Scooter Hire in Greece – Part 3, Helmets

This is part three of a series by Suntrap Holidays about scooter hire in Greece, and believe me, if you’re thinking of hiring a scooter for the first time, you really need to read this.

In case you haven’t read parts one and two yet, all about driving licences, insurance and what to do when you get to the Greek scooter hire shop, here’s a link to the earlier parts of this series:

Scooter Hire in Greece – The Series

Right, here in part three, we look at helmets.    Do you wear one or don’t you?  Read this and then you will know:

Helmets – Do I need one?

When I first encountered scooter hire in Rhodes in 1986, on my second ever holiday in the Greek Islands, there was no

Scooter Hire in Greece - A Red One, courtesy of hellas, picasaweb.google.com

mention of helmets, and literally nobody wore them.  The rental shops just didn’t have them, so you never got offered one.  About ten years later, I remember arriving in a Greek scooter hire shop and noting for the first time a shelf with maybe two or three dusty helmets on it.  Still, nobody was offered one at that time.

“turn round like all the locals do”

By about 2000, though, there were stories of fines, quite high fines, for people stopped without a helmet.  I took all this with a pinch of salt until one day someone we met on the beach said he had actually BEEN fined the day before, the equivalent of about £80 I think it was – high enough for me to take note anyway.  So I went to the bike shop and said – what do you think?  He said, yes, if I was stopped there would be a fine, but said, “You can have a helmet, yes, but if you don’t want one, just look out for the roadblocks and if you see one, turn round like all the locals do.  They’re only ever on the main road round the island, so you can always double back and go down a back road.”  OK, that’s what I’ll do, I thought.

Sure enough, a couple of days later we were riding along the main road, and in the distance I could see several police cars and police motorcyclists.  No other car was anywhere near them, because one after another, as soon as each driver spotted the checkpoint, he did a quick U-turn and went back the way he had come.  It was hilarious, and the police must have been used to it because they just stood around in the sun as the line of traffic came towards them, turned and went back again!  Well, we did the same, and that was that.

When I’m on one of my Greek Islands holidays these days, a wry smile crosses my face when I pass a local scooter rider, because the locals still don’t wear helmets despite the rules.  The scooter is still a key part of the family transportation system for most families as it has been for generations, and they obviously don’t feel the need to change how they use their scooters to suit some new law.

“babies, dogs, piles of bricks”

You will see them laden down with bags of shopping, numerous children, babies, dogs, piles of bricks, lengths of timber, crates of beer, you name it.  The lights are often broken, there is not a helmet in sight even on the children, you can barely tell what colour the bike is let alone what make it is, and yet somehow they get away with it in all senses.  They never seem to get stopped by the police, and they never seem to fall off – or if they do, they’re going so slowly that it’s not serious.

Tourists, on the other hand, these days almost all wear helmets, and are offered them as a matter of course now.  This is

Greek Islands Scooter Hire - Local Lads, courtesy of flickr.com user: daquellamanera

a little sad I think, because the helmets get warm in the sun and it’s not quite the same experience as feeling the cooling breeze in your hair.  Also, I have to say that the helmets you get in the scooter shops in most Greek Islands holiday resorts – well, let’s just say that they are helmets in the legal sense, but they’re usually old, scratched and quite likely have been dropped many times by unwitting holidaymakers who don’t realise that a dropped helmet is only fit for the bin (they can crack on impact after being dropped).  So, from a safety point of view I think you are only getting limited protection.  It’s better than none, of course.

“pretty tight fit”

When you get to the scooter hire shop, you should be offered a helmet once you have sorted out your bike, but before you pay up, make sure you ask if they have helmets.  Some bike rental shops have half-helmets and others have full-face ones.  You may not get a choice, but if you do, go for a full-face one as they offer more protection.  Helmets come in different sizes, so you may need to try a few.  There should be very little movement once it’s on your head – you’re looking for a pretty tight fit, within reason.  Once you have the right size, adjust the chin strap so that this too is tight but not uncomfortable.

One thing to look out for with scooter hire in Greece – there are a lot of different scooter models, and although most of them have a lockable compartment under the seat that’s big enough to store the helmet when you’re parked, some of these compartments are only big enough for one helmet and some fit two.  If like me you decide that scooter hire in Greece is always two people, one bike, then it’s important to check whether your model of bike will fit two helmets – unless you want to carry one of the helmets everywhere you go.

If you insist on hiring a scooter without taking a helmet, most shops will allow it, but I don’t recommend it.  No, whether you are looking at scooter hire in Greece for the first time, or whether you are an experienced rider, I would advise that you always wear a helmet.  OK so it may not be in the best condition, but it’s a helmet and better than nothing.  You could avoid a hefty fine too.

So, having sorted out your helmet, the next step is to get to the bike and look it over.  That’s the subject of the next part of this series, so to please just click the link to read:

Scooter Hire in Greece – Part 4, Checking the Bike

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