In my post So You Want To Buy a Scooter I spoke a bit about the image factor.

The image factor is something that effects us in most areas of life and is connected with ego and the like. Think about it, as a husband I want to be the best husband I can be, but if I’m not that good, a great second best is that the image I project in public is that of a good husband. As a worker, I want to be the best in my field, but if I am not, then at least I can project that image. At times this is helpful and motivates me to actually be that which I am ‘pretending’ to be. But it can be unhelpful as well, as it creates a lie, projects a false me. How can I be known, really known, if that which I show to people is never the real deal. Where am I going with this, and how does it relate to helmets? Bear with me.

Last night I was being mocked for liking scooters by a motor bike rider. “Why spend $5000 on a scooter when you can get a great motor bike for that?” “Why would you want to sit up, when you can lie down, it looks so dorky?” “On a maxi scooter, is it not dangerous to be travelling that fast sitting up facing the wind?” and so on. I began my ‘peacemaker speech’ with, “Well, I don’t have a problem with motor bikes, in fact I can understand someone wanting to own a bike and a scooter, I think they have different purposes, give a different experience. I think it’s like a desert and a main meal, you don’t decide one from the other, you can choose to have both, and once you decide that then you decide what you want within each of these choices.” Maybe you agree, maybe you don’t. My motor bike instructor would agree, he just bought an Aprilia to go with a 600cc bike! (Just quietly he prefers the Aprilia)

But, here’s the helmet link…Deb, the person to whom I was chatting about this, made a comment regarding image and said something like, “even the 1/2 helmets and no safety gear is part of the image, smart, real smart!”

BANG - I was convicted. It was not the first time someone had made comments about the type of helmets worn predominantly by scooter riders, and I would have to say, many times I had said to myself, “Yes, the trendy 1/2 helmets are the way to go on a scooter because…because why? Because it goes with the image! The carefree, slightly retro (especially if you are on a Vespa/Lambretta restoration), sunshine, relaxed pace”, you get my drift? - Image!

Even now as I go to the Genuine Accessories webpage and look at the different models and styles available, I warm to the ones that fit “the image”, despite the known dangers and endless stories I hear about what a fall from a bike will do to an unprotected face.

The choice that my sister-in-law, Anne would choose is number one, the full face protection. She is a nurse and has had the pleasure of piecing back together many a face that has come ‘unstuck’ after an accident on a bike in which the driver or pillion was wearing a half helmet. Even last night at the party I went to, a couple pulled in on an Aprilia SR 50cc, both with full face, both with padded jackets and gloves. She happens to be a nurse, and made a comment about wanting to keep her nose on her face, not left behind on the road.