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I am only participating in this topic because I have an opinion to share. As a rider of many years I fully understand the nature of wanting to feel the freedom found on two-wheels. However, I also accept the responsibility of the perils of not being properly equipped, despite the already purported risk of riding a motorcycle. Keeping in mind, choice and free will are obviously very personal and are frequently the source of this debate, but physics don't lie, and no matter what argument is made helmets save lives!

Here in Canada we are required by law to wear a helmet, and our fatality statistics are proof that it works. The skull and brain are extremely susceptible to injury, and even a minor blow can cause irrevocable harm. How could we not consider wearing a helmet, when there is so much at stake? Hockey players and football players wear the appropriate gear, and despite the fact that they encounter barely a fraction of the velocity of a motorcycle; riders still take the risk.

Again, it boils down to choice; and luckily my government made that choice for me long before I ever mounted my iron horse. I still remember the first time I decided to travel where helmets were optional among motorcycle riders. At first I was quite tempted to feel the breeze in my hair, but my mother made sure there was no chance I would ever consider such a test of fate. Prior to my trip she took a full size watermelon, and placed it into the snugness of a helmet and dropped it just a few feet off her kitchen table. Interestingly it hit the floor with a hollow thump, and I was reluctant to accept this experiment as valid argument. It wasn't until I heard the telltale splat, and watched the melon spill all over the hardwood floor that I understood the nature of he madness.

Now, all I have to do is think about the unscathed melon, and my helmet doesn't seem nearly tight enough. I would also like to thank her as well, since in the summer of 1990 I took a nasty spill, and although I still did get hurt, when my head hit the hard asphalt I heard that same hollow thump, and I am still here to tell the tale.

I would like to conclude as an advocate of personal rights that everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but can anyone honestly say they would make that same choice after encountering a helmet free crash? Most would not live to argue their position, and the few that could probably are too brain-damaged to even speak. Yes, statistics and physics don't lie, but hey; if you're wiling to take the risk, maybe one foot in the grave is worth the cool breeze!

Learn more about this author, Douglas Black.
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