As a retired paramedic, I encourage everyone to ride without head and protective body clothing. The perferred 3-season outfit where comfort should be the only criteria is teeshirt/shorts/sandles or Converse. OK, a windbreaker and jeans if it's a bit chilly. No one really rides in the Winter so who cares. No, actually I do recall the one guy who went down one Winter. We had to cut away thousands of dollars of Arai, Roadcrafter, and Kanetsu to do his vitals. He proved to be fine, but very angry, as I recall. But, we emergency medical folks need to maximize our per run quota and overtime. Regarding the Mass. legislation - right!, another test and stamp-off conducted by a career bureaucrat who's selection was as "closest-qualified" since he has a Schwinn, and, of course, the $50K insurance coverage, so our lobbiest friends and their incumbents PACs are sure to get their cut. So, "the more things change, the more they stay the same". However, among others, the solution may be a Constitutional amendment severly limiting the # of bills a legislator can sponsor, under pain of both financial penalty and incarceration. We may want to thow torture in on this, as well. After all, they should qualify as enemy combatants, shouldn't they? This may curtail their profligate spending and manipulative social agendas and this way we can diminish the lobbiest / legislator buddy system mentality that serves only their parochial interests and diminishes our quality of life. So, in closing, remember - don't wear a lid if you can possibly avoid it. Their heavy, hot, impair your vision and cost you money you could have spend on chrome. Yeah, you're using the - "why do pros wear this stuff?" argument. Simple, they get paid to. It has nothing to do with safety - it's all about marketing. I would agree with Jagger though, "if you're out at night on your bike - wear white!". That's my only concession even though I consider raising one's visibility somewhat ostentatious.