Ducati Monster Forum

When you go out with your bike, do yo cary your helmet with you or leave ti on your bike ? My 796 has a security cable that ties under the seat but its always hot and hard to open the underseat compartment :-/ . A lot of times i see people just leaving their helmet on the handlebars, don't they get stolen ?

i don't leave it on the bike.  I carry it.  I see some co-workers leave their helmet on the bike baking outside in the sun.  That's just ruining it.  Besides, I am too poor to leave it on the bike with the flimsy lock.  In fact, on bike night gatherings with hundreds of bikes, I carry it with me.  It is perfect time for thieves  to blend in and steal your gear and even your bike.

My helmet was $525.   No need to tell me how good those $100 helmets are, I don't believe you.  But I digress.  I don't leave it anywhere but in my garage or house, or in my hand.

I take all of my stuff with me. I actually caught a kid trying to steal a buddy's helmet at a twisty mountain motorcycle hangout and have heard of people pooring fluids (or peeing into the helmet), throwing dirt in them, or simply cutting the helmet strap and taking the helmet. I simply don't trust anyone. The majority of the time, when I leave my bike somewhere, it's either within my sight or the sight of friends. When on multi-day trips, it is not uncommon for us to sneak our bikes into the hotel room with us.

Hooligans  [laugh] [laugh]

Yeppers!

(http://www.desmodemon.com/hotel_room.jpg)

My wife is disabled, so if I make reservations in advance, I make sure I have an outside, ground-level , handicapped room. Sometimes they have larger entrance doors and more interoir room. To get the  bikes into the room in the picture above, we had to walk them down a little corridor to the room's door.

When commuting to work, I bring my helmet in and leave it at my cube. I've got a nice shelf that keeps it high enough that it's above the cube walls, and serves as a great reminder to everyone that I'm not going to be there after 5:31pm.

When I'm out for a ride, I either keep it with me, on the ground next to the bike, or on the handlebars. Depends on where I am, and how long I'll be there. Quaint small town where we'll be in sight of the bikes - on the ground/handlebars. Have to walk a little distance and be out of sight of the bikes, its coming with me.

At the end of the ride, when I'm "home" (wherever home happens to be that night), my lid comes inside with me and stays in the room.

I've learned my lesson and don't leave it on the tank or seat, even for a moment. Too easy to bump the bike or the wind to catch and drop your lid on the ground, usually resulting in some nice new scratches.

Similar to above. I leave it on a shelf at work and in the garage at home. When I'm out and about it depends on how long I'll be. If its just a short stop I can't be bothered to chain it to the hook under the seat, but otherwise that is what I do. No problems so far.

I have a cable lock under the seat of my bike.  It gets locked up there and placed on the seat.  If I'm going to be quick and in a decent area I'll leave it on the handlebar, but that's rare. 

I bring my helmet inside wherever I go.

There is someone at work who regularly leaves their helmet and jacket on their bike; I can't believe they've never been stolen. 

Great advice about where NOT to put your lid.
4 years ago, I sat my 1/2 hour old Shoei RF1000 on my seat "just for a second". It fell and made a one point landing on the chin vent and broke it. Dammit!

 ;D My £500 Arai never leaves my sight. I take my helmet bag with me, so I can sling it over my shoulder. Makes me cringe when I see nice lids perched on mirror stems and suchlike. Each to their own.

If I'm going to be out of sight of my bike, I always take it with me.

Leaving a helmet on the mirror in the sun all day is not good for the life of your helmet.

Rule of thumb:

It protects your head, so treat it like your head.

It comes with me when I park the bike at a store, cafe or in the driveway.  That way, I avoid having it stolen, rained on (or in if it were hung from the 'bars), or simply kicked accidentally.

It gets washed, especially the visor and kept on a shelf so it's ready for the next ride.

Thanks guys, so far I've always kept it with me. Wind blew first helmet, a $50 cycle gear helmet I got to pass the MSF off the learner bike and broke the visor mount. Never leaving my Arai on the seat and I guess from all your input never leaving it on the bike!

I always take it with me wherever I go.  I am afraid that, if someone steal it, I'd stuck there.  Can't ride home without a helmet in Washington State.  :D

One time I left on a handle bar , while I pulled over for a smoke, It feel and got few dings . There after its either with me or on ground .

I use the under the seat cable lock thats there for locking up your helmet. Never had a problem with it being stolen or damaged by sun, rain or vandals and I live in Chicago. I'm pretty certain these helmets are designed to withstand temperature fluctuations over extended periods of time without being ruined otherwise you got yourself a cheap ass helmet.

The cable that comes with the bike is pretty flimsy, so I bought a thicker cable for bicycles and it works like a champ. I even lock up two helmets (mine and my wife's) when we want to walk around hands free. No problems yet

I have used a disc lock reminder cable to wrap around the chin bar twice and hung the helmet off the passenger footpeg on the right hand side of the bike while the disc lock itself is locked through the triangle of the footpeg mounting bracket/rearset....this is in situations where I am away from my bike for like an hour or a short time....more than an hour generally speaking, it comes with me, like when I am going in to work...

I always take mine with me.  Particularly at work, because (1) we have a minor problem with vandalism in our parking garage, and (2) one of my coworkers likes to grab it off my desk and go walking around with it to scare people.  I'd hate to deprive him of that small joy. 

It goes where I go. On short stops, I don't even take it off my head. Like, if I have to go for a leak and get going. I actually got myself a hydration pack so I can drink from the pipe without the hat coming off...

I leave it at the discotech.

(http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3360/3505935102_53986ba36d_b.jpg)

I usually carry mine with me, but I also have a 3' cable lock that I keep coiled up on one of the grab handles. Anytime I don't want to carry my helmet with me I uncoil enough of the cable to loop it around the chin bar and lock it back to the frame. The cable is long enough that if I don't want to carry my jacket I can run it up one of the sleeves to lock the jacket to the bike as well.

I'm digging your motogadget gauge. The helmet, not quite as much.

Neither my Nolan X-Lite 801 Checa Replica or my Shark RSI Fusion stays on the bike, where I go, they go . . . ! ! !

Nuff said  ! ! ! !

I treat it like my wallet or checkbook. It never leaves my sight. Like a woman and her purse I never take my eyes off it. I feel the same way about my bikes... I always try to park them in the safest spot I can find or where I can see them. Can never do that 100% of the time but I try as often as I can. The helmet is always in my hand or within reach. [thumbsup] I hate thieves and destructive punks! >:( They're everywhere. [bang]

appart from I said before, what he said ↑

I carry mine w/ me.  Too paranoid I guess.

same.  If I can't get to it within a couple steps it's in my hand or near me.  The exception of course is when I'm somewhere private.

For other situations... example, went on an overnighter with some buddies and we stopped in Havasu for lunch.  I locked my jacket and my helmet to my bars with this:
http://www.helmetlok.com/all-products/1-helmetlok/27-helmetlok-chrome-rubberised-with-cable (http://www.helmetlok.com/all-products/1-helmetlok/27-helmetlok-chrome-rubberised-with-cable)

(http://www.helmetlok.com/phpthumb/phpThumb.php?src=/home2/helmetlo/public_html/components/com_virtuemart/shop_image/product/resized/HELMETLOK____Chr_4ebef0ee166eb_400x400.jpg)

ran the cable through a jacket arm and the helmet locked it to the bars between the clamps and kind of wrapped it up  on the tank so it wouldn't go anywhere.

Gracias. 

It's the still-black parts of the helmet that are buggin' ya, right?   ;D

Disco boooooooooy, run to toilet and comb your hair;
Disco boooooooooy!, shake it more than three times and you're playing with it...raaaaaaarrrr
While you're standing there.

 ;D

If i'm out on a ride and the bike is in sight the helmet stays on the ground, on bike nights i take it w/ me.

I always take mine with me. At work I have a cubbyhole for it.
In SF you never know what the weather is going to do next. Or rather you never know in what form water will soak your hat. Usually fog, occasionally, mist and fog, sometimes rain, almost always really damp sea breeze, and it's not unheard of crackhead pee.

this wouldn't happen to be an odd little hotel in Elkins, WV that was formerly a hospital, would it? I ask because of the odd window into the HALLWAY... Our rooms looked identical to this...

I got a Bell Star for Christmas....went for a ride yesterday and I left it in the garage, thanks for reminding me!

I keep a 5 foot bicycle cable lock in my jacket pocket to lock the helmet and jacket to the bike [drink]

Of course I've been guilty of drunkenly tossing it on the floor or leaving it on the night stand but thats never a pleasant sight in the morning. For a while I used to flush it but I heard that can clog your toilet so now it goes right in the trash.  ;D

We were playing around in the mountains of northern Georgia and it was getting late during leaf-looker season. We wound up finding a room at this hotel in Gainesville, GA. The window in that picture barely looks out to a central atrium, but the room was pretty close to being in a corridor of the hotel.

Well after last nights trip to the shops, I've discovered a new place to leave my helmet....in the butchers....for 2 hours.

So lucky the people there know me and kindly left my helmet with the bookies next door for me to collect when I came back in a blind panic!