Freedom Riders (How motorcyclists won the right to feel the wind in their hair, etc.)

Reason ^ | November 2005 | Jacob Sullum

[Tamar1973]

The wind isn't making my eyes tear up.

Wouldn't sunglasses help with that? However, I actually agree with you. I would wear a helmet but I also believe in the rights of others to make their own decisions. Besides, if some Darwin Award wannabe wants to take the risk, who am I to vote to use the strong arm of the government to stop them? They have to answer to the Almighty for the consequences of the shattered lives they leave behind, not me.

[sgtbono2002]

Helmets only help in slow speed crashes. In a hard crash even with a helmet traumatic fatal head injuries are likely. Helmets are no protection from the car that pulls out in front of you and you slam in the side of it at 50 mph.
With no head injuries at all Chest injuries ruptured spleens, broken ribs that puncture lungs, hemothorax, ventral and aortic injuries even bleeding out from loss of limbs can all kill you and a helmet doesnt help at all with these.

I have ridden two wheelers for 45 years I have a couple of friends who have died on them. I also have many more friends who have been killed in automobiles , In fact my father died in an auto accident, from injuries to the head that a helmet may have prevented, but I am not calling for helmets for auto's.

Life isnt about being afraid, its about living. We never know when the Good Lord will call us. I know people who smoke cigarettes and havent gotten cancer and others who never smoked who died with it. Enjoy life while you are here if riding a motorcycle is what you enjoy, do it.

[clamper1797]

I had 4 bike wrecks before I gave them up. I wasn't wearing a helmet in any of them. In fact ... had I been wearing one in my first wreck ... I probably would have been killed instead of having relatively minor injuries

[brooklin]

I wear glases and I have found them to make the situation worse than when I didn't need them.

I don't think that you should have to wear a helmet,(I do), I also don't think that you should HAVE to wear a seatbelt. The insurance companies don't pay if you have an accident while drunk driving, why should they pay if you are just plain lacking in better judgement?

[EasySt]

Thanks for posting this, neverdem.

I've ridden motorcycles all of my adult life. It really is the next best thing to flying. In some ways it's even better. Hard to take your Cessna out of the garage and be at the 7-11 three minutes later.

I have more than half a dozen helmets. My State, California, requires them. The one I wear the most is a Schuberth Concept, full face-flip up with an internal flip down sun visor.

I ride all over the western and central US, these days on a 2002 1800GL Goldwing with ABS brakes.


The helmet is a good one, and I like the built in sun visor that lets me wear my clear glasses. (Good for tunnels and other causes of sudden darkness.)

The helmet is also heavy, hot, tiring, restrictive, stuffy and cuts me off from my environment even more effectively than being in my car, an '85 300XZ Turbo T-Top.(Just like every other full face helmet I've tried)

Given the choice, as a motorcycle commuter I would continue to wear a helmet most of the time, but there are the occasional hot empty open highways where true freedom still beckons...

Make a different insurance pool if you like, but I'll support my motorcycle freedoms at least as much as I support FR.

-EasySt

[AdamSelene235]

I never ride without appropriate headgear.

[GeorgiaDawg32]

I ride and have heard of bikers who have gotten into wrecks only to die in the aftermath when the helmet got caught on something and snapped the riders neck..it all comes down to..when it's your time to go, you're goin..helmet or not..

[Tamar1973]

The insurance companies don't pay if you have an accident while drunk driving, why should they pay if you are just plain lacking in better judgement?

What alternative reality (aka state) are you from? I am a claims adjuster for a Top 10 insurance company and I can tell you we DO pay out on drunk driving claims. We pay out A LOT.

[GeorgiaDawg32]

mine and it's been ridden all over these united states..ALWAYS with a helmet..

[shotgun]

Excuse me?? Just who are you referring to with that idiotic remark? My "ride" has not been free and I don't ever expect to have one. I accept the consequences of my actions when I ride, and yes I do wear a helemt even in states that don't require one.

I bet your the type that make left turns on a yield in front of motorcyles just to see the terrorized look on the faces of the riders. Get a life buttwad....

[JoeSixPack1]

Inflatable chest protection is another important safety feature.

[Pylot]

I have been riding a motorcycle for 35 years.

I have heard, for many years, the bogus argument that you put in italics.

Helmets don't restrict F1 drivers ability to go fast, they dont limit fighter pilots and truth is, they don't restrict motorcycle riders either. If you have to use your ears to detect a car around you, you ain't using your eyes.

I do choose to wear all of the safety gear and I have since I started riding as a teenager. Helment, leathers, gloves, boots, all of it. But thats just me. I use ear plugs too so I have a hard time with that I can't hear anything because of a helmet line.

But, all that said, I am totally against government nanny laws.

How you scoot down the highway at any speed and eat bugs and what ever else flys back at you has always been a mystery to me. But if anyone wants to ride that way, more power to em.

[jwpjr]

Well, it certainlywas not my intention to cause you such distress by being so brash as to voice an opinion. I apologize.

[jwpjr]

So it's your opinion that I should not be permitted to state my opinion without being called names and told what I had been turned into? It's OK for you to exercise freedom of thought and speech, but where I want to draw the line at financial considerations you would draw the line with thought and expression.

You really should get to know me before you go off half-cocked. Read some of the hundreds of replies I have made over the past few years and then see if you still think I am in favor of the nanny-state.

I do not want to be financially responsible for those who feel it's their right to do things that I refrain from doing because I consider them too risky. I don't see where that makes me an enemy of anyone.

[jwpjr]

re: Thanks for recognizing that :<)


You're welcome! And thanks for considering me worthy of at least trying to reason with me before resorting to the nasty sort of responses some others provided.

The opportunity to make a statement that might not hold up under careful scrutiny without fear of being ridiculed and called names is one of the things I like most about FR.

[308MBR]

Dude, I have never heard such! I can't help but notice how racing riders don't go bare brained. That's a bit more taxing than putting down the street.

Wear/don't wear whatever you want. I also notice the T-shirted/shorts/sneakers/flip flopped riders. I pointed them out to my wife when we first started dating, stating "There goes somebody who has never wrecked a street bike.". After explaining road rash to her, she understood it pretty well.

It is also quite notable that; quieter mufflers also improve your perception of what is going on around you, the people most wanting to ride helmetless are the ones on the most ill-handling rides and whose looks would be most improved by a full face helmet.

[jwpjr]

I am not in favor of telling anyone how to live their life. But I don't see where voicing an objection to being required by threat of force or imprisonment to contribute to their way of life. Where does that make me a bad person. You (the Papal 'you', not jeremiah!) have my blessing to live any way you want and engage in any sort of behavior you feel led to enjoy. But what in the Constitution gives you (Papal) the right to demand that I support you financially?

I seem to have pissed off a lot of people, more than any other statement I've made in my three or four years on FR. I feel badly about that because I am really a 'live and let live' sort of guy.

I would hasten to add that by the same token, I don't expect you to bear any financial responsibility for the decisions I make in my life. What could be fairer?

[jwpjr]

You're right of course, but we weren't talking about ingesting foods or failing to run five miles a day. We were discussing a particular behavior pattern that is dangerous, and all I said was that I don't engage in that behavior and would would not and don't like to have to support financially those who do.

Had someone said something about eating food that is bad for you, or not getting enough exercise I would not have replied. I replied to a specific situation.

[jwpjr]

That was my point! Somehow it went from that to me being some sort of nanny-state liberal not worthy of even a polite response.

[Oberon]

I do not want to be financially responsible for those who feel it's their right to do things that I refrain from doing because I consider them too risky.

Neither do I. But based on your reasoning, it's entirely reasonable to ban motorcycles altogether.

Look at it this way: Is your being called upon to bear the financial burden of irresponsible riders the fault of the irresponsible riders, or the fault of the architects of state and commerce who set up a system under which risk is collectivized?