Most of my friends and acquaintances know that I ride a motorcycle. Most everyone that reads my blog knows that I'm really big on freedom and freedom to choose how to live our lives. I can't express how much freedom I feel on the open road with the wind blowing through my hair and whispering past my music playing. There's just so much that it offers to those that ride. It's not about the "Sons of Anarchy"--honestly I will no longer watch that show after the season finale last season. That is not bikers. That is not even the 1%ers that I have known over the years. That is a morbid twisted version of what bikers are. Does it likely happen with some? Maybe. I don't care. I don't like the fact that some *sshole in Hollywood doesn't think about the ramifications to the biker community and the perception of us. Most of us are like "Wild Hogs". We have a group that we typically ride with. We like to have fun and we all share the love of the open road much like surfers love the waves, a chef craves to create the perfect dish, a grandmother craves the perfect picture of her grandchild. We crave the perfect road--curvy, no idiots pulling out in front of us, trees, shade, up a mountain, down a mountain, and the roar of our engines. The perfect day for a biker. But hey, that's not this blog or that would be it....
Most people that are pushing for helmet laws have never rode. They don't know what it's like to be on the open road. They have no idea what it feels like riding down the road with a helmet. They have no idea what it feels like without it. They really don't understand the freedom that they really have no business taking away. As I've stated in previous blogs, we as a society should acknowledge that as long as the person isn't hurting anyone else, then we should be free to choose how we will live our lives. And, the truth is that helmet laws are not based on anything but the "do good" mentality.
Yesterday we rode to Lake Lure. North Carolina is a helmet state. South Carolina is a choice state. With my helmet, a half shell, my head was a bobble head on the interstate. It was a bit aggravating the whole time. The extra weight of the helmet caused my neck and upper back to have to compensate for the extra weight. While I am an experienced rider with more than 26,000 miles on my current bike, I cannot imagine what an inexperienced, fair weather rider would feel. The wind at interstate speeds, plus every day wind, well, it's all fine and dandy for someone in a cage to say..."oooo, you need a helmet". Ok, how about we take your windshields out of your car or truck, roll all the windows down, take the back of your driver's seat out, and put an extra 5 pounds on your head. Then you drive 60 to 70 miles per hour down the road? It's not as easy as it sounds. If you're scientific at all, the extra force created by the helmet is the equivalent of putting a 30 pound dictionary on the top of your head and running at 3 miles per hour. A slow jog. That's a lot of extra distraction for the rider that normally would choose not to ride with a helmet. The goal of the helmet is supposedly to protect...but that's a lot of extra stress on the body. So what, do-gooders would say. It's supposed to protect the head, not the neck and the spine. Yet, in a study conducted on autopsies of bikers that died without helmets--nationwide and paid for by our government--the mass majority of head injuries would not be protected without a full helmet. In the study, yes, head injuries were the majority of the problem--but the jawline was the most likely area of the face to be damaged. For example, a biker going over the bike because they were hit from behind. Most helmets are laughable in that case, and full face helmets can be 10 pounds of added weight. The study also expressed concern that neck injuries from helmets should also be reviewed (it was a decent report). I know my neck and in between my shoulder blades was pretty sore yesterday. I'd really like to see that study if they were to ever do one.
Here's the numbers by the CDC study conducted in 2010: In the entire United States, there were 4,502 fatal motorcycle crashes that year. Yes, in the entire United States--ALL 50. In the last government study conducted of how many motorcyclists are on the road in 2006, there were 6.7M bikers on the roads. Harley and other motorcycle companies have acknowledged continued growth in sales, several states show marked increases in motorcycle licenses issued, continued growth of the industry in spite of economic downturn, with industry estimates for riders in the United States now exceeding 8M people. Let me put that in perspective for you: The government is estimating for 2014 there will be 5,000 fatal motorcycle accidents, nationwide, all 50 states, in comparison to 8,000,000 people out there riding. That is 0.0006%. Yes, less than 1/16th of a percent of any rider will be in a fatal accident in the entire United States. Why is the government so worried about this? Seriously? In fact, the overall population is 240M in the United States. Don't we sound like a drop in the bucket?
It honestly doesn't make sense. But then consider the demographics of the motorcycle riders. In 1985, the average age of a rider was 27 years old. In 2010, the average rider was 42. Motorcycles are not cheap. Compared to a car or truck, well, yes, they are, but most owners own at least 2 other vehicles. We are not out there as wild as we used to be or as the stereotype that Kurt Sutter would have you believe. The average price of a Harley Davidson cruiser is almost $20K. It's not a cheap hobby anymore. Sports bikes, "crotch rockets" are the cheaper bikes to own with the average price for a new one running around $8K. In fact, the government also says that the rockets are 4 times more likely to be in a fatal crash, but they are also more likely to be at speeds in excess of 160 mph and the average sports bike rider's age is 27. Let me put that demographic into perspective also: Sport bikes make up about 4,000 of those estimated 5,000 deaths.
Now, let's consider sports bikes versus cruisers. The registered sports bikes in this country make up 10% of all registered bikes in the United States. That means for every 90 of us riding a Harley or Gold Wing or other cruiser bike, there's ten of them. More number crunching: An estimated 80,000 sport bike riders nationwide make up 4,000 of all fatal motorcycle accidents. The percentage chance of a sport bike rider of being in a fatal accident is 5%. More importantly, do the math for the cruisers: 1,000 estimated fatal accidents a year out of 7.9M riders. Even at the 2006 count of 6.7M, reduced by 100K to take those sport bike riders out, our percentage of risk of being in a fatal accident is 0.00015%. Less than 1/70th of a percent of cruiser riders will be in a fatal crash by government estimates if we actually look at their numbers.
Experience comes into play too when we talk about motorcycle accidents. We all get wiser with age and experience. The average motorcyclist rides 1800 miles per year. The average sports/crotch rocket biker rides less than 1500 miles a year. It's a rough ride. Takes a toll on the body because the bike is a piece of paper compared to a cruiser. The average cruiser biker rides 2500 miles per year. People like me ride an average of over 5000 miles per year. Unfortunately, I cannot give you a number of the average miles of experience versus fatal crashes. I can tell you that a lot of riders start on rockets and end up on cruisers sooner or later. So, I can kind of say it is possible if the government really wanted to know, they could probably find out how much experience is involved in most of these fatal crashes also. Most of us that ride can tell you that it's much more likely for someone we know that has just started riding to have an accident than someone that has been riding for years. We also can tell you that it takes a couple hundred miles on a new bike or even when you've made changes to a bike you've been riding for some time to adjust even for the experienced riders. You shouldn't just jump on a bike and just have fun. You have to pay attention to everything around you and develop a relationship with your bike. Like riding a horse, maybe the bike doesn't have to understand you, but you have to understand the bike.
I'm not trying to change your mind on whether you would wear a helmet if you were riding. I'm trying to put perspective on trying to take someone else's freedom away. If you've never felt the wind in your hair on motorcycle, you can't grasp it. I'm not asking you to understand it. If you are for helmet laws, you are punishing a large amount of people, well over 7 million people, for what less than 100,000 are accountable for the majority of the supposed issues that are trying to be addressed. We are a small amount when you think about it. We are nationwide a little over 2 times the amount of people that live in Los Angeles County in California. We live everywhere. We ride all over the place when we get a chance. We should, even though we are a small minority of the overall population, have the right to choose a helmet or not. If I were riding a rocket still, I'd probably wear a full face. Almost every one of those bikes can hit 60 mph in 1st gear. By 5th, they are well over 150 mph. My Harley Fatboy can get there I suppose, but why? I'm not trying to get anywhere that fast. I'm out there for the ride, to enjoy the wind, and would just frankly prefer not to be a bobble head because someone who has never rode, has no idea what it's like, sits behind a desk, crunching some numbers arbitrarily without combining them for any real analysis and telling you and me what I should or should not be doing. Would you want someone telling you which wave you can ride, what cake you can eat, or whether you could quilt with the material you chose or not? Probably not. I don't want to be told to wear a helmet. I'm 45 years old. I'm a big girl now. I can choose. I'm not a fan of the numbers in regards to sports bikes, but that's probably why I spend a lot of time talking my boys into cruisers and riding with people that I know are as experienced or more experienced than me. It's a choice to ride or not to ride. It should be a choice to wear a helmet or not to also.
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