Total Motorcycle Community Forums

vito wrote:Some folks don't seem to understand what freedom means. It means being free to do what you want unless it keeps others from exercising their freedom, and only in the most extreme cases should freedom be limited by the "common good". And let's not start with the "a helmetless rider could cause my taxes to increase to pay his health care costs" business, since that justification could be used to force people to not do, or do, almost anything imaginable. The self-righteous rider who pats himself on the back for his ATGATT attitude seems to forget that non-riders might feel very comfortable saying there is no such thing as a safe motorcycle, and want them all banned. Maybe Canadians are happy with living in a nanny state, but I value the freedoms that I still possess here in the USA. Most of the time I wear a helmet, but I resent anyone, including our "wise" public officials, telling me that I have to do it. We are already forced to wear auto seatbelts for our own good, I guess, and in so many other areas we are moving further from being citizens to being subjects. At least we still have the 2nd Amendment, at least for how.

I don't think the issue most people have with someone NOT wearing protective gear is taking away your choice or freedom to choose as much as the burden it puts on society in the event of an accident. And yes, I read your statement about not going here, but my point isn't that you should have that choice taken away (same with the seat belt law)...I think that you should have the freedom to make that decision, but the insurance companies should have the right to not cover you if you are not wearing approved gear, or in the case of a car not wearing a seat belt. I'm talking health care provider here, not vehicle coverage. Of course up here in Canada that can't happen with our style of health care, hence the protection laws...you can't fix stupid but they are trying hard to protect us from it (ourselves)...

I agree with Islesfan91

I also wasn't impressed that they continue to draft new regulations for motorcyclists while failing to enforce the ones they already have for cars. How about a month long crackdown on people who change lanes without signalling? What about the people driving to work while reading the paper, putting on makeup, or eating breakfast? All of these things are doubly dangerous to the riders on the road who aren't sitting inside a giant SUV for protection?

I've said it a few times on other forums...they should make it harder to get a license through tougher testing and higher cost, so that people are forced to actually become a good driver before being cut loose on the roads. The system we have now is pretty much a joke...how many people got their license by just taking the test over and over and over until they got through...that's wrong and it should be manditory driver's training and graduated licensing...and my god, crack down on the distracted drivers...I find it easier to count drivers that aren't texting or on their phone...I've even seen guys using their laptop while driving, and not in a traffic jam...driving down the hiway...

Later.

I'd love to see a crackdown on cell phone use in cars. Those are the drivers that are hardest to predict, because they don't have their minds on the road.

People have the freedom to reproduce, in most places. Everyone gets to pay for that. Whether it's insurance premiums, levies, taxes, ect. No qualifications, licenses, endorsements, standards, ect. Don't see anyone sniveling about that.

MmeMagpie wrote:I'd love to see a crackdown on cell phone use in cars. Those are the drivers that are hardest to predict, because they don't have their minds on the road.

Police in the Greater Vancouver area sit on the side of the road and do seat belt, cell phone and HVO lane checks... Snarls up traffic like dodo...

Please note....the new law isn't requiring full face helmets....

It is requiring a proper helmet..be it a half helmet or 3/4 helmet....

It is banning beanie and novelty helmets. Beanie and novelty helmets don't have any impact protection in them...at least a half helmet has that.

+1 blues

I'm still a new rider and just over 3100km on the bike now. I know there is a ton of information I don't yet know and expect to learn as long as I'm riding, but I still don't understand the choice to wear anything other than a full face helmet. In a crash, I want to keep my chin, and my face. I can't afford to be uglier!

Just this weekend I rode to Hope and back, the amount of bug that impacted my visor along with a couple of small rocks had me shaking my head. I have no interest in having either bugs nor rocks hit me in the face at highway speeds. So I guess I just don't understand the reason to wear anything less. That being said, it's my choice to wear a full face and if someone else doesn't want to, I guess that's their choice.

I still believe our government is focusing on the wrong issues. There needs to be a serious crack down on cars, rather the drivers of them that tailgate aggressively, change lanes without looking or signalling, text and talk on the phone and excessively speed. I have yet to have a day on the road either in the car or on the bike where I have not encountered several of these people, and my commute to work is 10-15 minutes max. That's a staggering number of crappy drivers who will cause accidents.

Despite being behind three other cars this morning who were doing the speed limit, the truck behind me continued to tailgate the crap out of me, could easily see I had nowhere to go, no way I could go any faster and there was nowhere to pass. So, why? Dropping back for a few seconds then revving up on my "O Ring" isn't going to change the driving of the people in front of me, so why do it?

Apparently cops in Vancouver are pulling over random motorcyclists to confirm they have a class 6 license, yet we don't have a focus on eliminating tailgating? I haven't had a ticket since I was 19, almost 20 years, but I've already had several situations where I had to speed to get away from a potentially dangerous driver. I slow down and let them pass where I can, but I'm not going to put myself in the middle of a pack of cars to do that, so I'll quickly twist and separate to make space for myself, yet if this is seen, I'm going to be the one who's pulled over.

There needs to be a serious crackdown on aggressive driving and tailgating in order to make the roads safer for everyone. It's not going to matter if I'm wearing a beanie or a full face if the jackass in the pickup truck runs me over from behind. How about we take care of that problem before targetting the motorcyclists?

Here's a little background on the choice to wear helmets other than the full-face variety.

The motorcross helmet I wore when I was riding my dirtbike had a chin bar. I wear corrective lenses, and the weight of the chin bar hanging off the front of my face had a tendency to drag my glasses down onto the bridge of my nose and impede my proper vision. This wasn't so much of an issue out riding in the dirt, since there were no road signs to read or traffic lights to watch, but in the days when I first started riding street I wore that motorcross helmet and found it to be a huge issue. I would try to get caught at red lights so I could fix my glasses, and was constantly taking a hand off the bars to pull up on the front of my helmet.

My particular vision problem includes an astigmatism, which means that if I want to wear contacts they have to be the weighted kind. These aren't nearly as comfortable as the regular contacts most folks have to choose from, and I can't go more than a couple hours with the weighted contacts in before my eyes are itchy and burning. So, for me at least, if I want to be able to see the road ahead clearly all the time, a full face helmet isn't an option. I go with the next best thing -- a 3/4 hemet with full visor.

I fully agree that more attention needs to be given to poor drivers, but cars make up the majority and therefor public opinion will continue to be focused more on changing us than them. We simply need a bigger slice of this pie, and until we've got it we're just . So, IMO at least, the place to start is with putting more bikes on the road! Encourage your friends to learn to ride, steep your children in the motorcycle culture, and do what you can in your day-to-day riding to improve the public image of motorcyles and bikers. Someday we'll have a loud enough voice on there on the streets to swing the focus away from us, and onto those idiots watching TV on their sun visors.

Have you tried a modular full face? Lots of people I know that wear glasses have them and seem to like them.

I wear glasses and I've been using a modular for, about, a year now. Can't say I've ever like the F/F helmets. This is the first one I've ever worn, on the road. I'm liking it now. Goes on over the glasses just fine. Took me a while to get used to it. But, now ... it fits perfectly and I've worn it for many hours. Unlike a lot of modular helmet wearers, I always wear it closed. The visor/shield pops up for around town (cold days) and when I want some wind.