On HELMETS and Safety Gear

First, if you don’t want to wear a helmet, don’t wear a helmet. If you don’t want to be exposed to a positive pro helmet opinion, please stop reading this, now. Also, please note this is not a pro helmet law piece. We believe in freedom of choice.
New Hampshire is a freedom of choice state. We love New Hampshire! Live Free or Die.
Disclosure: At Great Bay Motorcycles we sell and wear helmets. Most of us wear top of the line Arai helmets and we promote them in the shop, because we believe that the investment in a quality helmet is worth the entry fee.
The Great Bay position on helmets is, wear one.
Wear one every time you ride.
We are helmet advocates. We are helmet advocates through experience.
Most of us have heard the many reasons why helmets are dangerous and unnecessary. For example:
“Helmets are for people who are planning on crashing”
“Helmets weigh too much and cause fatigue”
“Helmets eliminate your ability to hear what is around you”
“Helmets block your peripheral vision”
“Helmets are too hot to wear most of the year”
Some people will embrace these tidbits of wisdom as a reason for not wearing a helmet when riding. That is fine.
But……really, what makes people go lidless? There are many reasons for sure, comfort among them, but some people don’t wear a helmet because it doesn’t look cool. No one looks good in a helmet, period. No one looks cool with a helmet on. No bad ass dudes will wave to you on your cruiser if you have a helmet on. Worse still, people might not recognize you.
Here is some basic reality. As motorcyclists we take risks. We can minimize the risks associated with riding in a variety of ways, and one way is to wear a lid when riding.
Have you ever watched a motorcycle race and seen a crash? If you haven’t, let’s review what happens most often. The rider either low sides or gets spit off the bike in a high side crash (ouch). Most will slide off of the track and get up and run over to their bikes to attempt to resume the race. Why are they able to do this? Because of protective gear, and a critical component of their protective gear is the helmet.
Picture yourself sitting on an old bicycle in a parking lot. Now imagine that you fall over while sitting still, and when you fall you can’t put your hands out to break (probably literally) your fall. The pavement is a pretty hard surface, and falling without any forward motion will sometimes still scrape you up.
Next imagine riding that bike at 10mph and falling over, again, unable to use your hands or arms to alter your crash. This time you would probably have some significant abrasions on your head and face, and maybe even a concussion. This attempt to illustrate the high stakes of a simple fall is drawn at far below the speeds at which we ride.
Several years ago a Great Bay employee with a significant amount of riding experience crashed a Sprint S/T. It was an operator error accident. Brand new bike, brand new tires, cold pavement, too much throttle, and one high side crash later, the employee walked back to the shop. Why didn’t the face plant send him to the hospital or the grave? Smacking a nose and chin on the pavement at 25 mph could be fatal or at the very least disfiguring, but because he had a helmet on his head was unscathed. The helmet saved him. Period.
As riding enthusiasts and ambassadors of the sport, we want all riders to have safe riding experiences. We feel it is our basic duty to promote safe riding, and therefore, we promote wearing helmets.
We sell a variety of helmets including KBC, ZR1, and Arai. We have found the Arai helmets to be worth the cost because of superior features when compared to all other helmets. With Arai helmets you get optically correct visors, fabulous venting, super comfortable liners, and the ability to custom fit the helmet for your head shape. If you are interested in feeling the difference, stop in and we can help fit you into the right helmet.
Once you begin to wear a properly fit, quality helmet you will appreciate all that they offer. They are aerodynamic and much quieter than riding without one, especially at speed. In the cool weather they help keep your head warm, and in the warm weather they have venting to pass cool air over your head and draw out any perspiration. They protect your skin from the rigors of the road, and the face shields keep bugs and debris from implanting itself in your face. These attributes are, of course, minor when compared to the ultimate benefit of a helmet, protecting your valuable head.
If you are considering a new helmet please stop in and let us custom fit one for you. We are happy to help you in anyway we can, and we want every ride that you take to be safe and successful.