| Author | Message | ||
     S2no1 |
Buellistic, Sorry to hear about it. Repace the Shoei, it's earned it's keep. I wrote this before you posted. Glad you were wearing your gear. Pride heals. Arvel. Having been a statistic, I have the following comments. Safety Gear is better than no gear at all. Shredded skin hurts, gets infected, and makes really bad scars. Not to mention you have to have it cleaned in the emergency room by a lovely blond haired nurse named Jennifer with a cloth and disinfectant. The resulting pain brings a clarity of mind that few ever find. It also indelibly creates that desire to wear, regardless of temperature, season, or climatic conditions, leathers when you plan on riding. (Passing out at this point is possible, however, the pain is just under that threshold for most people.) Regardless of how lovely Jennifer is, you do not have warm feelings for her. About two weeks later, after you get a nice green colored infection, a young lovely redhead nurse named Rachel has to repeat the process. You really, really, don’t like Rachel. Especially since she has to open the already healed portion to remove infection. Passing out is allowed, but you suck it up and discover the unified field theory, for a few seconds. Leather and kevlar are tougher than riding jeans that are tougher than blue jeans that are better than nylon which is a toss up with bare skin. Bare skin shred and burns when abraded by concrete, asphalt, and gravel. The particles embed themselves in your flesh and won't come out for days, months or years. You do however have interesting area for you lover to look at and wonder about. Scars with dark splotches are so sexy you know. Steel and titanium implanted to hold broken bones does really interesting things in the winter. You now can forecast the weather reliably. When a sudden temperature or pressure drop happens you may want to spend the day in bed. Ibuprofen and naproxin are now your favorite candy. However, using the local weather station is much less painful and results in less financial burden. Surgical steel, installed runs about 10k to the ounce. Helmets save lives. Full-face helmets are better than half-face, half-face are better than beanies, beanies are better than nothing' at all. But if you want to remain that wonderful looking renegade individual on your motorcycle, be sure and wear a bandana only. The cloth will soak up some of the blood and can then be given to your loved ones as a memento. Yes, I’ve heard about your second cousin, uncles brother, who survived a major accident sans helmet. That only proves that dumb luck does work and God does watch out for imbeciles. However, since we are of normal intelligence, it’s likely he (or she) expects us to know better. If you don't want to ride with a full-face helmet, I have a some loci in Kansas, sand in El Paso, rain and hail in Missouri, sleet in Colorado, debris from various trucks in several states, a tailpipe in Chicago and a various other items that want to make your acquaintance up close and personal with a small kiss. The resulting bruises and blood will only serve as a conversation piece with the eye doctor trying to save your vision. If you don't wear safety gear, please do us all a favor and sign your donor card so your senseless death can bring some good in the world. Arvel There are lies, damn lies, and statistics  | ||
| Jmartz |
NO one wants 1/2 century old organs... | ||
| S2no1 |
Only those who'll die without them .... Arvel | ||
| Oldman |
live in florida, get to ride year round when riding other bikes it's nice not to have a helmet, on the buell it's nice to have the helmet or maybe a false since of security. first accident though pigskin jacket took the scrapes along with the helmet, pants didn't keep the leg from being broke by the bumper on the car though. | ||
| Chuck |
IMHO anyone who rides without a full face, just hasn't been riding long enough to know better  | ||
| Pilk |
Ditto Chuck. Pilk | ||
| Jmartz |
Arvel: That's a very wise observation. | ||
| Buelliedan |
One point that everyone has failed to mention is the insurance benefits. I was crashed when a driver made a right turn directly into my line of travel. I had 2 choices: hit the car broadside or lay the bike down. I chose #2. I was traveling approx 45mph when I put it down. I hit the ground hard and let the bike go. Bike slid into the car. I slid on the asphalt for about 100feet. Now here's where it is a good thing. I was wearing a very used Shoei Rf700, a First Gear Jacket I bought for $180, some old jeans, old boots and $50 gloves. The others drivers insurance paid me $800 for the gear!!! At most it was worth $300. The agent said that in their eyes it was a bargain to give me the brand new price of the gear since it probably saved them thousands in medical bills which by the way were nothing more than a quick visit to the ER and some x-rays thanks to my gear. Point is I walked away from the crash with only a sore shoulder and a skinned knee!!! My gear is what allowed me to do that without question and I made money!! I now have 3 Shoeis RF 800 helmets on my shelf. I choose which color I want to wear today but it's never a question of helmet or not. | ||
| Josh |
Well I've been down twice (high-side @ 30, low side @ 60) wore a helmet for the lowside (had *just* taken it off for the high-side) and didn't hit my head either time. Go figure. I do normally wear a helmet, but living in Il I love being able to ride up the street or over to the gas station sans helmet. Anyway, there have been a great many helmet threads over on the Sportster mailing list. We had a guy (Tok/Tokala) last year in the medical field arguing strongly against the use of helmets. The crux of his argument: Fatalities from head injuries are caused by a swelling of the brain. If you're wearing a helmet, the brain swells against your intact skull, is crushed and you die. Thus you should not wear a helmet beause upon impact your skull would crack, giving the brain room to expand, thus saving your life. I'll see if I kept some of his posts, they seemed to be fairly thought-out, sort of. Tragically, he died in his line of work (some kind of medical technicial) after being attacked by a patient. You can review his arguments here search for Tok or Tokala in the 01 archives. Josh | ||
| Henrik |
Brain swelling "cured" by skull fracture?? Woooaahh Nellie. That's probably as far out as I've ever heard - waaaaaaay off base, trust me. Henrik | ||
| Anonymous |
Buelliedan, I know what insurance company that wasn't. Guaranteed if it was the one I'm dealing with you wouldn't have gotten squat for the used gear. Posted anon to protect my litigation. | ||
| Buelliedan |
Insurance company was Progressive and I only asked for a fair price for the bike and my gear plus a very small compensation for my pain. Kept lawyers out of it which I'm sure is why they were nicer to me. | ||
| Blake |
Josh: I actually took a minute to find the "Tokala" helmet threads you mentioned. Sure, they are "fairly thought-out", they are also complete bullshit. Let me get this straight. According to Tokala, in a blunt impact scenario it's better to be helmetless so that your skull can crack thus allowing your brain to expand and avoid life threatening cranial compression?!!! BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!! I know physics. Physics is a friend of mine. Tokala's theory is not like any physics that I know. Simply put, a proper helmet SIGNIFICANTLY reduces the forces your brain must endure in ANY serious impact scenario thus GREATLY reducing the risk of life threatening injury to your brain; a helmet also greatly reduces the risk of a crushed skull. In a blunt impact scenario, a helmet is to your brain like an airbag is to a stunt man jumping off a 30 story building. If you really want the honest physics on this subject, I'd be happy to oblige.  Remember the old W=F*D (work = force x distance) equation? Re-arrange that to solve for force (F). You get F=W/D. With W a constant, the force (F) is simply inversely proportional to the distance (D). That simply means that as distance for deceleration increases, the force decreases. Well, it just so happens that the amount of work required to bring your brain to rest from a set velocity is a constant. If your brain is made (like in an impact without a helmet) to come to rest instantaneously over a negligible distance, the force it is subjected to can be massive scary. If on the other hand some cushioning (like that provided by a proper helmet) allows the brain to decelerate over even a short distance, like 3/4", the force is SIGNIFICANTLY reduced. You can easily kill a human by beating one about the head with a baseball bat. That is not true if the human is wearing a protective helmet. Football players also know this, as do baseball players, hockey players, and a slew of other head gear toting humans. The question is simply not debatable on any serious level. | ||
| Newfie_Buell |
Is the brain swelling thing anything like using gasoline to put out a fire. Actually I have a story to relate to that one. A few years ago there was a guy who flipped a three wheeler over and smacked his head on the ground. Apparently he had a terrible headache, was checked by the er and released. Hours later he was rushed to the er once again with more pain and other problems. While on his way to the operating room in the elevator he died. The cause was that there was bleeding between the skull and brain and the pressure was trying to push the brain out the bottom of his skull. It was established that had he been wearing a helmet he would still be alive today. Helmets save lives in most accidents. There are always exceptions but I firmly believe in helmets for bikes and seatbelts for cars (another topic). | ||
| Oldman |
look at what mikey is like after taking all those punches to the head after all these years. |
