To reflect

Paris, may 2015.

Buying an helmet is a matter of security, since riding a motorcycle entails to wear this kind of head protector. Yet, as you enter a motorbike shop, other criteria rapidly challenge the secure one. Comfort and aesthetics are two important features for any potential customer. Half listening to the discussions occurring in there is sufficient for the questions of shape, size or colors to instantly emerge as common issues. You have also tried several helmets from different sizes and brands before finding the one meeting all these criteria… and its expected price.
But the most striking aspect of the situation has not arisen yet. Before paying for your new head companion, the cashier wondered whether you want him to put up the reflecting stickers on it. Although it may affect the aesthetic criteria at stake when choosing this peculiar helmet, you agree it would simultaneously enhance your visibility while riding. The cashier hastened to add it is a legal obligation. Not only the presence of these small reflecting stickers on any helmet is required, but their emplacements and surfaces are also precisely defined in the French law. Like other road marks or white stripes, these mere pieces of paper are tightly linked to legal documents that circumscribe their shape, their presence, but also their absence. Free of them, your helmet would be more beautiful, but you will be fined 135€ by the police and you will lose three points on your driving licence. It’s up to you.