Be The Bunny! Safe riding and motorcycle survival thread

The scariest thing I've ever seen is a girl using one of those pencils to put on eyeliner. I had the image of that pencil going through her eye if she were to hit something. *shudder*

It makes me grateful sometimes that while riding there aren't many things I can do other than be the pilot.

 

Re: Be The Bunny! Safe riding and motorcycle survival threa

Here in Michigan, They are more then "advisory" signs. I was heading home from work one day and went through an s curve that had a yellow 45 mph sign near the begining of it. I payed it no mind and drove 55 mph.
Coming ou the other side I was pulled over by a County Officer and Informed that I was gunned at 54 in a 45. So I now do whatever speed is posted or suggested.

 

Re: Be The Bunny! Safe riding and motorcycle survival threa

When it's hot out it is Sooooo hard to put on the gear to ride 15 minutes to work.

I read somewhere that if you want to get just the sightest idea what road rash will feel like you can run a little experiment.

Put on a pair of short pants

Go out into the street in front of your house and run as fast as you can

Now, without slowing down, drop to your knees

Not even close to what going down at 35 mph would feel like

Makes your teeth hurt just thinking about it doesn't it?

I didn't wear my mesh gear tonight but I know better and will wear it tomorrow

 

Re: Be The Bunny! Safe riding and motorcycle survival threa

In fact, correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe a bike takes more road to stop than a car.

 

eyeliner?
pffft

a guy I work with got a picture of a dude driving down I-435 in KC (65mph and 70mph) playing the TROMBONE!!!!!!

I will get the pic and post it.
craziest thing I have ever seen

 

Re: Be The Bunny! Safe riding and motorcycle survival threa

OK, you're wrong. Actually, a lighter bike like most XJs can stop in about HALF the distance of most "normal" cars.

Just read some road tests; you'll see.

 

Re: Be The Bunny! Safe riding and motorcycle survival threa

saw a guy driving a car and playing a trumpet the other day

 

Re: Be The Bunny! Safe riding and motorcycle survival threa

That's what I said... then I went down and now I have scars on my arm
and the left side of my ribs.

That doesn't even begin to even describe the immense pain of road rash. I have given birth 4 times, that was nothing compared to road rash. At least the labor pain was over after a few hours. Road rash lasted for weeks.

I had a gash in my arm from glass, or rocks, or something that was on the pavement. They could not stitch my arm because there was NO SKIN to stitch up. They had to let it heal from the inside out. My shoulder will never be the same. It has been two months after the wreck, it gets stiff and sore, and I have limited movement on a good day. I have a knot on my left leg that has just now turned into a bruise.

I don't care how freakin' hot it is. I could be riding in the 7th level of Hell and you can be sure I will be in FULL gear. All The Gear All The Time!

I see these idiot kids on crotch rockets in jeans, no shirt, and flip flops and I want to shake them and yell "Don't you know what a fool you are!?"

 

Re: Be The Bunny! Safe riding and motorcycle survival threa

I'm new to riding this year and right now I just wear jeans, leather gloves, jacket and helmet. I am just wondering if you guys had some tips on where to read up on the different riding gear and where the best spots to get the stuff is. Also any suggestions on the quality and functionality of the different gear manufacturers would be appreciated.

 

I couldn't believe what I was seeing at work on sunday when this kid walks into the store after parking his crotch rocket, he is wearing an armored vest under his leather jacket, armored pants, proper riding boots, and armored gloves with a full face helmet, and his girl friend walks in behind him wearing flip flops, capri pants, and a t-shirt, holding a full face helmet in her gloveless hands!!! nobody gets on my bike with me without at least boots, jeans, gloves, and some sort of leather or heavy denim jacket. Please tell me I am not the only one who has requirements for my passengers??? as recent events have shown us, we take part in a very unpredictable hobby and I think we need to make our passengers aware of the risks and how to reduce these risks through gear and rider etiquette to make riding safer for everyone involved!!
Shaun

 

Re: Be The Bunny! Safe riding and motorcycle survival threa

I'm a big believer in armor and full face helmets. May 1 a young lady ran a stop sign and I plowed into her at 40mph. I was wearing a $60 FX100 full face helmet, $70 no brand armored leather jacket, $120 leather riding boots, a pair of $30 leather chaps and a cheap pair of leather gloves.

I came away with a sore foot (very sore actually, I'm sure it would have been destroyed without the boots), 2 very lightly skinned knuckles (I didn't notice them until the ER Dr. asked me, I had to check the gloves to make sure it was from the wreck other than banging them at work) and a bit tender on the left shoulder and forearm (I've been hurt worse banging into a door frame).

I'm fortunate that I didn't bang a knee - armored riding pants are on my to do list.

So, the point of this long rant is that I was well protected by inexpensive gear. It did fit well though. That armor wouldn't have done my shoulder and forearm any good if it were flopping around loose.

 

I bought my Venture Royale the day before Bill's accident, and also knowing about MiCarl's not being seen on the same model. I've read that Bill ran a headlight modulator, that increases your visibility 200%. I'm hoping the added profile of a GoldWing-sized bike would help, and I've decided to paint it a much brighter color than maroon.

 

Oh great. I'm about to order two headlight modulators. I'm gonna anyway.

GEAR: We had a thread similar to this one (this is supposed to be "defensive riding 101") but about riding gear, I can't remember or easily find it.
Me: TourMaster Transition Series II jacket (they come in tall sizes) or Cortech DSX (armored) Denim (they come in tall too HJC CL-15SP full face helmet; Tourmaster solutions waterproof road boots; Churchill Elkskin gloves. I have a pair of TourMaster "Flex" armored pants on the way, although good old Levis have saved my skin on more than one occasion.

I'm putting together a rant for this thread on the "oncoming left" but I'm still trying to organize my thoughts. Scares the living crap outta me on a daily basis. Maybe we all need a MARS LIGHT.

 

Re: Be The Bunny! Safe riding and motorcycle survival threa

Fore4runner:

WebBikeWorld has some of the best gear reviews and information.

As far as online sources, there are many good ones, but I don't think you can go wrong with newenough.com.

I wear HJC CL-P helmet, Cortech Tourmaster GX Air jacket, GX Air gloves, and mesh overpants (over my dress work clothes). Here in the sultry swamps of south Louisiana, mesh is an absolute must, but the GX Air jacket has leather in the critical areas for extra protection. And it has a zip out quilted liner for the 5 or 6 cold days we get per year. :wink:

Right now I just wear leather hiking boots, but hope to get dedicated riding boots at some point in the future.

ATGATT, baby!

Herb

 

Unfortunately left turners are and will always be our biggest enemy.......

Gear....

Scorpion EXO 400 lid, Cortech Fusion jacket, Phoenix Mesh pants (as overpants) JR Boots and power trip Leather Gauntlet style gloves
Boots leak around the seams bad on heavy rain, NEED waterproof boots....

 

Nitro mesh armored jacket, leather gloves & boots, full face Vega helmet. That's my standard riding gear....

Fitz, regarding those modulators. Do you know if one would work on my 750's auxillary light?

 

Re: Be The Bunny! Safe riding and motorcycle survival threa

Yep, read the road tests BigFitz - that's why I dared question that perception. The studies that are credible - not written with a bias - show that in most cases a car driven by an average driver will stop in a shorter distance than most motorcycles driven by an average rider. Mind you, some bikes ridden by experts will stop in really short distances, better than most cars. I'm not talking about the exception but about the average cases.

It is a common and dangerous misconcpetion that riders have that they will surely brake faster than the car they are following, whatever bike they are on. Most of the time it simply is not true. So it's a dangerous idea to keep alive.

Now, are XJs really better brakers? Maybe they are. In that case they would be the exception and we would have to state it that way by not saying that "motorcycles brake better than cars, but XJs do".

If we have definite proof of the contrary (which I haven't found), then I'll be happy to change my outlook. In the meantime, just to be on the safe side, I prefer that the average biker be warned that they will not be good brakers compared to car drivers. That will be true with most of the bikes they ride, maybe even with their XJ.

Anyway, no big deal. Just felt like thinking this out for myself with your help.

 

Re: Be The Bunny! Safe riding and motorcycle survival threa

Well, the laws of physics are the same for everything, and we tend to have much stickier tires on motorcycles than cages have. So, on a good surface a motorcycle should be capable of stopping in a shorter distance.

HOWEVER, when any wheel on a cage locks up (braking over hard or loose surface) it'll lose at most 40% of it's stopping power, and most of them have ABS to help in a quick recovery. A motorcycle on the other hand could lose 70% and would likely go down too.

 

Re: Be The Bunny! Safe riding and motorcycle survival threa

MiCarl,
maybe the tires are sticker, but there are only 2 of them instead of four, and less weight on them to make them stick. The breaking is also trickier to do right on a bike than on a car. It's hard to make rational deductions about what will result from all these factors coming in.

I read the experimental data taken from tests on bikes and cars. This data shows that at 60 miles per hour most bikes come to a complete stop in more distance than most cars. There are exceptions and XJ bikes might be one - I haven't checked.

I have two bikes. I just assume I will need more distance than the car I'm following to brake to a stop whatever bike I'm riding on. If it's not the braking capacity of the bike, it might just be my braking technique that is not optimal at the time. More often than not, this is what will happen. Assuming anything else is taking a great risk of becoming a trunk ornament, I say.

 

Re: Be The Bunny! Safe riding and motorcycle survival threa

I don't want to tie up this thread with a physics lesson. Trust me though that the THEORETICAL stopping distance of the machine (assuming the brakes themselves are up to snuff) depends only on the coefficient of friction with the road, not the weight or number of tires.

On the other hand I don't doubt the test numbers you reference. There are significant other factors that come into play in the real world.

I read somewhere that the maximum braking force generated on a tire occurs at rougly 20% slip. In other words, the tire is only rotating at 80% of the road speed. That would be a disastrous situation on a motorcycle.