Bonneville America Forums Forums Rider Safety Forums Riding Technique Excellent rider safety survey

May 2009 issue of Motorcycle Consumers News has an excellent article called "A portrait of the over 40 rider" which touches a lot of us. I can't paraphrase it because they don't offer a lot of conclusions or stun you with confusing statistics but it is a multi country survey that is more in depth than any magazine article about safety I have seen in a long time. Although someone will find fault with it, it has some excellent information and shatters some myths I held especially about protective gear.

An accompanying article written by an MD every month addresses common medications and possible effects on riders. Did you Benadryl, the antihistomine, is also sold as Sominex, the sleep aid

An accompanying article written by an MD every month addresses common medications and possible effects on riders. Did you Benadryl, the antihistomine, is also sold as Sominex, the sleep aid

I have heard of people giving their kids a Benadryl pill to knock them out when they are extremely cranky or irritable.

Is there a link to this artical or do we have to find this on a news stand or something?

As I have "matured", I have found that the effects of stinging insects affect me much more than they did in my youth. So I carry Benadryl with me all the time.
I can vouch for the sleep inducing properties.. Oh yeah.

2 Benadryl + 2/3 beers = at least 12 hours of zzzzzzzz's.

I started receiving Motorcycle Consumer News as a result of a Mother's Against Drunk Drivers Campaign a few years ago. I like the monthly features articles & will watch for it.

The May issue hasn't found it's way to NW MT yet, we don't have any stop & go lights here either. One will arrive before the other.

jh

Comon, at least give us one myth it shatters

Without starting a firestorm, one shattered myth is that protective gear is not near as effective as most people think.

I think you have to go to their web site. Since they do not take any advertising, they are pricy but they pretty well tell it as it is. You might be able to get a reprint of that article.

Yeah Ian, however I hope you realize that there are far LESS station wagons on the road NOW than there were back in the 1970s!!! Yep! NOWDAYS if that same thing happened, you'd be goin' right through the window of an SUV!!!


And besides, I think YOUR "Greg Louganis days" are well past you now, dude. So please stop tryin' to rationalize ridin' without protective gear on, 'cause it NEVER makes any sense to do so, and I don't care if MCN thinks it's a "myth" or NOT!!!

(and BTW...we've NEEDED a good "firestorm" around here for while 'cuz this place has been ENTIRELY too boring lately!!!...except, of course, for that minor little "firestorm" over in the "Other Bikes" forum the other day where I had to ALSO show Ian the error of his thinking about that GORGEOUS new NORTON!!!!)

Het don't blame me, I tried to stir up some stuff last few days but didn't get any bites. (or is that bytes? )

I am totally correct about that cookie cutter Jap looking crotch rocket like Norton that has little redeeming value except the power plant.

The weight of a helmet is multiplied several hundred times even at just 35mph and will cause serious neck and back injury.

Well, I KNEW that old line about helmets "causing serious neck and back injury" was goin' to be next on your agenda here!

Nope! No surprise THERE amigo!!! And so, lemme guess here, your philosophy is that you'd rather just be "brain dead" and thus basically have the plug pulled IF heaven forbid your choice was THAT or being paraplegic then, RIGHT?!

Well, I'm kind'a thinkin' that the REST of your family might think STILL havin' your "behind" around the house, even IF that "behind" ends up in a wheelchair afterward, would be a PREFERABLE to the alternative! AND besides, I personally know of a couple of paraplegics who I think are STILL "worth" havin' around!!!

(so...argue against THAT, my friend!!!!)

As always we can go on and on as to the wearing of a helmet or not.......

And as always we (non helmet wearers by choice but surely informed) must suffer the slings and arrows of self rightious yahoos who make all manner of claims. Some of these types like to become downright insulting.

And as always it boils down to the law in your state and an informed decision to not wear one if the law is not applicable.

Having recently survived a catastrophic accident whilst not wearing one (be aware I am not using this to downplay anything) Its still an informed right of an adult rider in Az to wear or not to wear.

And I am likely to continue to be a non helmet wearer even going forward.

Subsequent to my near lifetaking accident would I ever see fit to lecture or cajole anyone as to what they should or should not wear. Nor shall I going forward.

Some of us just love to be rebellious, freedom loving, wind in our hair Marlon Brando wannabes.

Dwight cannot comprehend this. I think its a Kalifornia thing.

Oh man! don't get started on that fugly bike again.

Wearing a brain bucket, armor, skid pants, boots, etc to the accident on a motorcycle. If you had a brain you would stay in a cage. News flash, bikes are dangerous. If you hit a fixed object at speed the last thing trough your mind is your butt. In many cases its the difference between a closed and open casket.

That should fire something up. Everybody knows I wear all my gear all the time. All my gear is a t-shirt and a pair of jeans though. Saving up for the rest of that chicken stuff.

I have never tried to tell anyone one way or the other what they should or should not wear. I ride with guys who wear helmets and rarely rib them.(imagine me passing up that opportunity )Most of the guys I ride with don't wear them also their choice. So it would be very easy to tease a guy about it but I don't.

It is amazing how safe I feel on my SM, you want to talk an experience try and old chopper like my TR6C hardtail with a springer going down the highway at 80 or 90 MPH with no helmet and jeans and a T shirt , front end hopping off the road as you go for no reason other than it's that long springer flexing! Now that's fun!

OH! Well, "Teasing" is a serious social faux pas there Ian! I'm certainly glad you realize that!

HEY! come to think of it, do ya suppose I could get the Kalifornia Legislature to think about banning that practice outright???

(nah..on second thought maybe I won't...THAT would take away ENTIRELY too much of my fun I have these days!!!)

I wouldn't doubt you could get that banned they have no problem with all the other crazy laws and regulations out there in the peoples republik!

Yup. Some of us just like to be free....risk taking on a bike is a given anyway as I see it. And I KNOW thats true.

I have my battle scarred body to substantiate the whole risk taking odds on accident thing. Nothing scientific of course but undeniable when you wake up every morning realizing how lucky it is to be ALIVE.

I broke two vertebrae in me freedom lovin Irish neck and lived to tell the tale with nary a drop of nervous system damage.

And Ian.....I do wonder if I had been wearing a nice heavy lid ...might it have made that neck fracture a party ending incident. I will never know the answer to that but it is something to ponder.

I get to leave this here skilled nursing/rehab facility mid next week.

It'll be great to leave this prison and just return home to me lovin little lady.

Yeah, but you've forgotten one thing here Ian, and THAT'S that our intrepid "Governator" is NOW puttin' the kabosh to all those Do-Gooders we's all got out here!

YEP!!! That boy ain't no "Girly Man"! No siree BOB!!! In FACT, to "prove" that, I hear that whenever he'd ridin' that gawd awful chromed tanked monstosity of a custom motorcycle he barely knows how to ride(and I know this because I once came up behind him on my BA as he was attempting to negotiate some of the twisty stuff on that thing on Mulholland Highway on the way to the Rock Store, one bright sunny "Kalifornia" day)...well, like I was sayin' here, whenever he's OUT of STATE he takes his helmet off whenever he's ridin' it!!! Yep! No "Girly Man" HE!!!

(yeah...he's a "real rebel", alright!!!)

Wow , I must have missed something since I didn't know you crashed that bad. I have seen interviews with some doctors and seen some statistics on the damage a helmet does to the neck and back in a rapid deceleration. I would imagine you would have been much worse but as you say there is no way to know for sure. I have never claimed that helmets don't prevent some head injuries or facial injuries if a full face is worn. I have seen crashes where a helmet would have matter one way or the other. I saw a guy have a head on with a pick up pulling a fertilizer wagon and he went under it. The guy lived for a short time but dies at the scene. He was wearing full leathers and a full face helmet and is still just as dead. I saw this out of my school bus window when I was a kid and it was bad.

Hope you have a full recovery there Kevin and put on many more miles.

I was surprised at how quickly I responded to the therapy after my doctors released me. My busted leg still gets sore as heck after three or four hours on the walker and the broken pelvis although strong enough for full weight bearing feels like its a two hundred year old pelvis at the end of the day. The broken neck vertebrae as of the last X-ray show no signs of the fractures. My right wrist and the torn up tendons are getting more flexible and strong with each passing day.

Man is it gonna be great to egress this prison.

I always think of P T Barnem when I see the word "egress" he used to have that at the end of his freaks exibit. There was a sign that said "This way to the Egress" making people think it was another exibit not knowing egress was another word for exit.

Ok, so after reading this thread I’ve completed some cursory internet searches on head trauma and spinal injuries, associated with wearing/not wearing a helmet. I have yet to come across anything that says wearing a helmet increases spinal injuries, Etc. Could someone please point me to an article (more recent than 2000) that states those sentiments?

As I’m sure you all know, from other posts, I am an AGAT kind’a guy. I did find several articles concerning the reduced fatality rates when riders wear helmets, so I’m ready to see what the other side has to say. This will not change my AGAT viewpoint, but I am curious to see where everyone else is getting their info.

Also, in an effort to fan a fire, I thought everyone would enjoy this article, concerning the increase in head injuries in PA after the helmet law was repealed. Now don’t be alarmed, this was published by REAL researchers, not some ABATE guy fumbling through fifteen year old internet statistics.

http://www.physorg.com/news132510465.html

Well NOTAMs79 they just dont really provide that info directly very often because it hurts the cause of the insurance companies that "donate" to lots of politicians. Now to not make this political as that is against the rules. Sure they posted the increase in head injuries but not the decrease in spinal or neck injuries. Its really takes a lot of research to even find an honest source of info. However the guy who started this threat gave the name of his source of info.
The fact is some of us would rather be dead than in a chair we don't believe that death is the worst thing that can happen to a person, and place quality over quantity of life. Ergo we buy big life insurance policies and then go live our lives as we choose.
"I know the rules but the rules dont know me, garaunteed."
I personally don't wear a helmet HA,HA. There its is but I am not the best source for the decisions that you need to make about your life. I would never pressure someone to not wear a brain bucket thats their personal choice, Well unless the helmet is ugly like that one that was posted some time ago in the helmet safety gear forum. That was just funny.

Clanrickarde, I am glad you are on the mend and are capable of bing honest with yourself about the accident. That is truely amazing usually paoople nuts after an event like that.
I have to side with Ian here, and side with freedom of choice. That means noone makes the choice for you.
So in the words of Sir William Wallace, at least according to the movie "FREEDOOOOOM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

To quote someone I can't be bothered to search for

"There are lies, d*mn lies and statistics"

For example, if motorcycles are involved in 1/3 of RTAs, then they are twice as safe as any other form of transport, as they make up the remaining 2/3

Just stirring the pot

Ya know Bryn, after readin' THAT, I just checked your bio to see if perchance you might work for Her Majesty's government!!!

(...I mean that sounds like the kind of "logic" that might stem from either Parliament OR Congress, if ya ask me!!!)

WOW!, somebody woke this one up after a year and a half

I guess I missed what you realy said there,Brindle but I agree that the stats can be manipulated like surveys to get the result you want. So the trueth has to be obtained through your experience and observations. Couple that with logic and reason. If you realize that trueth is not subjective but is concrete, so if you find an exception then you have not found the real trueth. most people don't have the time nor the desire to realy look into the subject for them self so they except what ever happens to be fed to them.
I have been and always will be a dissenter.

I didn't know this thread was that old I was just reading and found it sorry.
Keith I see you baited me into the tps thread now that I have read page after page of that monster, I didn't finish the whole thing. Though I do find it interesting. I will read more of it later.

Jus' ribbin' ya Chad

At least I do read through the forum not just troll for the latest hubub to bite on.

I read the thread......................18 months ago

well you are working just as hard, only not paid as well.

"Let's do the time warp agaaaaaaaaaaaaaain."