helmets are not optional

[OakLeaf]

A helmet saved my life and I'll tell the story to anyone that'll listen. Like Mr. Silver, I believe in educating people that I have contact with.... I won't go anywhere on my bike without a helmet and I make it pretty clear to my friends that I don't want to ride with them if they won't wear one.

+1

And part of how I educate people is with my hairstyle. Not everyone wants a helmet-friendly haircut, I understand that. Still, I get comments all the time when I pull off my helmet and fluff up my hair. "Wow, no helmet head, how do you do that?"


Another story I tell people a lot is the story of the last time DH and I rode without helmets - because it's not the story of how my helmet saved my life, it's the story about how wearing it shows my concern for my loved ones. I might have told this one here before - but here I go again

The last time DH and I rode without helmets was just a couple of months after we'd started dating. He'd been living in a helmet-law state for many years, and although he hadn't ridden bareheaded in a long time, he'd done it in his youth, and I guess he was just curious to re-experience what it felt like. I lived in a state without a helmet law, and although I always wore one for long trips and highway travel, I often scooted around town without one. On this particular day, we'd gone camping, and we were going to get dinner at a restaurant near our campsite. It was a mile and a half, and we decided that we'd leave the helmets in the tent.

On that little mile and a half scoot, each of us was so terrified for the OTHER one, that we promised each other then and there never to do it again.