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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

#171

Post by [deleted] »

radlad wrote: post #155
kjkjadksj wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some “militant” urban cycling commuters do things like attach a pool noodle horizontally and vertically to create space and visibility. I’d probably hazard a guess that avoiding highway miles also lowers your risk profile substantially.

Freeway driving tends to be the safest driving, in any vehicle. This is because speed deltas are typically low, and there are no cross-streets or stopping. https://safetrec.berkeley.edu/2023-safetrec-traffic-safety-f... (Ctrl+F "Crash Location of Motorcycle Fatal Crashes")

[deleted]

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

#172

Post by 0_____0 »

K0balt wrote: post #146
0_____0 wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not preferred for inline connections, but context is important. In a field installation, you can do up a solder-type butt splice with a lighter if you really need to, whereas crimping requires specialized tools.

True enough, but I would take it one farther and say that a properly executed hand splice is arguably preferable to solder if vibration is a factor. Also, even less tools needed, though not everyone carries a little tube of conductive grease with their electrical tape. (But they should, it makes a decent splice immune to corrosion and a solid, “permanent” repair. ) I have had many, many soldered splices fail on gener…

I thought electrical wire was generally ~100% Cu.

Some of this also comes down to harness design and how it's put back together after the splice. Ideally, the exposure of the splice itself to flexing is very low. I reckon if it's strain relieved/mechanically fastened well and encapsulated, it doesn't really matter what style of splice you use.

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

#173

Post by liotier »

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…

1991, first time riding a motorcycle... After a 15 minutes instruction course near the barn from which we extracted the 200 cm³ bike, off we were in Idaho's mountains. As a 15 years-old French person, the whole experience was exhilarating and it wasn't long before I started to relax and open the throttle a bit on the dirt track...

As an avid mountain bike cyclist back in France, I hung to what seemed familiar - which worked well enough until the first sharp bend came... It came way too fast, I panicked, cycling reflexes took over, I shifted my weight back and pressed both handle levers hard - getting the (to a cyclist) very unexpected result of both disengaging the clutch and thus losing all engine braking while locking the front wheel hard (why did they put the front break where the rear, which helps me control slides, is supposed to be ?)... I was catapulted, followed by the bike... Nothing broken - just bruises, rashes and the flattened ego of a lucky idiot.

As a daily cyclist, being a motorcycle passenger on big engines always terrifies me: I'm on two wheels, with bicycle-like positions and trajectories... But everything happens monstrously too fast, my instincts for braking and acceleration are all out of calibration, so I always feel that we cannot possibly survive the next turn !

So, yes - I recommend not mixing bicycling and motorcycling.

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

#174

Post by WalterBright »

kjkjadksj wrote: post #153
WalterBright wrote: post #132

The issue with brake lights is they are binary on/off. It would likely be better if the brightness would vary by how hard the braking is. Like getting brighter and brighter and then rapidly flashing.

If the binary isn’t working then you are following too close and no method is truly safe

> If the binary isn’t working then you are following too close

There isn't always have a choice. If you open a gap in traffic, another car will simply change lanes into it.

> no method is truly safe

That's not a reason for not making things safer.

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

#175

Post by WalterBright »

garaetjjte wrote: post #164
WalterBright wrote: post #132

The issue with brake lights is they are binary on/off. It would likely be better if the brightness would vary by how hard the braking is. Like getting brighter and brighter and then rapidly flashing.

Brightness would be hard to discern in the sun. Cars have center stop light strip, it would be cool if amount of illuminated segments would be proportional to deceleration. Probably not legal though.

> Brightness would be hard to discern in the sun

Nothing is perfect.

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

#176

Post by godelski »

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…

What's interesting is fatality rates are increasing but injury rates are decreasing.

Seems like something else might be at play. If it is more SUVs and Pickups then I think a brake light helmet would do a lot considering the danger those cars present is being harder to see those below them. But if it is something else, then maybe not as good of a solution.

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

#177

Post by scblock »

bastawhiz wrote: post #64
scblock wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

An existing brake light product, the Billy light from Clearwater, integrates with the BMW canbus to pull the bike's acceleration data and use that as a basis for what this light appears to do.

I can imagine there's enough of a market for BMW accessories that they can make it work, but if you want to address other bikes with the same device, you need a different approach.

Agreed, I was more responding to the idea of tying into existing sensors or motorcycle data as noted above. The light I mentioned is part of a bigger lighting system that works through a CAN interface and has all kinds of control of settings through a somewhat convoluted overlay on existing bike inputs, like press this switch, then these, then turn the wonder wheel to adjust brightness.

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

#178

Post by markbnj »

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…

As an almost-daily motorcyclist with 15k miles on my current machine (Suzuki DL650), I absolutely agree that the increased proportion of pickup trucks on the road increases the risks for riders, however I suspect it is mainly because the larger, heavier vehicles aggravate the effects of a general deterioration in driving skills and attitudes. One thing about riding a motorcycle is that you are, unless you have a death wish, an active and observant participant in what you are doing, which alone separates you from a seeming majority of those driving cars and trucks. You become much more aware of what others on the road are doing, and what they are doing, in large numbers, is acting like twits.

Driving crazily fast in residential areas, rolling through stop signs, blowing off yellow and even red lights, ignoring turn signals, aggressively tailgating cars, trucks, even motorcyclists like myself, tapping away at their phones and steering with their knees. I think I see just about every variation of all of these things at least several times a week, to the extent that I have thought about the idea of creating some kind of org or foundation or even just a blog to advocate a return to taking driving seriously. I don't have a lot of confidence that I could make a difference though. I suspect a lot of the problem is simply many more cars on infrastructure that we haven't put enough money into for decades, but I'm no expert.

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

#179

Post by nandomrumber »

haiku2077 wrote: post #170
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…

When I am sitting on my motorcycle I am taller than most people's sitting position in their trucks. While filtering I can look down into their vehicles and see what they're doing on their phones.

At first glance I want to strongly disagree, but who am I to argue with your experience.

What bike do you ride, and what vehicles are you calling trucks? Specifically.

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

#180

Post by haiku2077 »

nandomrumber wrote: post #179
haiku2077 wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I am sitting on my motorcycle I am taller than most people's sitting position in their trucks. While filtering I can look down into their vehicles and see what they're doing on their phones.

At first glance I want to strongly disagree, but who am I to argue with your experience. What bike do you ride, and what vehicles are you calling trucks? Specifically.

An F750GS and a DRZ400SM are my main bikes (out of an entire garage full of stuff). For trucks I'm talking about F-150s and similar.
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