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.
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