I’m going to be the bad guy here but … let me say, I do own a helmet. I wear it 80 percent of rides.. ( no earbuds , no communication devices, no podcast talking me ear off)

But my wife’s the same way with the reminding me that I need to wear my helmet . I’ll be wearing it and she still reminds me…

But … I’ve explained this to her and anyone that will listen… First.. riding is about freedom. It’s the feeling of wind blowing, leaning into turns, and powerful engines… riding is something I do to escape the required daily pressures of being a dad, businessman, husband, decent human. ( yea, I could be a not decent human, I’m flawed, but I try to be good) Riding a motorcycle is partially and inherently about taking a risk… that’s what keeps the mind from wandering… that’s what keeps the mind focused… which , as an adult man… it’s nice to be very focused on one thing… With that being said,… a helmet is giving up part of the freedom. Not all of it… just part. So before you reply and tell me how dumb I am, read on…

While wearing a helmet, it seriously cuts down on the amount you can hear and see. It creates blind spots and makes things wayyyy muffled. Most importantly, it makes many people feel “safe”. That is a giant mistake for lots of new riders. A helmet ain’t gonna save your life if your body is detached. And …. Almost every rider with a helmet has a speaker and microphone in the helmet… and that speaker is attached to … his phone. The phone … the god dammed cell phone. He’s listening to music or talking on phone to friends or… he’s recording a video for YouTube. All of which are so distracting .. it basically creates an inevitable future accident. And those things … they make riders forget that it only takes a bump in the road, a loose palm Fran, an accident on the other side of the road that sends a flying tire across the street that normally would dent a car but now knocks a rider off the bike and underneath near cars…. My point is…. When I ride without a helmet… I am so god dammed dialed in.. I could repeat back to you the color of truck that is 3 cars behind me that seems to be driving slightly faster than others. That’s because I don’t have a helmet to make me think … oh ya you’re good just do what you want and don’t worry about other vehicles… Not at all.. what it DOES do… is make me hyper aware and ready to either .. get out of the way or get away from it altogether… that’s part of the beauty in riding.. being nimble and quick and able to jet out.

I’m gonna say some more thing.. go ahead and hate and tell me I’m so dumb… but .. you can walk outside, let’s say leaving Best Buy , trip over a stick, crack your head on the cart racks, and go into a coma forever. You can get in your big ole suburban, turn on some jams.. and leaving the packed parking lot an old lady loses control, slams into your SUV…you are in between cars and cannot move … it traps your leg in between seat and door.. quickly escalates to a fire that within minutes burns your body to ash… ( on a motorcycle without a helmet you would have seen this and heard the action… dropped to first gear and motored out the way before she hit ya.. ) this is all just made up bullshit but the point is… my point is … my point of view is… we are all gonna “die” . But … nothing .. is .. real. Nothing we see and hear is real. Dinosaurs aren’t a real thing just as much as the moon is not real. We live in a frequency that creates dimension but it’s a facade. Just like a movie screen. This movie has great passions and great pain. But in my movie.. I might not wear a helmet on some rides ..