Scare tactics?
Depends on your personal experience. I witnessed (post event) a Gold Wing rider (open face helmet) hit in the face by a big piece of Tire debris on freeway at 75 mph. Knocked him clean off his bike, he was run over by following traffic. Dead. Sad. Eye witness confirmed. Would a full face saved him? Dunno? Maybe.

i've been hit by road crap several times over many decades (300K miles) of riding. Usually in the leg, chest but sometimes in the head. Like the huge (6 ft. wing span) Owl that hit me at night on the Interstate at 75 mph. Full face helmet saved me that time.

I like my Shoei flip up helmet. The Flip Up design is good in town and slow riding and hot weather and riding off road. Good for communication when stopped, nice not having to remove helmet. (like open face)

Once underway, just lower/lock the chin bar and you've got a full face with a quality shield protecting you. I like it! I've had rocks and other serious debris hit my shield at high speeds. Glad I had the shield there! How about you?

Lots of bad things can happen in a crash, this learned during 8 years racing AMA Enduro series. Siding and rolling don't always get it (but that IS good advice!)

I wish I had a picture of the woman I met who hit the road face first wearing Harley style "Beanie" Nazi type helmet. After 6 plastic surgeries over 8 years she still had NO CHIN and one side of her face ... was sort of ... gone. Hard to look at her. A full face helmet would have totally saved her.

All that said, it's always a personal choice. Risk management is up to individual.
Motorcycle riding is dangerous no matter what gear we wear.
Stay safe out there.

PS: If I wanted to scare you I'd tell you details about the dead riders I've come across at accidents and what that was like!

I could well believe the Wing rider episode. You do have unbelievable amounts of tyre debris strewn all over the interstates in the US - complete treads in one piece, hundreds of smaller bits scattered over a mile or so, wire bird nests in the lanes etc.

I came to the conclusion that the truck speed limit wasn't the posted one but whatever the tyres could take without exploding. We got hit by tyre debris several times - fortunately not large lumps but enough for us to become very wary when we heard a flap flap flap noise on a nearby truck.

I tried to find a large piece in a location where I could stop for a photograph but this is the best I could do on the St Louis ring road:

Spot on!
You won't find "Re-Tread" tires on cars anymore but Semi Trucks still use retreads. I used to commute from L.A. to San Fran and back for about 10 years. 450 miles each way. All on Interstate 5. I've seen Semi truck tires blow out several times and of course a TON of tire debris all over the roads.

The most memorable I-Witness case was when the compact car loaded with farm workers ahead of me was overtaking a Semi truck. Suddenly, a tire exploded and a HUGE piece of tire went flying and smashed into the car's windshield, smashing it. The truck never missed a beat and continued on. The car severed wildly around but made it safely over to shoulder.

I continued on ... got the trucks plate number and called it into CHP. No idea the outcome. The driver can always claim ignorance but they know damn well when a tire blows. (I've talked to them)

On my bike I always pass quickly when going by a Semi truck. In Arizona and some other states truck speed limits are 75 mph. California is 55 mph. This translates to real world speed of 80+ in Arizona and 65 mph in California. 80 mph, IMO, is insane for a 20,000 lb. truck in questionable condition.

Ride safe out there!

It's crazy out there! About 30-40 miles north of Salt Lake City on I15 I was cruising about 75-80mph and was overtaken by a huge flatbed truck with something that looked like an aero engine under a cover on the flatbed. He came past me at around 90mph and then under a bridge that I was convinced by eye was too low. I hit the brakes hard but he got through with about 2" clearance. If he'd been in my lane he wouldn't have made it. Either a very skilled or a very stupid driver.

There's so many trucks on the interstates it's hard to avoid them. I started to wonder what percentage of the total traffic they made up and to pass the time (!) between Kansas City and St Louis spent a while counting vehicles on the other carriageway - trucks in one category, everything else - buses, bikes, cars, vans, pickups, everything, in another. The trucks were nearly half the total. And that's in numbers; in size they dominated everything.

Euro trucks are both smaller and engine speed limited to 56mph by law - I can just about keep with them on my 125 (and no flying strips of rubber)

Which is a great reason to avoid Interstates! Sometimes you have no choice and need to ride a section of Interstate to get from A to B, but they can really suck.

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Bruce Clarke - 2020 Yamaha XV250