When I first started riding motorcycles back in New York, there was no helmet law requirement. When the helmet law went into effect in New York virtually all motorcycle riders hated it! personally, for me having driven motorcycles without a helmet and now with the helmet, there is just no comparison with the freedom that you feel without a helmet.
Best motorcycle helmets
Now that I’m much older and back into riding custom bikes, perhaps I have become much more conservative and now really wouldn’t ride my bike without a helmet. Looking at the statistics there is no doubt that riding with a helmet can save your life! But, should the State mandate that every motorcycle rider must wear a helmet or should it be left up to the individual rider to the side on their own?
It’s my personal opinion that the helmet issue should be one that the motorcycle rider decides on their own and not mandated by the State. Naturally, this is a very controversial topic, and one where I don’t think there is a definitive right or wrong conclusion. Well, perhaps I should modify that, and say that if you believe in individual freedom, and the right for an individual to make their own lifestyle choices, safety equipment on a motorcycle should not be mandated by the State.
On the other side of the coin is the fact that society pays a large cost by what might be unnecessary motorcycle fatalities of our young people, also, there is a tremendous cost for the riders that do survive a serious head injury but are then permanently disabled.
Riding my motorcycle here in California where there is a mandatory helmet law, I now have three different style helmets that I use depending first, on the temperature and then on the length of the ride. There is hardly a ride that I go out on that I don’t see car drivers talking or texting on their phones. So, compared to when I started riding motorcycles I think the sport is much more dangerous now than it was 30 or 40 years ago. Like I said before, I’m also much older now and perhaps it’s this reason alone that I personally wouldn’t ride my bike without a helmet even in a helmet free state such as Arizona.
