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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

#271

Post by sureIy »

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…

> moves the brake light up to eye level for people in SUVs

Sad that this would be needed. At that price it's insane to me. OP's article is about democratizing safety and keeping it at a low price, while this over engineered brake light is $160 plus tax. Then a 3350 mAh battery and it lasts only 8-12 hours. Crazy

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

#272

Post by daleswanson »

alamortsubite wrote: post #203
radlad wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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")

I think the confusion may be that you commented on freeway safety, whereas the comment you replied to discussed highway safety. Freeways are limited access highways; not all highways are freeways.

That's a regional difference in terms. I would generally call a limited access highway, a "highway".

https://brilliantmaps.com/wp-content/uploads/big-fast-road.j...

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

#273

Post by haiku2077 »

taneq wrote: post #229
nandomrumber wrote: post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do those two bikes have a higher / more upright riding position that a typical sportbike?

Yes. The DRZ especially is a dirt bike which is noticeably higher set than a supersports. You pay for it a bit in on-road manoeuvrability though.

Mine is the SM, which is a little shorter, but is ultra-maneuverable, far more so than a normal street bike.

"sumo is love, sumo is life"

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

#274

Post by huhkerrf »

kelnos wrote: post #202
aziaziazi wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nice idea! Cars owner sometime use a "children inside" sticker. Won’t work for a solo bike obviously but wonder if some other messages might be effective like "Dad of toddlers", "I might be a cop", "vulnerable human"… the smiley is easier to read through.

I have a negative visceral reaction to the "baby on board" stickers on cars. It feels really entitled; to me it says, "be extra careful with me, because my small child is more deserving of safety than other people".

If you'd like to be less unnecessarily cynical, you can instead read it as "there's someone in the vehicle who is more fragile, and less likely to survive an accident."

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

#275

Post by tacticus »

tass wrote: post #264
KennyBlanken wrote: post #248

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You either don't live in the US/Canada or you don't ride in areas where people drive full-size and "heavy duty" pickup trucks. The Ford F250 for example has a roof that's 7 feet high. https://www.reddit.com/r/Trucks/comments/10vb432/f250s_just_... The roof on the old F150 is barely above the door sill on the new truck. ...and then people go and put bigger rims and lift kits on them.

I wish the USA had similar regulations to Australia where modifications require engineering signoff - typically these lifted trucks would fail a rollover test amongst other broken standards (wheelbase wider than the vehicle, for example).

Australia where there's no enforcement of that engineering signoff if it's done after the initial sale.

or where ADR non compliant vehicles are fine because they're imported under the low volume\non manufacturer paths. (there's more than a few tosser owned gmc denali with lifts that bring the bonnet up to 1.7ish metres)

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

#276

Post by kjkjadksj »

KennyBlanken wrote: post #250
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.

The fact that people describe someone on a bicycle placing less than a pound of foam sticking out from their bicycle, usually shorter than the legally mandated passing distance, as "militant" when trucks and SUVs are purposefully designed by car companies to look as aggressive and angry as possible, really tells why US vulnerable road user safety is plunging while European vulnerable road user safety is going up.

It was tongue in cheek

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

#277

Post by ars »

crazygringo wrote: post #240
spacemark wrote: post #227

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Sitting on a bike, you're even shorter than a pedestrian and more likely to be completely out of sight. Not true at all except for the lowest-sitting cruisers. Most bikes put you eye level with an SUV driver and taller bikes above.

Can you explain why? I see other people saying the same thing, but it totally defies my intuition. Isn't the seat in an SUV objectively much higher up than the seat of a bike? Aren't your feet much higher on the floor of an SUV, than on a bike? What am I missing here?

They are not. You step up over the sill to get into an SUV, then your feet go down into the footwell. Your eyes end up slightly lower than a person standing (and much lower in a sedan), while a motorcycle is very close to exactly standing (they have to be able to put their feet down when stopped).

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

#278

Post by andrewflnr »

aziaziazi wrote: post #156
andrewflnr wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Nice idea! Cars owner sometime use a "children inside" sticker. Won’t work for a solo bike obviously but wonder if some other messages might be effective like "Dad of toddlers", "I might be a cop", "vulnerable human"… the smiley is easier to read through.

If I was putting a sign on my bike, it would be "Put down your phone [you asshat]". Personal insults optional, but definitely deserved. Maybe a graphic of a mangled and cracked phone would do it.

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

#279

Post by briandear »

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…

The vast majority of motorcycle crashes are due to excessive speed and inexperience of the rider. Also a car turning into the lane and failing to see the oncoming bike causes many, many accidents.

I ride in Spain, and I don’t know anything about “better visibility” requirements” compared to the U.S. — out here there are giant trucks everywhere: delivery vehicles, industrial trucks, and even Ford Raptors. My close calls have almost always been exclusively with small VW Golf and the SEAT equivalents — distracted, young drivers are (anecdotally) the biggest culprits.

Also in the U.S., you’ll have some 18 year old kid on an R1 that has no business being on an R1, often killing themselves because they think they are Fabio Quateraro at 2am.

I could be wrong, but I’m not seeing data suggesting that “big trucks” in the U.S. are causing more motorcycle deaths. When I drove a Suburban in the U.S., my visibility was far better than when I had a Maserati car. Being able to see over cars allowed me to see more easily when a moto was approaching from the front or rear.

If you want to improve moto safety in the U.S., you need harsher laws against distracted driving, you also need potentially a graduated motorcycle license system like they do in Europe so you don’t have rookies running 1000cc bikes when ten minutes of riding experience.

Trucks are not really the problem.

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

#280

Post by deepsun »

markbnj wrote: post #178
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…

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 deat…

And I also noticed it's impossible to chat on the phone while riding a motorcycle due to heavy gloves :)
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