Helmet Laws

In 2004, my cousin and I were riding to Murfreesboro, TN. It was early April, and about 30 degrees that morning. I had on my leathers and my fullface helmet. At mile-marker 138 on interstate 77 south, a young lady from New Jersey decided to flip her car in front of me. Before it was all said and done, I flew about 25 feet through the air, at a height of 6 to 8 feet, and landed on my butt. The force of the landing broke my boot heal off and caused the back of my head to slam into the concrete. If I would have had the little egg shell helmet on that I normally wore, I wouldn't be writting this today. This little incident change the way I looked at wearing helmets.

Until my 2004 trip I wore a little eggshell half helmet, or none at all. An eggshell is nothing more that a piece of plastic with about a 1/4 inch of padding. Just enough to satisfy law enforcement. Mine had all the cool stickers on it; "bite me", I'm wearing this helmet under protest", "if you can read this sticker, my female passenger fell off" (how's that for political correcness), you all know the ones.

Now, I wear a carbon fiber half helmet (I ordered mine from carbonfiberhelmet.com). It doesn't weight much more than my eggshell, but it is DOT approved. People have all kinds of options as far as choices of helmets. Half helmets, 3/4 hemets, and fullface helmets. Helmets are being made out of new materials that make them a lot lighter than they use to be. Ther eis also new venting designs that help keep you cool. Some friends of mine just purchased new 3/4 helmets with a new venting system, and really enjoy them. You can view a large variety of helmets at a site like harleydavidson.com.

After saying all of this, I still belive the choice to wear a helmet, or not, should be the the motorclcle drivers and the passengers. I do belive there should be laws governing minors' use of helmets.

Motorcycles and Friends

I guess unless you ride you wouldn't understand what it's like to have a couple of your family on the bench (not able to ride). We have a couple of guys ailing right now and it doesn't feel good. "Wild Bill" and "Brother Stu". We missed you guys, Sandra C and Sis, on the Kentucky/ Tennessee ride. Whoever said "Gettin' old ain't for sissies" hit it on the head. You guys get well and get back in the saddle. We miss ya.

Cruisin Kentucky and Tennesse

On Memorial Day weekend, my wife and I joined and three other couples to take a motorcycle ride to Lexington, Kentucky, then to Bowling Green, Kentucky. The third day we ended up in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, and on the fourth day we landed in Bristol, Virginia.

The ride down Rt. 68 in Kentucky was absolutely fascinating. I would recommend it to anyone, scooter (motorcycle) or a car. The route was planned by this trips’ Road Captain, B-O-B (that’s B-O-B spelled backwards). No one really knows how hard it is to be a road captain until you have experienced it, but that’s a story for another day. It was B-O-B’s first try, but he did a fabulous job, except the four and a half hours in Meigs County, but again, that’s for another day. If you ever want to see how the other half lives, ride through Kentucky horse country. You will find absolutely spectacular farms, surrounded by stone walls with gated entries. These went on for miles. The morning we were getting ready to leave Lexington, we talked to a gentleman (a fellow Harley driver) that got to tour one of the farms. He said he was told that stud fee at these farms were anywhere from 10,000 to 90,000 dollars a shot, so to speak. I guess I got into the wrong occupation. I guess I should have started breeding horses when I was young. Let me rephrase that, I guess I should have been a horse breeder. I guess to make absolutely sure there are no misunderstandings, I should say I wish I would have owned one of the horses involved in the process. All kidding aside it was something to see.

After we left Lexington, we turned left on rt. 60. We stopped and saw Martin Castle, and, yes we were still in Kentucky. Well worth the stop (for more info, www.dupontcastle.com).

After that stop we continued on to the Corvette Museum (corvettemuseum.com) in Bowling Green. Two of the guys have Vettes and Harleys; I still say I’m in the wrong business. After leaving there we stayed the night in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. Since we were short on time, we had to come back Interstate 40, 81 then 77. Coming through Knoxville on I-40 was a treat. Rain nearly drowned us coming through Charleston, WV. It rained so hard that our road captain had to pull over because his contacts were being washed out. We turned on our flashers and continued home safely. By the way thanks to the guy in the SUV who followed us, turned his flashers on and kept the wolves off our backs (had to be another scooter driver). Next week let’s talk about helmet laws. Yaahhoo!