Do You Ever Ride Without A Helmet

[transam]

I recall in my 1960's mod scooter days, a pack of us pulled away and a guy fell off the back of a Vespa, only doing about 10 mph, dead. Cracked his head. None of us wore crash hats them days.

[Kwasaki]

I recall in my 1960's mod scooter days, a pack of us pulled away and a guy fell off the back of a Vespa, only doing about 10 mph, dead. Cracked his head. None of us wore crash hats them days.

The " I bet you won't again " bit in the title, doesn't go for much in Thailand, although it's law I still like to be able to choose, because whether I wear a helmet or not was the way it was like for me when I was younger before they started bringing in all the extra laws.

Us greasers use to wear our bash hats even though it wasn't law then, we used them for nutting police ( muu's ) and you mods when we got into the street fights of those days.

A lot of lads today have been brought up with vehicle laws and have no choice, my son when he visits like that freedom and enjoys riding around village without a helmet but seems to just pick up the helmet out of habit when he ventures out further afield.

Edited March 30, 2012 by Kwasaki

[transam]

I recall in my 1960's mod scooter days, a pack of us pulled away and a guy fell off the back of a Vespa, only doing about 10 mph, dead. Cracked his head. None of us wore crash hats them days.

The " I bet you won't again " bit in the title, doesn't go for much in Thailand, although it's law I still like to be able to choose, because whether I wear a helmet or not was the way it was like for me when I was younger before they started bringing in all the extra laws.

Us greasers use to wear our bash hats even though it wasn't law then, we used them for nutting police ( muu's ) and you mods when we got into the street fights of those days.

A lot of lads today have been brought up with vehicle laws and have no choice, my son when he visits like that freedom and enjoys riding around village without a helmet but seems to just pick up the helmet out of habit when he ventures out further afield.

Were you at Margate or Hastings. ?

[Kwasaki]

I recall in my 1960's mod scooter days, a pack of us pulled away and a guy fell off the back of a Vespa, only doing about 10 mph, dead. Cracked his head. None of us wore crash hats them days.

The " I bet you won't again " bit in the title, doesn't go for much in Thailand, although it's law I still like to be able to choose, because whether I wear a helmet or not was the way it was like for me when I was younger before they started bringing in all the extra laws.

Us greasers use to wear our bash hats even though it wasn't law then, we used them for nutting police ( muu's ) and you mods when we got into the street fights of those days.

A lot of lads today have been brought up with vehicle laws and have no choice, my son when he visits like that freedom and enjoys riding around village without a helmet but seems to just pick up the helmet out of habit when he ventures out further afield.

Were you at Margate or Hastings. ?

Yep afraid so with my full face helmet on and my spare motorcycle chain the greatest 2 day battle ever. my mum said I was a naughty boy for going.

The topic title " Do you ever ride without helmet " would be changed to

" Never go into battle without your helmet on " Oh !! the good old days.

One of my mate's borrowed my business suit to go to court.

Edited March 30, 2012 by Kwasaki

[cowslip]

I recall in my 1960's mod scooter days, a pack of us pulled away and a guy fell off the back of a Vespa, only doing about 10 mph, dead. Cracked his head. None of us wore crash hats them days.

The " I bet you won't again " bit in the title, doesn't go for much in Thailand, although it's law I still like to be able to choose, because whether I wear a helmet or not was the way it was like for me when I was younger before they started bringing in all the extra laws.

Us greasers use to wear our bash hats even though it wasn't law then, we used them for nutting police ( muu's ) and you mods when we got into the street fights of those days.

A lot of lads today have been brought up with vehicle laws and have no choice, my son when he visits like that freedom and enjoys riding around village without a helmet but seems to just pick up the helmet out of habit when he ventures out further afield.

Were you at Margate or Hastings. ?

Yep afraid so with my full face helmet on and my spare motorcycle chain the greatest 2 day battle ever. my mum said I was a naughty boy for going.

The topic title " Do you ever ride without helmet " would be changed to

" Never go into battle without your helmet on " Oh !! the good old days.

One of my mate's borrowed my business suit to go to court.

Full- face helmet in Margate in the early 60s? - doubt it.

[transam]

Hmmmmmmm, yes kwaks, it was skid lids or skid lids with ear thingies back then. Could have been a full face paper bag.

[smedly]

I rekon total recall is a problem with some old folk here, it's way beyond my generation lol

but you all should have been holding a helmet, oh the good old days, now it's petrol bombs pipe bombs knives guns and any other accesory that will likely kill someone, a lot of you heros would probably be dead if you were born 30 years later..........lucky you

Edited March 31, 2012 by smedly

[transam]

I rekon total recall is a problem with some old folk here, it's way beyond my generation lol

but you all should have been holding a helmet, oh the good old days, now it's petrol bombs pipe bombs knives guns and any other accesory that will likely kill someone, a lot of you heros would probably be dead if you were born 30 years later..........lucky you

What on earth are you on about Dave ?

[IanForbes]

As I already mentioned here, two of my ex girl friends died in simple slow speed accidents in Chiang Mai. They were not wearing their helmets because it messed up their hair. They banged their head on the pavement and went to the hospital for simple lacerations. I was talking to them in the hospital the evening after their fall and they were complaing about a head ache. Six hours later they were dead due to bleeding on the brain. They were both in separate accidents.

[Kwasaki]

Yep afraid so with my full face helmet on and my spare motorcycle chain the greatest 2 day battle ever. my mum said I was a naughty boy for going.

The topic title " Do you ever ride without helmet " would be changed to

" Never go into battle without your helmet on " Oh !! the good old days.

One of my mate's borrowed my business suit to go to court.

Full- face helmet in Margate in the early 60s? - doubt it.

Hmmmmmmm, yes kwaks, it was skid lids or skid lids with ear thingies back then. Could have been a full face paper bag.

I rekon total recall is a problem with some old folk here, it's way beyond my generation lol

but you all should have been holding a helmet, oh the good old days, now it's petrol bombs pipe bombs knives guns and any other accesory that will likely kill someone, a lot of you heros would probably be dead if you were born 30 years later..........lucky you

" Full- face helmet in Margate in the early 60s? - doubt it. " well that shows you what you know and maybe young or not a biker.

" Hmmmmmmm, yes kwaks, it was skid lids ". I would thought you would of known but you were a mod.

" Ex - Muu " In the words of Judge Dredd ' I knew you were going to say that ' and it would be something silly, ignorants is bliss I guess.

OK have a read you lot. next post.

Edited April 1, 2012 by Kwasaki

[Kwasaki]

I don't like long posts but for non- believers.

Ever wondered why your helmet looks the way it does? Or who developed the first bike lid? Or why they developed it. Here’s your crash course in helmet history

Aside from your bike, there is another piece of kit that’s central to the entire culture of riding. Its technology has developed almost as fast as motorcycles themselves and, as with bikes, the type you choose – according to your individual need to balance appearance and practicality – is key to the type of rider you are. We’re talking about helmets, of course. The year 2011 marks two key anniversaries for the humble lid: 70 years ago, in 1941, the first regulations forcing riders to wear helmets was introduced and, 50 years ago, in 1961, the world’s first blanket helmet law came into force – in Australia, of all places,

But back in 1941, in the midst of the Blitz, one group of British road riders was forced to wear helmets – perhaps surprising in a time when death was commonplace, more so when you consider that the riders affected were military dispatch riders. And stranger still, it was the story of a hero of a previous war that directly led not only to the introduction of mandatory, purpose-designed bike helmets for dispatch riders but ultimately to the development of the helmets we all wear today.

Lawrence of ‘Araibia’ T.E. Lawrence was the man whose death sparked the first serious research into bike helmet design and effectiveness

He may be known for his WW1 heroics but when he crashed his Brough Superior SS100, in 1935, dying five days later from the fractured skull he received, he unknowingly did something that affected far more people, ultimately saving thousands of lives. He sparked an interest in bike crash helmets.

Of course, he wasn’t wearing one. After all, he was riding on the road and, back then, helmets were as track-oriented as tyre warmers are today. If you were racing, you might have worn one, but if you weren’t, then any motorcycle headgear you owned would be concerned purely with keeping your ears warm. The neurosurgeon who treated Lawrence, Hugh Cairns later to become Sir Hugh Cairns became obsessed with helmets, having realised that Lawrence, who was otherwise uninjured, could easily have survived the accident if he’d been wearing one. Cairn’s research led directly to the development of helmets specifically for motorcycling.

Previous lids used by racers had often been modified jockeys’ helmets or even leather American football lids.leading to the first laws enforcing their use.

From cork to carbon fibre development of the helmet back in 1941, if you were an army dispatch rider issued with one of the now, mandatory motorcycle helmets, you’d have received one of two designs: a cork-shelled lid or a rubber one. These days, if you were asked to ride in something so primitive, you’d think you were taking your life in your hands, but even these were remarkably successful, cutting deaths by around one third. Modern studies on helmet use to show a similar effect on fatalities, so those old cork and rubber lids must have worked better than they looked. And they looked bad. It’s not surprising riders had to be forced to wear them, as having one of the hemispherical domes perched on top of your head had all the sartorial elegance of Humpty Dumpty.

It was not good at all if you were an aspiring rocker or Hell’s Angel in the postwar period when biking started to become a lifestyle rather than a way of getting to the shops.

While the Brits had the lead when it came to developing purpose made bike lids, you have to turn to America to find the roots of modern helmets of the type we know today; part safety clothing, part fashion statement. In particular, one helmet is responsible; the Bell 500.

Fantastic plastic, developed by Roy Richter, owner of Bell Auto Parts then just a tuning shop in Bell, California. The model 500 took several firsts when it appeared in 1954. It ditched the pudding-bowl shape by adding sides that covered the rider’s ears and wrapping around the back of the head. The complex new shape was possible thanks to the new wonder material of the age of fibreglass. Just three years later, in 1957, the transformation from cork pudding bowl to modern lid was completed when Bell added an expanded polystyrene inner layer to absorb impacts, replacing the earlier rubber lining, renaming the helmet 500-TX.

Back then, there was no distinction between car and motorcycle helmets – the Bell 500 was named after the Indianapolis 500 car race, but was also aimed at motorcyclists. The same basic design is still in Bell’s range today, now very much a motorcycle helmet, and the shape has been copied by virtually every open-face helmet made since the late-Fifties.

In fact, the shaped fibreglass construction and expanded polystyrene lining of the 500 were all derived from a design by Californian firm Protection Inc. which built ultra expensive helmets – at $200 each, they cost a month’s average salary at the time for US jet test pilots in the late forties and early fifties. Ever since, that shape of open-face helmet has been known as a “jet” helmet.

Given that racers have, to everyday riders, always been heroes who, virtually from day one, decorated their helmets with unique paint-schemes, production race-replica lids were a surprisingly late arrival on the helmet scene.

While the lids of Giacomo Agostini and Phil Read were legendary, and even now replicas of their designs can be bought off the shelf, in these riders’ heyday, the idea of producing helmets that mirrored their paint-jobs never arose. Indeed, it wasn’t until the eighties that race-reps became available.

The earliest was Arai’s Freddie Spencer replica. The first 500cc world champion to have worn an Arai, his simple white, red and blue design was on sale in 1982, along with Wes Cooley and Dale Singleton replicas. AGV quickly followed suit with a Kenny Roberts replica in 1985, and then the floodgates opened, with endless replicas, limited editions and tributes from virtually every helmet firm that had a rider competing in their kit. Unsurprisingly, Valentino Rossi can add the record for the most replica helmets to his list of other achievements. AGV released its first Rossi rep when he was still a 125-riding teenager without a single title to his name in 1996. The number of variations on the theme since then is now well above 30, and if you shop around now, you’ll find as many as 13 different Rossi designs currently on sale.in the full-face helmet

Given that riders appreciated the need for eye protection as soon as bikes started going much above walking pace, it’s surprising that it took until 1967 before the idea of building a visor into a helmet became a reality. Once again, it was Bell that provided the innovation, although the firm’s first attempt wasn’t quite the success that the 500 had been. While the firm’s new “full-face” helmet, the Star, which took a full five years to develop, looked pretty much like the helmet’s we’re used to today, complete with a chin bar and curved visor, it had a glaring error in its design: the visor didn’t open.

Since air vents were still far in the future, misting was something of an issue, not to mention the claustrophobic feeling of a diving helmet and the fact that, should the visor get scratched, you’d have to call in an expert to get it replaced. It was quickly replaced by a visor held on by poppers along the brow, rather like a motocross lid’s peak, but it took until the seventies for the idea of a flip-up visor to be incorporated into the design. In 1971, Bell released a motorcycle-specific version of the Star, the Star 120, with a wider visor, and expanded on the idea to launch the world’s first full-face motocross helmet. Following on from the tradition of calling open-face lids “jet” helmets, these new full-face designs were sometimes referred to as “astronaut” helmets. While American F1 driver Dan Gurney is often credited as the first racer to wear a full-face helmet, at the time he said the idea was tried fi rst by dirt-track riders.

From the original Bell Star idea, a gradual series of improvements – better visor seals, air vents, quick-change visors, the introduction of composites, Kevlar and carbon fibre – saw the final evolution towards the helmet as we know it today. The concept was sound.

Once it was established that helmets were an effective way of preventing injuries, it was only a matter of time before tests would be introduced to establish just how effective they could be. Much of the credit for the first organised helmet testing is often wrongly placed with the Snell Memorial Foundation, in the USA. Snell was established after the death of car racer Pete Snell, who died of head injuries after his untested helmet shattered in an accident in 1956. By 1957, the Snell Foundation had introduced a set of tests to check the suitability of helmets for car racing, car crashes and repeated impacts on racecar roll-bars.

The Snell stories overlook the fact that the British were already a step ahead. The truth is that the British Standards Institution, BSI, had established its first Kitemark testing for motorcycle helmets several years earlier, in 1953, even though it would be a full 20 years before the Kitemark became a legal requirement on UK roads.

Military motorcyclists in the UK may have been forced by law to wear helmets as long ago as 1941, as a result of Hugh Cairn’s research, but it would be more than 30 years before any regulations were introduced to enforce helmet-wearing for civilian road riders

In fact, given that Britain was the market leader in helmet design and technology during the thirties, forties and early fifties, with a thriving helmet industry and having pioneered the use of helmets for racing, they were surprisingly slow when it came to bringing in a helmet law. It wasn’t until 1973 that road riders throughout the land were forced to wear helmets, by which time several other countries had already introduced similar legislation. The first, Australia, did so more than a decade earlier, on January 1, 1961. Even so, despite the fact Britain was only coming into line with other countries and despite the irrefutable evidence that helmets had a massive positive effect when it came to reducing deaths and injuries, there was still a huge backlash, leading to the formation of the Motorcycle Action Group (MAG) to fight against the new law.

It also led to one of the strangest protests in motorcycle history the oneman crusade against helmet use by Yorkshireman Fred Hill.

Hill had been a dispatch rider in WW2, and was therefore among the first group of riders forced to wear a helmet.

Oddly, it wasn’t until 1976, three years after helmets became compulsory for all riders, that he rebelled, refusing to wear a lid or to pay the resulting fines. He was imprisoned 31 times, usually for contempt of court after failing to pay fines rather than for the original helmet offences.

Eventually dying in prison in 1984. Hill had gained many fans, not least writer Auberon Waugh, a British author and journalist perhaps not unsurprising, given Waugh also disliked drink-driving laws his efforts, and those of the BMF, have never come close to defeating helmet legislation in the UK.

Edited April 1, 2012 by Kwasaki

[IanForbes]

Thanks for the long, but interesting read on the history of helmets, Kwasaki.

[Kwasaki]

Full- face helmet in Margate in the early 60s? - doubt it.

Apologies !! Your right just got an email back from the ex-Mrs, she remembered it wasn't full-faced with a chin piece but what are called open face, it wasn't till later I had one.

[transam]

Full- face helmet in Margate in the early 60s? - doubt it.

Apologies !! Your right just got an email back from the ex-Mrs, she remembered it wasn't full-faced with a chin piece but what are called open face, it wasn't till later I had one.

It was you eh.

I still have the scar.

[Kwasaki]

Full- face helmet in Margate in the early 60s? - doubt it.

Apologies !! Your right just got an email back from the ex-Mrs, she remembered it wasn't full-faced with a chin piece but what are called open face, it wasn't till later I had one.

It was you eh.

I still have the scar.

Apparently I wouldn't remember so dunno.

I did try on one similar to that once, deep sea diving helmet unless I'm wrong again, bloody heavy but with the bikes acceleration of today would probably snap your neck.

Edited April 1, 2012 by Kwasaki

[Fishenough]

http://youtu.be/Aq2Lqcf0hrc

[wana]

is this thread still going ?

[Kwasaki]

is this thread still going ?

Looks like it but I have forgotten did you say whether rode without a Helmet.

[wana]

is this thread still going ?

Looks like it but I have forgotten did you say whether rode without a Helmet.

is this thread still going ?

Looks like it but I have forgotten did you say whether rode without a Helmet.

tis important to keep the ones helmet well polished

[skybluestu]

From an accident on Ko Chang last night (from facebook) and another reminder why a helmet should always be worn.

Edited July 9, 2012 by Rimmer
Unnecessarily graphic image

[snowflake]

To not wear a helmet is quite silly- I have been stupid many times, but on a motorcycle I always use a helmet... I have seen the pictures, I have seen the real damage... To persist on not wearing a helmet just because it is your own head is just dumb!

Ok, so you kill yourself, big deal? No, not really, you are after all dead, but what about children, friends, co-workers, and girlfriend(s)... What about them? Very selfish to not wear a helmet...

[Captain Haddock]

Snowflake, while you may wear a helmet on your pocket rockets, you have often been known to go lidless on many an occasion. Out of the towns a lot of us do it, if only because it gives us the freedom we cannot have in our own countries. (Plus you'd bloody freeze your ears off in your native country!)

[Captain Haddock]

I remember going to a Fred Hill demo with MAG to Oxford, and we all had the choice to ride lidless passed the cops as they were there just to marshall the route. It was quite funky at the time...

[flying]

Guilty as charged & no excuse for it except.............Dang it is soooo hot some days.

I have ridden all my life since I was 15

Raced for decades

Know all the good/valid reasons to wear one.

But I have to admit a couple of times on the scooter if I am on my way home & know

it will be cop-less areas & if it is a scorcher I have put the lid under the seat.

To that end.......Suggestions for the best ventilated helmets available here?

I am currently using a Bilmola Advantage & it is a nice lid but...the vents are too small IMO

Suggestions ?

Edited July 9, 2012 by flying

[snowflake]

As said I have been stupid on many occations, but for the las few years I have almost always worn a helmet...in town and out of town... I just feel more comfortable with it...

That said- the wind in your hair is a good feeling, but we have to grow up sometimes...

Sent from my GT-S5660 using Thaivisa Connect App

[cowslip]

"the freedom" - to end up in hospital or dead - leaving loved ones to fend for themselves, insurance companies to pay the fees and then up their premiums to the rest of us, leaving the healthcare system to do work they wouldn't have needed to do if you'd been wearing a hat......just so you could enjoy the wind in your hair?

that's not freedom, that's irresponsibility.

[soundman]

Derogatory post removed from view.

[MLSviews]

My beautiful wife and her 20+ yr old daughters and her beloved 3 year old grandson go riding their scooters without wearing helmets - I bought one for each of them - in Soi Rewadee which is full of uncoordinated drivers, pedestrians etc, not to mention the condition of the road. They feel immortal - what a shame. I have seen the result of many helmet-less crashes and believe me most Thais would probably retch if they saw them - but hey, you have only one head (unless your name is Medusa), but you can have many helmets. Why are the police so impotent at enforcing the laws about helmets?

Edited March 14, 2013 by MLSviews

[wantan]

My beautiful wife and her 20+ yr old daughters and her beloved 3 year old grandson go riding their scooters without wearing helmets - I bought one for each of them - in Soi Rewadee which is full of uncoordinated drivers, pedestrians etc, not to mention the condition of the road. They feel immortal - what a shame. I have seen the result of many helmet-less crashes and believe me most Thais would probably retch if they saw them - but hey, you have only one head (unless your name is Medusa), but you can have many helmets. Why are the police so impotent at enforcing the laws about helmets?

The problem is that the policeman themself don't like helmets. Imo its a problem deeply rooted in thai culture and thinking. The fear of death is less. The fear of losing face when wearing a helmet is high. Others could think "Look, this guy fears having an accident". Than of course its the heat. And laziness. And for women its "their hair"

I am very happy that my wife now got a basic understanding for the need of wearing a helmet. She often also puts on leather gloves and jean jacket on her scooter. So don't give up trying to teach them in this. And always wear a helmet yourself to be a good teacher

[jayci]

Do you need a helmet for a bicycle or electric bicycle?