follow up harley question.
 

in all my years of riding motorcycles, most of it in california, i rarely ever see a person riding a harley davidson wear a full face helmet. granted the body is protected by all the harley accoutrements, i gotta ask; are the "skull caps" safe? are they DOT approved?

Lol... they most certainly are NOT safe and not DOT approved. The 5/8 hats are a lot better & are DOT approved, but too dorky for a Harley ride.

5/8 hat is like what the CHP wears?

dont the skull cap dudes get pulled over? i dont get it. i only ask because i am argue...er dicussing this with a lady friend from my gym. her man is bike shopping and she thinks the lids look cool.

See my "Chick Magnet" link in my sig... I'm wearing a $39 skull cap, she's wearing a 5/8 hat.

I've never heard of the cops pulling someone over with a lid, but I believe they would be entirely within their rights to do so.

A lot of Harley riders out in Michigan wear full face helmets kinda strange to see that. I have seen a few beanies on sport bike riders mostly buells and trumphs though. I tried on a couple tupperwear ones just not comfortable, so I use a KBC classic half. Im looking for a bass boat metallic 3/4 race helmet from the 70's should be different eh?

Funny thing is a local instructor for the motorcycle saftey foundation rides with a beanie lid thats cracked in half and duck taped together. (shows his disaproval of the helmet laws here) When he teaches the class he switches to a dot approved half helmet. Heard from a couple of cops who have dealt with deaths they attribute them to the beanies but thats theyre educated opinion.

I wear a "shorty" helmet with a visor. Kinda like the CHiPs style. That's the smallest helmet to be DOT approved....but not Snell approved. You have to go to full for that.

I don't know if they are safe. I wear a 3/4 on my VRod and a full face when I ride the BMW.

I came across a Harley rider who wiped out wearing a "beanie" a few minutes after the fact. He was dead and would almost surely have lived with a decent helmet. His head was "leaking" quite a bit.

I only wear a full face DOT and SNELL approved helmet (and boots, gloves, armored jacket, jeans or leathers). SNELL approval is much more stringent (and more expensive) than DOT. In my opninion, DOT doesn't mean much.

I seem to be the exception I guess...

Jon

have you guys seen the new one that have venting like a bike helmet?

???? What was that?