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My quest to make motorcycle riding that tad bit safer

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

#121

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…

I ride a bicycle, and I deliberately mount the rear light directly at the eye level of typical sedans and SUVs. It's not connected to the brakes, but I find that having the light pulse is enough.

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

#122

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…

Take a look into Lumos bike helmets: https://ridelumos.com/products/remotes-and-mounts

They started via a kickstarter in 2015: https://www.google.com/search?q=lumos+helmet+history

...they kindof "always" had reliability issues w/ detecting braking accurately, I think switching between the handlebar remote/sensor or phone sensors. It's an existing product with a direct analogue to your project goal, and minimally you could trawl for contacts within customer reviews or online reports to get some ideas about the good/bad in this problem space.

Beware of patents (as relevant), but it's a noble and useful project and goal.

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

#124

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…

I wonder if that's the one the author refers to when they say, "I purchased one of the few similar products on the market. To my surprise, it relied solely on a basic tilt switch, rattling excessively during rides despite claims of “advanced technology."

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

#125
post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh, now I see that it's just based on an accelerometer. Marketing it as "wireless" seems to suggest that it is monitoring the brake lights rather than "automatically" flashing based on motion.

Tbf, even cars put the brake lights on based purely on deceleration nowadays in addition to triggering when the brake pedal is pressed. It's covered by legislation in both EU and US, since BEVS and PHEVs can have very aggressive regen braking, and the legislation basically says if your rate of deceleration is above X, then lights need to be on even if the brake pedal hasn't been pressed.

Yes and my Kia ev6 needed a software update to do that. I had a couple incidents where people were surprised by my deceleration before the update.

Now in regen the brake lights come on above a certain harvest level.

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

#126
It's a nice story. Some statistics might help motivate concern. E.g., The disproportionate risk per mile for motorcycling is chilling. But in California "rear end" as a category appears to be only about 15% of all MC accidents, and even then the category doesn't distinguish being hit from hitting.

I suspect a lot of the effort here is marketing, so you might extract extra value (and do more good) with a complementary product.

A big benefit might come from controllable red light and warning bell for the rider when you're more than 15% over speed limit. Speed is the biggest risk by far, and also the risk you can control (since no brake light can defend against the inattentive driver). It's way too easy to not realize how fast you're going.

Indeed, for that you could also factor in stopping distances. Starting out with lighter, nimble bikes, I got in real trouble with the 650+ lb monsters that dither about stopping. Those would get a lower threshold. And you'd apply a higher threshold for open road vs. traffic, etc.

Then build out a UI workflow and logging, and it might grow into an interesting intelligent copilot product line addressing all the pilot-controllable factors. As a motorcyclist, it's really on you to save your own bacon.

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

#127
post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

It's a matter of preference - I'm in the UK and I have my brakes the Euro way, front on the left. With most brakes swapping around is trivial.

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

#128

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…

thanks for your comment, the device is self leveling, I live in a hilly Scotland, it keeps adjusting itself with the slopes and only reacts to sudden changes.

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

#129

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…

I have a smiley face rendered in retroreflective tape on the back of mine. I figure it's both bright and triggers the very sensitive human visual system for detecting faces. It's hard to say how much it helps, especially since I put it on basically the same time I started riding at all, but I don't often have people tailgating me. ed: and it was only a couple bucks, that's nice.

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

#130
post #12
post #8

Out of curiosity, wouldn't an accelerometer alone not work for this purpose? I see you've hooked it up with engine RPM as well, but realistically you want to indicate when you're slowing down, no matter the reason, right? Is there something I'm fundamentally missing here? This is a great idea though, and definitely something that more bikes should come stock with. There's a very clear benefit for safety.

Thank you for your question, it does not hook with the engine RPM, but I did have an issue with the sample rate syncing with the engine rpm therefore picking up noise, I solved that issue with randomizing the sample interval with pseudo random numbers.

You should also soft-mount the accelerometer to minimize vibration transmission.
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