Road Safety Thread

Oops I should have known the sound debate would get lively. Back to other less controversial ideas about safety.

scot in exile said:

Mel are you an AMA member?

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Dr.D said:

No is there any advantage?

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Bringing this back to the safety issue, I believe the question is regarding the AMAs lobbying efforts. I was a member for many years and the biggest thing I remember them lobbying against are helmet laws. In my opinion, not exactly a safety first position. Haven't been associated with them in several years, perhaps their focus has changed.

Sensfan said:

My personal rules are fairly simple..trust NOBODY PERIOD, cars, trucks bikes, anybody who is out on the road, I assume they are cutting me off at any second. I also won’t follow pickups,unless they have a closed tonneau cover, no boats , campers, anything tied or strapped to any vehicle, and no older cars...there is a reason why there are mufflers on the side of the highway.

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I agree 100%. I ride like I'm invisible out there. I'm not an assh**e out there but as previously stated I am aggressive and I'm tense as I have to expect the unexpected. As the old saying goes, there are two kinds of riders. The riders that have been down and the riders that are going to go down.

Dr.D said:

No is there any advantage?

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Free towing

AMA? What has the American Medical Association to do with this?

GPMAZ said:

Bringing this back to the safety issue, I believe the question is regarding the AMAs lobbying efforts. I was a member for many years and the biggest thing I remember them lobbying against are helmet laws. In my opinion, not exactly a safety first position. Haven't been associated with them in several years, perhaps their focus has changed.

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That would not be safety first I agree but if the majority wants freedom of choice and it just happens to be foolish then represent the members. If a rider wants to take more personal risk that does not directly affect others then he should be able to do make that choice. Somethings like helmets should not be in the law but I choose to wear one.

How much law for safety should be enacted? The video says red is more visible and possibly more safe than black Should it be law then to have to wear a fully read suit while riding?

Take this as the friendly banter that it is but not without the possibility of provoking thought.

How about including a discourse on proper footwear?

Gloves? Pants? Helmet style? Jacket?

Side arms???

Boog said:

On the topic of noticeable sound, I do not think the "beep" has the noticeable sound required power of frequency to overcome highway noise level/sound. Years ago, I read a study about the dual tone horns many automobiles have and that it does overcome the noise level we have at highway speeds. The tiny sound from the OEM horns is questionable to me. I upgraded to a louder horn as I know many of you have done. I have used it to alert cage driver who are entering my lane and see their startled reaction when it sounds off. Before I added it to Brahma, the OEM horn seemed to go unnoticed. I have not conducted any actual test and evaluation on this topic and have not read any other studies recently about the "Beep" horns effectiveness. I just do not believe they are adequate...

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Here in Texas trying to stop a lane invading trafficker's action with a HORN! is not only fruitless but dangerous. I assume that they are going to try and kill me just because they can, and I avoid the contact. I have had people purposely cross in front of me or invade my lane because they are in a car and that means they have the right to what whatever they want when confronting a motorcycle. When I pass them they have their kids cover they ears so they are not permanently injured by the blast of my TOR pipes. Best yet are the tall truck bully drivers. If one of these beasts get on your tail you beta move. These bullies get pleasure out of intimidating others with the trucks. Don't matter to them if they kill you. It'll be a hit and run you over any way. Clear Lake was not like that 5 or 10 years ago. Something has hit our shores.

1K9 said:

Here in Texas trying to stop a lane invading trafficker's action with a HORN! is not only fruitless but dangerous. I assume that they are going to try and kill me just because they can, and I avoid the contact. I have had people purposely cross in front of me or invade my lane because they are in a car and that means they have the right to what whatever they want when confronting a motorcycle. When I pass them they have their kids cover they ears so they are not permanently injured by the blast of my TOR pipes. Best yet are the tall truck bully drivers. If one of these beasts get on your tail you beta move. These bullies get pleasure out of intimidating others with the trucks. Don't matter to them if they kill you. It'll be a hit and run you over any way. Clear Lake was not like that 5 or 10 years ago. Something has hit our shores.

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I hear you brother, the horn is only able to get attention. And being a sailor, I fully understand the low of tonnage.

@Dr.D on the proper footwear note, I got a chance to use my toe on the way home today.

I am still on the loaner F800ST and today was a beautiful afternoon ride. I am becoming more accustomed to the bike and its nice lean angle. While going around a corner at an intersection, I guess I pulled the bike over quite a bit and my toe (pointing down) made contact with the pavement. I had just up shifted to 2nd and relaxed the foot when it happened. My heel was firmly planted on the peg and the toe was pulled under being forced backwards. I could not overcome the sudden surprise with force and the back tire lifted off the asphalt just a tad as I eased out of the lean to regain my foot.

I am wearing a sturdy pair of leather hiking boots and they held up nicely to the abuse. The toe is scuffed a little. My foot is sore from the awkward bend but I just did a quick 1.5 mile walk to the store with no issues.

Two lessons I take away: 1. foot wear is absolutely important as I have not had this happen on a street bike ever before. Caught me off guard for such a thing. 2. Do not panic if the back tire bounces in a lean, maintain control, steady throttle, no brakes and ease up as needed to gain back the traction before it causes a high-side.

scot in exile said:

The people who drive with everything hanging off the mirror should be put up against the wall and shot(not really) as the rozzer showed in the video it is easy for bikes and not just bikes to be invisible to other road users, while on the subject -remember and keep scanning as you are riding, you only have a 3deg view of true focus so keep scanning

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When reading a book this may only be a width of 2 or 3 words; however, at a 150 feet tis about 8 feet. Technically our eyes do not actually scan at a constant velocity, they saccade. Saccade is the rapid eye movement between fixation points of focus. Interestingly, our brain automatically disconnects during saccades so that our vision is not blurred. These are some of the reasons the degree of visual excentricity of an intruding object or vehicle increases our perception response time.
Just sayin' . . .

I need a horn that fires blank 12 gauge shot gun shells. Two or three of those ought to get me noticed. A magazine of about ten should get me through a days ride.