Wearing helmets is a safety issue that can save your life in the case of an accident. More lives have been saved and more injuries have been minimized or avoided because of wearing helmets. Not wearing a helmet can also affect your bike insurance should you ever have an accident and not be wearing it. Whether it is law or not, you can always decide to ride without one. If you are lucky you will have a safe and uneventful ride but consequences of riding without a helmet can include: getting a ticket, getting a bump on the head, losing your jaw, nose, ear or eye, getting a neck injury or even death. They are not as effective in injury/death protection as they could be, but to improve them means additional weight and who would/could wear one that weighs 40 pounds? Some people believe they are so safe that while wearing them they take larger risks wearing them than when not, thus inviting trouble. The foam-like material in your helmet compresses resulting in a spreading/slowing of pressure away from what would otherwise be a localized point of impact, so you greatly diminish the odds of brain tissue tearing if you use one. Full-face helmets save your jaw and teeth better than do 3/4 or 1/2-shells. But after all you have a right to decide which type you want to wear, if any.