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http://www.cleanmpg.com/photos/data/2/AmericanFlag.jpg An assessment of motorcycle safety awareness in the US, among the worst in the world. (motorcycle.com/rider-safety/the-american-culture-of-motorcycle-safety-88716.html)

http://www.cleanmpg.com/photos/data/500/MtWashingtonBikes2.jpgJeff Cobb - Motorcycle (motorcycle.com) - Aug. 31, 2009

Have fun but by all means please ride safely! -- Ed.

It’s ironic that while our machines are practically one step removed from Star Wars technology, the culture surrounding their use is one step removed from the Wild West.

The American approach to safety for motorcyclists and scooterists – that is, our attitudes and practices – is essentially a world of anything goes; each person must choose amidst a culture fraught with mixed messages and conflicting agendas.

When I asked Andrea Nalesso, sales marketing manager for Dainese, which country has the least regard for motorcycle safety, he said it’s “very much the U.S., which is the worst among the countries that I know.” In the phone interview, which took place from Indianapolis a year ago, he added, “The United States is the country with the least awareness about safety.” ... http://www.motorcycle.com/rider-safety/the-american-culture-of-motorcycle-safety-88716.html

It's a shame so many motorcyclists die needlessly because they choose to be "free" of helmets. I rode >100,000 miles with full gear.

I attended the Finger Lakes BMW Motorcycle Rally this past Saturday. One new trend among BMW riders is an increased use of hi-viz yellow jackets. I've got one myself, in the new BMW Airshell mesh jacket with hi-viz yellow.

I cringed when I drove out to Olathe, KS late last March, and saw more unhelmeted riders than helmeted ones.

It's too bad we just don't have a national law, like England and Germany, to take care of the helmet issue and stricter licensing. Riding is plenty risky enough without making it into an exercise in machismo daring...

Harry

PS: I took the pic at the top of Mt. Washington in New Hampshire a few years back. They had a "motorcycle day on Mt. Washington" to go with Laconia Bike Week, and had an uncharacteristic beautiful clear, calm day on the mountain.

Beautiful pic Harry!
A friend and I were talking about the number of people in Southern Illinois that are obviously inexperienced. We see a lot riding side by side and others on the right side of the road near the white line.
The lack of a helmet is viewed as a lack of something else though. It's the lack of a part of the body that is most likely to be damaged by the choice of not wearing a helmet.

I'll speak up for the other side:

From experience, helmets (3/4 and above, 1/2 helmets are near worthless) block some of my hearing. That blockage means I cannot hear oncoming cars as well, nor can I tell the subtleties of the road as well, making a crash more likely.

Similarly, having limited time, I can either quickly don jeans & sturdy shoes and actually get some riding time in, or suit up in full gear and ride 1/4 as often. Less experience= greater likelihood of crash.

For myself, my father, and other riders, these are choices we have to make. Its not recklessness or "the freedom of the road" vs "safety first", it is making an assessment of the likely risks, consequences, and benefits of the available choices along with our personal priorities and danger threshold.

These choices change day-to-day and over time. The key is to know the dangers, your abilities, your motorcycle, and ride accordingly.

<rant off>

An interesting statistic that I heard on the radio last week put a number to observations. It said that the number of new riders were up by 53% and fatalities were up by 52%. Of those that died, 80% were NOT wearing helmets.


You're right about it being a personal choice and it's totally up to the individual in Illinois.
I'm not interested in being a statistic so I choose to wear a helmet.

From experience, helmets (3/4 and above, 1/2 helmets are near worthless) block some of my hearing. That blockage means I cannot hear oncoming cars as well, nor can I tell the subtleties of the road as well, making a crash more likely.



Any time I travel at highway speeds on my motorcycle, I'm wearing a full-face helmet and ear plugs. The turbulent airflow around the lower edge of a helmet is loud and will cause hearing loss. I imagine the same is true for airflow past your ears without a helmet.

I realize that there is some loss of hearing with a helmet and ear plugs, but it's not a complete loss. You can still hear, and by screening out most of the wind roar, you can probably hear the more important things, like sirens, better. Besides protecting my head, I'm also eager to protect my hearing.

We've heard complaints here about hybrid cars being too quiet. On a motorcycle, at speed, cars are pretty much completely silent compared to wind noise, and all riders have to cope with that and pay more attention to situational awareness, of keeping track of other vehicles by use of mirrors and head-checks.

The day I ride without a helmet would probably be the day I hit a deer or diesel spilled on the road. No, thanks, I'm not willing to take that risk.

Harry

A friend and I were talking about the number of people in Southern Illinois that are obviously inexperienced. We see a lot riding side by side and others on the right side of the road near the white line.


Riding side-by-side is another practice that shows a complete lack of safety awareness. Bikers should always ride in staggered formation, to allow all of them to be able to move sideways if necessary. And as you pointed out, side-by-side riding results in one rider too close to the white edge line, risking running off the road, and the other too close to the yellow line, risking a head-on with oncoming traffic.

Harry

Riding side-by-side is another practice that shows a complete lack of safety awareness. Bikers should always ride in staggered formation, to allow all of them to be able to move sideways if necessary. And as you pointed out, side-by-side riding results in one rider too close to the white edge line, risking running off the road, and the other too close to the yellow line, risking a head-on with oncoming traffic.

Harry

A single rider riding to the right side of a lane has multiple safety issues to be concerned with:
a: A rider positioned to the right side blends in with the landscape on the side of the road.
b: A rider positioned to the right side has less room to move to avoid the unexpected such as deer(s) darting out onto the road and cars pulling out from ancillary roads that doesn't see the rider.

Lane position: I was taught to use whichever side of the lane I thought safest at that moment, and to avoid the center of the lane, which is more likely to be slippery due to fluid drips and debris. The left and right tire tracks are swept clean(er) by car and truck tires, so each lane has two "slots" for motorcycles. When riding alone, I'd generally be in the left "slot", but would switch to the right at times. Say a car is turning onto the roadway from my left to go in the same direction as me. I might switch to the right slot to give myself more room in case they don't see me, and also make myself more visible to them by the lateral motion of my headlight (plus I'd probably slow down too). In the left lane on interstates, I'd move to the right slot when coming up on traffic in the next lane, to make my headlight more visible in their left side mirror, and then switch to the left slot as I drew alongside to give myself a "buffer" in case they decided to change lanes at that moment. When cruising along in traffic on an interstate, the right slot of the left lane of an interstate enables you to switch to the next lane to the right much faster than if you were in the left slot of the left lane (IOW, you can't get "trapped" in the left lane). In some places, especially on secondary roads, switching to the right slot may enable you to see further down the road. Etc, etc.

+1 on riding in staggered formation when riding with others.

Hearing: I always rode with a full face helmet, and I suspect one can hear better with one on than without. I thought I could hear much better with earplugs in than when I forgot them. In modern cars with the windows rolled up and music on you can't hear other vehicles very well either, so you have to rely more on vision in that situation too.

Fabrics: My understanding is that denim disintegrates instantly when sliding on asphalt, and that the fragments of denim actually inhibit wound healing. In really hot weather there may be no other option, but I never had any illusion that jeans offered any real protection (even kevlar-reinforced jeans). Synthetics like cordura, ballistic nylon, and probably kevlar melt from the heat of friction during a slide, but may be a reasonable compromise at highway speeds. As long as one wears a cotton underlayer to prevent them from melting to the skin. Roadracers wear leather gear, which offers incredible protection (I have seen some amazing slides from very high speeds where the rider was completely protected) but is expensive and can be hot.

Time: For years I commuted by motorcycle daily, wearing helmet, jacket or riding suit, leather zip-on riding boots, and gauntlets. It probably took max 1-2 minutes to get ready to ride. Helmet took 10-15 seconds. Helps to keep everything in one place, preferably inside in a heated area if you're riding in cold weather. I cringe when I see people riding wearing shorts, t-shirts, sandals (!), or running shoes.

When I speak of the danger of the right side of the lane, it is the right side of the right lane that I am speaking.

I can attest to denim and riding/sliding on asphalt at 50 mph. I had an emergency room use a stiff bristled brush and some antiseptic that burned like gasoline in an open wound to scrub and pick bits of denim out of a couple of places on my legs. It was not pleasant.

I had a t shirt on and my arms did not fare well either. My arms were dressed like a mummy for several weeks.

Fabrics: My understanding is that denim disintegrates instantly when sliding on asphalt, and that the fragments of denim actually inhibit wound healing. In really hot weather there may be no other option, but I never had any illusion that jeans offered any real protection (even kevlar-reinforced jeans).

For hot weather, I've got a pair of BMW Innotex jeans, which are Kevlar jeans. I believe these jeans, being woven out a a mix including Kevlar, and having been designed and tested by BMW, will hold up in a slide, won't shred, and will offer substantial protection. At the BMW dealer there was a display showing samples of the fabric that were subjected to abrasion testing, and there were other fabrics, including denim, showing how the Innotex fabric greatly outperformed the other materials.

I've got two mesh jackets, both by BMW, which again I expect to resist coming apart in a slide situation. I've paid twice as much for the BMW gear as for some other gear because I trust their engineering and their assurances that the gear is suitable for the purpose, providing abrasion resistance for motorcyclists. BMW's latest mesh jacket, the Airshell, is a nice product, with a wind and rainproof removable liner. Without the liner, it is very comfortable in hot weather.

You won't ever see me at highway speeds without full coverage gear.

Harry

Racers wear leather. I wore leather. Before I wore leather, I looped a bike doing a wheelie, and landed on my butt wearing jeans. The pavement cut right through the jeans, and my leather wallet saved my skin.

When I went for a ride, I always had time to dress properly - full helmet, full leathers, high top boots, leather gloves, and a fluorescent orange jacket. I had a full compressor air horn on my 12V bikes, and a compressed air air horn on my 6V bikes.