BMW Added A Cage To The CE 04 So You Can Fall Over In Helmet-Free Peace

This is... a weird thing to design for. It's like an XY Problem on two wheels, where BMW motorbike engineers -- skilled as they are -- were fixated on "relieving" riders of the need to wear a helmet, but without asking the root question of "why do riders usually need to wear a helmet?".

The answer, of course, is that PPE is useful for mitigating the consequences of hitting the ground, a stationary object, or another vehicle. Because the laws of physics are deeply unkind to fleshy human bodies in a collision. Even crumple zones in automobiles don't mitigate the physics of a crash, hence supplementation with seat belts.

IMO, a roll cage in this application is wholly inappropriate, because it will likely just result in occupant ejection rather than any cognizable amount of protection. We need only look to trucks. No, not lifted F-150s but forklift trucks, which also have roll cages. Despite moving fairly slowly, terrain or poor driving can sometimes topple a forklift, resulting in it falling on its side. And despite the roll cage, people do still get injured. Indeed, I'm unreliably informed that in the event that a forklift is tipping over, the advice is to grab the wheel and hold on, precisely to avoid ejection and getting trapped under the roll cage itself.

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This is... a weird thing to design for. It's like an XY Problem on two wheels, where BMW motorbike engineers -- skilled as they are -- were fixated on "relieving" riders of the need to wear a helmet, but without asking the root question of "why do riders usually need to wear a helmet?".
The answer, of course, is that PPE is useful for mitigating the consequences of hitting the ground, a stationary object, or another vehicle. Because the laws of physics are deeply unkind to fleshy human bodies in a collision. Even crumple zones in automobiles don't mitigate the physics of a crash, hence supplementation with seat belts.
IMO, a roll cage in this application is wholly inappropriate, because it will likely just result in occupant ejection rather than any cognizable amount of protection. We need only look to trucks. No, not lifted F-150s but forklift trucks, which also have roll cages. Despite moving fairly slowly, terrain or poor driving can sometimes topple a forklift, resulting in it falling on its side. And despite the roll cage, people do still get injured. Indeed, I'm unreliably informed that in the event that a forklift is tipping over, the advice is to grab the wheel and hold on, precisely to avoid ejection and getting trapped under the roll cage itself.
Huh. When I saw this first, my initial instinct was that bmw has a roof rack on their motorcycle,which would be kinda cool. Still would wear protection on it though, no roll bars stopping you from falling out the side in a crash.
Darwinmobile.