Motorcycle Safety

That is a good video. I've been riding for about 20 years, and I have never heard anyone tell me that "laying down the bike" was the right thing to do-- in fact, from the start, I was always told that was generally the worst thing you could do. Sliding on the side of the bike gives you far less effective braking than using your brakes and your tires.

I assume this was a 1960s or 70s technique, maybe on big Harleys with lousy brakes or something?

 

Many years ago I read a magazine article that examined deceleration rates. One was a rider and MC sliding on the ground and one was a maximum rate stop on its wheels of a then common motorcycle. On the wheels it slowed more quickly. The closing statement was "You are going to crash. How fast do you want to be going at impact?".
There are bad riders and there are bad drivers. That will never change. Sadly from time to time one of us gets caught up in their stupidity.

 

I think its just been bad advice from the start. The bad thing about bad advice is many people believe it. I also think most people who put one down avoiding an accident did so out of loss of control, not by design. Also I really do think a great deal of the perpetuation of the myth is from those that have never ridden. They see an outcome and assume it was planned.

 

And talk about bad brakes, did anyone look at the brakes on the picture posted of the Black Shadow the other day? The biggest baddest hot rod of its day and had smaller brakes than a riding lawn mower. Not that many years ago all motorcycles had bad brakes and worse tires. It has never been brand specific.

 

The video the other day of the guy who broadsided the truck was not terribly uncommon by operators of all types of powered vehicles. He came nowhere near utilizing the equipment at his control to avoid an accident. Happens every day.

 

I have driven people around in their own Ferraris for a great many years. I never do it aggressively yet at least half the time I perform a maneuver that really gets their attention that elicits the response "I had no idea this car could do that".

 

I never touch the rear brake in a quick stop or panic braking. The rear gets so light that would seem to me to be asking for trouble. On my Sprint, sometimes I will do stoppies, where the rear wheel actually comes off the ground (probably not possible with loaded luggage).

Is that wrong?

The BMWs all (well, maybe not the R9T) have integrated braking, where it balances the front and rear when using the front brake control only.

 

Even a Harley with the weight transfer under hard braking the rear contributes nothing so I don't divide my attention. Any sport bike for a long time now will have the rear tire in the air under hard breaking. I do use the rear for checking speed down a hill etc but in a hard stop its just more weight. In the rain I use it. You never get much weight transfer in the wet and at least you get to use both tires.

 

Be careful out there!

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Classic left turn accident, but they guy on the bike did not appear to see the car at all. He just plowed at full speed into it.

You have to pay attention when riding!

 

I doesn't look like he ever hit the brakes. It also looks like he could have gone around the back had he taken any action.
Guy was day dreaming.

 

Very poor drivers radar..Lame , poor passenger

https://www.instagram.com/reel/C7bzU3ktjF7/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

 

Why do you search for these videos?

 

They search for me!
insta listens, monitors and traces my tracks through google..
Its like a sexually transmitted disease ...and you have acquired it now!
So, now they will search for you!

LOL!!!..LMK

 

Funny, I certainly don't get videos like that on my instagram.

 

Proud to say I do not do instagram so its not an issue.

 

The problem with any of the driving aids is it lulls bad drivers into a greater level of stupidity. ABS brakes make many think the car can stop faster than physics allows. Self driving features make bad drivers more inattentive than they already are. Technology isn't the issue, stupid people are. Despite what we are told driving in this country is a right. Special interest groups see to it. My own father should not have been driving his last few years. My siblings and I all talked about it but knew if we took his car away he'd just get another. Its as big a political 3rd rail as there is and it will never change. We are simply stuck with a significant percentage of drivers who have no business on the road.

 

I couldn't read the full article, but I have found generally that the Tesla self driving is safer than me driving-- because it is always looking and never is distracted. And even my very old Tesla is capable of identifying motorcycles.

I don't know the circumstances of this article-- are you confident that a car with a human driver would have avoided the accident?

 

Headlines about 'driver aids'/AI/FSD/Autopilot causing crashes generates tons of clicks, but the real question is are they safer than a human would be. Humans crash all the time. Its really crazy how scared we get about things like flying, but then will happily get in an Uber with some random driver and not think twice about it.

If the computer just as safe as a person is that ok? What about twice as safe? Ten times? My parents are getting older, I hope these technologies hurry up and get there before we have to think about having them stop driving.

 

I am suspicious of new technologies and when one goes haywire it makes great headlines and better lawsuits. Big picture wise how many are we going to save by not being dependent on terrible drivers? Because so many are and that is our choice, relying on terrible drivers who we know no one is ever going to do anything about or relying on a technology while not perfect is way better.