro years I didn’t wear one. Finally bought the 450 in 91. During the following 4 1/2 year stretch, the longest it sat was an 11 day stretch in Jan 93(?). 31 mile round trip commute. Always wore a helmet off the farm. Coldest was -3F I think.
Switched steel fab shops in 95, which took me down about 9 miles of county road with some curves. One cold overcast morning I came around a curve and the bike came right out from under me. Not ice. It was pea gravel that blended in perfect with the asphalt. Bike and I slid right into a grassy ditch. Windshield and right muffler was trashed. My helmet was scatched up pretty good, but that was it.