Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

My quest to make motorcycle riding that tad bit safer

gill.net.in

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

101–110 of 390 posts

Re: My quest to make motorcycle riding that tad bit safer

#101

Post by sahil_sharma0 »

This was a great read — love how it blends real-world frustration with a builder’s mindset.

The insight about how little attention goes into motorcycle specific safety tech is spot on. The market tends to over-index on cars, but the stakes for motorcyclists are arguably higher per mile. Would love to see more open source or modular frameworks emerge in this space something others could build on top of, regionally or by use-case.

Curious if you explored anything around passive detection (weather, terrain, phone telemetry) or if most of your work focused on rider input and behavior?

Re: My quest to make motorcycle riding that tad bit safer

#102

Post by lelandfe »

beloch wrote: post #90
braunshedd wrote: post #71

When I was commuting daily in the SF fog, I discovered that putting on of these [1] on my helmet did wonders to keep cars further off my tail. It moves the brake light up to eye level for people in SUVs and also triggers on engine braking. Wish it were cheaper, but was a worthwhile investment for me. Also, consider looking into airbag vests if you ride regularly. Also expensive but (supposedly) make a huge difference…

Motorcycle fatality rates have been trending upwards, not downwards[1]. Brake lights on helmets may illuminate one of the culprits: An ever increasing number of American trucks with poor visibility. Sitting on a bike, you're even shorter than a pedestrian and more likely to be completely out of sight. Perhaps its time to start regulating for better visibility, as Europe has done. [1] https://www.iii.org/fact-statisti…

I recently had to frantically wave at a driver about to turn right over a child in the crosswalk. He literally could not see them from his vantage point in his giant SUV.

Re: My quest to make motorcycle riding that tad bit safer

#103

Post by yial »

whalesalad wrote: post #59

I actually think it is lame when engine braking activates the brake light. There are two distinct behaviors: slowing down gently, with engine braking, and slowing down intensely with physical brake application. When I am engine braking like going down a long hill I do not want to flag the drivers behind me that I am braking ... I just want to use the compression of the engine to regulate my speed. Anyone who lives in…

I’m trying to understand this comment - are you saying that there’s an advantage to drivers behind you not thinking you’re braking? As in - you don’t want them to think you’re coming to a complete stop when you’re regulating your speed?

Or are you saying that you don’t want them to think you have a skill issue ?

I live in a semi mountainous area, where people driving automatics ride their brakes most of the way down the mountains. (Relatively small mountains, elevations ranging from 1,900-2,700 with the surrounding area around 1,000-1,100 elevation. So not the same necessity of engine braking as somewhere out west where the elevation is 3-6k average with mountains up to 12-14k).

Re: My quest to make motorcycle riding that tad bit safer

#105

Post by SoftTalker »

0_____0 wrote: post #98
SoftTalker wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the ideal here would be what good trailer brake adapters do in cars that are not factory equipped with a trailer light connector: they have an adapter for each car model that plugs directly in to the stock wiring harness at the taillight. No soldering, no stripping wires, no piercing insulation. However, this complicates the product because you need an adapter for each bike manufacturer and possibly each bike…

You have to run the business case (at the end of the day all the work you do has to support this). What's the NRE/tooling and marginal cost to produce a harness variant, and how many units with that variant will you sell? Will people buy the device without the harness adapter? OE connectors are hard to get, they're typically not some stock Molex or Deutsch dealy-o. I've worked on projects where we 3D printed whole co…

Agree, it has to be practical. The better trailer light adapters do it but probably not for every obscure older car/truck model. And really the whole product idea is something that only applies to older low-end bikes. Newer/higher end bikes increasingly have this feature from the factory.

Re: My quest to make motorcycle riding that tad bit safer

#106

Post by jeffbee »

braunshedd wrote: post #71

When I was commuting daily in the SF fog, I discovered that putting on of these [1] on my helmet did wonders to keep cars further off my tail. It moves the brake light up to eye level for people in SUVs and also triggers on engine braking. Wish it were cheaper, but was a worthwhile investment for me. Also, consider looking into airbag vests if you ride regularly. Also expensive but (supposedly) make a huge difference…

Retroreflective tape on your helmet is also pretty good, and much cheaper.

Re: My quest to make motorcycle riding that tad bit safer

#107

Post by jeffbee »

wolrah wrote: post #73
abfan1127 wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

my US mazda cx5 center brake light flashes when you press the brakes.

> my US mazda cx5 center brake light flashes when you press the brakes. That is not a factory feature, it's almost certainly a dealer-installed piece of junk like this ( https://pulseprotects.com/product-info/ ) which the dealer almost certainly charged a stupid amount of money for, and as noted it's not actually legal in the US. Around me the local Hyundai/Kia chain loves to install those, and I hate them.

As you may be aware, the US is a confederation of states. The type of light that flashes several times at the initiation of braking is specifically authorized by the California Vehicle Code, and perhaps in other states.

Re: My quest to make motorcycle riding that tad bit safer

#108

Post by bityard »

Glyptodon wrote: post #70

My motorcycle pet peeve is that if you ride bicycles routinely the control differences between bikes and motorcycles become potentially dangerous, especially while riding the motorcycle. I'm not sure how to align their controls more, but if your bike has a rotary handle shifter and one day on the motorcycle you "shift" with the throttle, it's not going to go well. There are a number of other possible control goofs yo…

I ride both regularly and I don't really have a problem switching between them. For me, the overall experience is so entirely different between the two, that my brain knows to treat them differently. Just like people who own riding lawn mowers don't really have difficulties driving their car afterward.

(Blipping the throttle accidentally should never cause an emergency unless other things are already going wrong: for example, if you are riding a bike whose power is way beyond your skill level or you are following someone too closely.)

Re: My quest to make motorcycle riding that tad bit safer

#109

Post by jeffbee »

vzaliva wrote: post #84
tiew9Vii wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I regularly swap between a scooter and motorcycle, owning both. The big difference being left hand leaver on a motorcycle is the clutch, rear brake is right foot, on a scooter, no clutch so the left hand leaver is the rear break. When I first got the scooter I was expecting the obvious accidental muscle memory confusion with the left leaver when swapping vehicles. For some reason it just never happened, never acciden…

Another problem is that on most bycicles right leaver is the REAR brake, while on motoryclces it FRONT. It make difference when braking in turns. I was actually considering swapping my bike brakes left to right but it turns out one of the cables is too short. :(

US bicycles, that is. In the UK the bicycle brakes are the other way around.

Re: My quest to make motorcycle riding that tad bit safer

#110

Post by unaindz »

mithametacs wrote: post #99
beloch wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Motorcycle fatality rates have been trending upwards, not downwards[1]. Brake lights on helmets may illuminate one of the culprits: An ever increasing number of American trucks with poor visibility. Sitting on a bike, you're even shorter than a pedestrian and more likely to be completely out of sight. Perhaps its time to start regulating for better visibility, as Europe has done. [1] https://www.iii.org/fact-statisti…

[flagged]

lol what?
Post reply on HN