Let those who ride decide.

classic Classic list List threaded Threaded
10 messages Options
Reply | Threaded
Open this post in threaded view
|

Let those who ride decide.

Fatfatboy
Administrator
Missouri has loosened up the helmet laws.
Starting August 28 anyone over the age of 26 with proof of health insurance and a motorcycle license now has the choice to ride with a lid or hair blowing in the wind.

This is something Freedom of Road Riders have been fighting for years.

I have to say I like our current governor Mike Parsons. He is one of those government officers that want the person to decide what is right for his or hers life and doesn’t think the government should be directing your life.

This doesn’t mean I’ll ride lidless. Just glad I have the right to choose.

https://themissouritimes.com/missouri-eases-motorcycle-helmet-requirements/

.
You meet some of the best folks behind bars.
Reply | Threaded
Open this post in threaded view
|

Re: Let those who ride decide.

Allred
Fatfatboy wrote
This doesn’t mean I’ll ride lidless. Just glad I have the right to choose.
Amen!


.
Reply | Threaded
Open this post in threaded view
|

Re: Let those who ride decide.

Mad4TheCrest
This post was updated on .
In reply to this post by Fatfatboy
CONTENTS DELETED
The author has deleted this message.
Reply | Threaded
Open this post in threaded view
|

Re: Let those who ride decide.

motogrady


I've almost always worn on.

But....I have lived in places where it's not mandatory.
And ya, at times I did ride without.

At first, you feel naked.  At least I did.
Reply | Threaded
Open this post in threaded view
|

Re: Let those who ride decide.

Fatfatboy
Administrator
In reply to this post by Mad4TheCrest
Mad4TheCrest wrote
Back when I was in college my friends in med school used to tell me their very best donors were young, brain-dead motorcyclists.
 Ask them now and I would bet you two tacos on Tuesday their answer would be heroin addicts make the best donors. At least that is what I got from my kidney transplant coordinator. A plus to the minus of the oppioid crises.

 I can only think of a handful of times that I rode without a helmet since I started on the street. As a kid I don't think I owned one. There were four other brothers. Whats one more?

 I do remember one hot summer Saturday 20+ years ago where I was on a mission to find a covered bridge on the other side of Illinois (helmet free state). Once I crossed the Mississippi River my lid got strapped to the backrest and I rode near clear across the state lidless and I remember just how free it felt to have the wind blowing through my hair that day. Felt great.

Since then I've had two get offs wearing a lid. I'm glad I can still remember that ride.

Doesn't mean I won't be wearing a lid to work on Monday,,, Glad I get to make that choice.


There is a minus to the law that I see. Many lidless riders getting pulled over just for the sake of being checked if they have the proper requirements to ride lidless. There are a lot of people that I know that ride that do no have a motorcycle endorsement.
I bet they get it now.


.
You meet some of the best folks behind bars.
Reply | Threaded
Open this post in threaded view
|

Re: Let those who ride decide.

motogrady
This post was updated on .
Endorsements..... ha.
Not to hijack this thread, but one of coolest things that ever happened to me had to do with a motorcycle endorsement.

In the early 70s in Maryland, you could get a motorcycle license at 16.
You had to get a Lerner's permit, and ride along with a licensed rider for 2 weeks before you could take the examination.
And I did.  
Took the test on that blue h1.

So, at 17, I didn't have a car license, a D license, I had an E license, a motorcycle license.
Didn't get a car license till I was about 18.

I go to pick up my first real date, a super fox from school that I had met at a friends house party.

I pull up in front of her house, knock on the door, and she answers, looking like a million bucks. And I'm nervous as heck.
I'm sweating bullets.  She looks past me and I see in her face, like, wtf?

I'm invited in, her parents want to meet me.

I'm as nice as  17 year old wolf can be, but they see right past the facade.
They are not sure this is a good thing.😁
But hey, Donna, their 16 year old little girl, wants to go, and they already said she could.

Finally, reluctantly, I pass muster and we head to the door.

"What ya driving there Son......",he stops cold when he sees my blue Mach 3 sitting out front.

I guess his wife saw the look on his face, and that he was kinda speechless, because she immediately
muscled past him, and looking out the door, half yells, "Oh No! Donna, you are not going anywhere on
a motorcycle. It's almost dark. I just don't feel right, those things are dangerous.  Tell her John,
you can't let her go with, your job.  Tell her!"

Well, I let her go on.  And so does her husband, John.  
When she finishes, I notice he has a kind of Andy Griffith moment come over him.

Donna is just kind of frozen, like she half knew this was gonna happen.

"Son, I'm the head of code enforcement at the Department of Motor Vehices." He really was.  He glances at his wife with half a grin.  "Now, you seem like a nice fella, but you have to have a motorcycle endorsement on your drivers license to ride a bike like that on the street. You need to get a learners permit and ride with experienced riders for a minimum of 2 weeks.  You need to take a special test, at which time the department will give you an E endorsement on your drivers license.  
Only then will I feel comfortable letting you take my daughter out on that vehicle."
 
He glances at the old bag, she's smiling ear to ear, Donna is looking at the floor.

Yeah, he's got me.

I let it sink in for a moment or 2.....then tell him, as nice as can be,
 "Why yes Sir, I've got it right here."

Looking me straight up, he says, "Let me see it."

When he handed me that card back, I don't know what was funnier.  The blank stare he had on, or the smoke that was almost coming out of his wife's ears.  

The screen door wasn't even fully closed, Donna and I were maybe a foot off the front steps, when I heard her laying into him.  "You should have done something!!!!."  "What could I do!" he replied,
"He's legal!"  
"Something, you're the head of whatever!!" she half yelled.

They were still going at it while I explained to Donna, you need to lean into the turns with me,
keep your feet on the pegs, and your arms wrapped around me tight, but not too tight.

Thought about pulling a wheel as we pulled away, but thought, na, enough is enough.





Reply | Threaded
Open this post in threaded view
|

Re: Let those who ride decide.

Fatfatboy
Administrator
Ha ha ha,,, That's great. Thanks for sharing that.

.
You meet some of the best folks behind bars.
Reply | Threaded
Open this post in threaded view
|

Re: Let those who ride decide.

monkeyshines
I've been in a crash that would have likely killed me or left me incapacitated at best. My buddy that just crashed the Busa came down on his face, the chinbar on his helmet almost ground all the way through and the forehead area has a crack. There's no way he'd be here without a helmet. He was two young daughters, my parents and siblings still have a brother. Rarely is the pain only felt by the rider, it's such a tiny sacrifice wearing a helmet. But good luck, I've seen the results of living in a state that abandoned helmet laws, that yard that the Busa was stored in has lots of recently crashed motorcycles, one walk through had me wondering how many were killed just from banging their eggshell thick skull on the pavement, it doesn't take much.
Reply | Threaded
Open this post in threaded view
|

Re: Let those who ride decide.

oldironnow
"Something, you're the head of whatever!!" she half yelled.

So good!
Supports splitting everywhere.
Reply | Threaded
Open this post in threaded view
|

Re: Let those who ride decide.

Fatfatboy
Administrator
Well,, good news. I rode to work and dialysis lidless,, a total of 18 miles,, and survived the ride.
Bad news is my follicles didn’t. I lost 137 of them trying to comb my COVID induced hippie hair style.

I’m already loosing hair naturally. I don’t think I need to help it along so the seriously outdated green lid stays.


 

.
You meet some of the best folks behind bars.