Auto news on Youtube Sep 24 2018

Hey again, Chris Purcell here to talk to you more about life with a motorcycle.

And today, I wanted to kind of piggyback our previous discussion we had

about riding safely and being proactive while on the road

having that mindset that the biggest danger to ourselves are the other people on the roadway.

But in addition to that, there's another way to keep yourselves safe

and it's a more obvious one—wear a helmet.

Now, that's seems like a simple statement,

but your noggin's a precious thing and you should treat it like that.

So, making the choice to wear a helmet obviously is an easy one,

and it's also been made easier because California law mandates

that we wear a helmet when we ride the motorcycle.

Now, up until that law became effective in about January of 1992, wearing a helmet was a choice.

Most people thought it was a good choice but nonetheless it was a choice.

And in my early days as a motorcycle rider,

I didn't always make good choices about a lot of things in life

but specifically about wearing a helmet when I rode.

And if you could look closely at that picture right there,

that is a picture of a younger reckless Chris Purcell with his first motorcycle.

Now, I thought I was pretty cool riding my bike in my flip-flops

and wearing my Tom Selleck mustache,

and to be honest with you, I really enjoyed riding without a helmet.

And to also be honest with you,

I'm probably very lucky to be alive and talking with you today because of that.

Now, I got a little older and I got a little wiser,

but the California law helped bring that about

because they mandated and I needed to wear a helmet.

So, responsible riders understand that they need to follow the law,

they need to be safe, they need to wear a helmet.

Now, I'm not here to tell you what helmet to buy

and there's a lot of controversy that swirls around within the motorcycle helmet industry,

but I can tell you that there are specific guidelines that need to be followed

because not only does California mandate that you wear a helmet

but the California law mandates the manufacturers of motorcycle helmets

sold in California follow certain federal standards, federal safety standards.

And those standards that we adhere to

are identified as being part of the helmet you're purchasing.

If they have the symbol openly displayed and that symbol is DOT or all capitals, D-O-T,

that symbol indicates to you that helmet was manufactured

in adherence to the safety standards, either it's equally or exceeding those required standards.

Now, there's a lot of choices out there and there's a lot of manufacturers that make DOT helmets--

Shoei, Bell, Arai, Schuberth.

You can name numerous manufacturers.

In fact, this bad boy right here with the mean look in moon man on it,

that goes about for about $1600 on one website on the Internet.

Now, you can buy a helmet with a few hundred dollars that's DOT compliant

or you can spend close to a couple of thousand.

That's your choice, and you should pick a helmet

that fits you and that if you feel comfortable with as long as it has that DOT symbol on it.

That allows you to go out and get the helmet with the flames

coming out of a dragon if you want, or a dancing Hello Kitty,

it doesn't matter whatever you're comfortable with.

The most important thing is that you buy a safe helmet,

and then as always be safe and enjoy the ride.