One of my best friends crashed
twice well north of 125mph, one time flipping like a rag doll from brake marker 3 in turn 12 at Road America (Canada Corner, for those familiar) to well into the gravel trap.
Flipping.......every side of his $750 Arai helmet had scuffs. Not even a headache.
I landed on the side of my head, having been catapulted over the bars at 65-70 mph.....fully inverted.....feet in the air, bammmmm! My head completely bent sideways, far enough for my helmet to break my collar bone in 2 places, chunk out of my $700 Arai helmet. No headache, neck a little stiff for a day or so. There is no doubt that is something that I would probably either be drooling on myself, or dead, without a helmet.
Trust me, your neck
will bend significantly further than you
think it will, without breaking.
A helmet can actually limit how far your neck rolls.....think football neckrolls. Of course, they
may break your collarbone doing so....
There's
no way to say, "a helmet
did this to me", when you don't know if it would happen
without the helmet.
(Then add brain trauma, minus the helmet!)
I crashed in turn 1 at Road America Briggs track on a Supermoto bike.
I hit the ground so hard that smacking the pavement broke my thumb.
Also broke 2 ribs, & bounced my dome off the track
hard. Again....not even a headache. (I grabbed my spare helmet, & raced 3 more races that day....
then the adrenaline wore off. Ribs hurt me for 4 months!)
I have too many personal testimonies. I'll wear one, & strongly encourage others to do so. This is America, and were free to choose to do as we please.....if you choose not to, I hope you don't ever hit your head as hard as I have, cuz it's a high probability the lights will go out.