Idiots + cars = LOL

[NecroJoe]

As a general rule, I normally follow with two seconds of space, but 4 seconds behind bikes. On the off chance that something happens to the biker, and he flies backwards off the bike...

With a car, you just rear-end it a bit. With a bike, you might end up running over their melon. At least, that's how physics works in my brain. Which probably has ZERO basis in reality, but it's a comfort thing. I feel like if a buy just suddenly fall off the back of the bike and came to a dead stop (as improbable/impossible as that might be), I'd want those extra 2 seconds of travel as a cushion.

 

[prizrak]

As a general rule, I normally follow with two seconds of space, but 4 seconds behind bikes. On the off chance that something happens to the biker, and he flies backwards off the bike...

With a car, you just rear-end it a bit. With a bike, you might end up running over their melon. At least, that's how physics works in my brain. Which probably has ZERO basis in reality, but it's a comfort thing. I feel like if a buy just suddenly fall off the back of the bike and came to a dead stop (as improbable/impossible as that might be), I'd want those extra 2 seconds of travel as a cushion.

I'm with you on that actually, rear ending a car is a fender bender (unless you are going stupid fast) if you rear end a motorcycle you could knock them off the bike.

 

[93Flareside]

Actually that's not true. Stopping distance are similar.

Yeah but, if you rear end a car, all you're left with a dented bumper or cracked plastic. You rear end a bike, depending on speed, people could get seriously hurt.

 

[Blind_Io]

Actually that's not true. Stopping distance are similar.

The problem is that it seems to take people longer to realize that a bike is stopping. Sport bikes can stop very quickly, especially compared to an average car. Performance cars like a WRX STI, RX-8, or Corvette will be able to out stop most bikes, but your typical Camry can't.

 

[RdKetchup]

Sport bikes can stop very quickly, especially compared to an average car. Performance cars like a WRX STI, RX-8, or Corvette will be able to out stop most bikes, but your typical Camry can't.

Not so sure about that...

http://www.motorcycle-usa.com/268/10080/Motorcycle-Article/2011-Yamaha-YZF-R6-Street-Comparison.aspx

Ducati 848 127ft
Honda CBR-600RR 126ft
Kawasaki ZX-6R 124ft
Suzuki GSX-R600 122ft
Suzuki GSX-R750 124ft
Triumph Daytona 675 126ft
Yamaha R6 124ft

http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/...rs/best-and-worst/breaking-distance/index.htm

Braking distance on dry pavement
Feet from 60 to 0 mph

Shortest

Sports/Sporty cars
Porsche Boxster 112

Small cars
Subaru Impreza WRX 125

Family cars
Nissan Altima 3.5 SR 128

Upscale/luxury cars
Hyundai Genesis 3.8 125

Small SUVs
Hyundai Tucson GLS 129

Midsized SUVs
Cadillac SRX Luxury 126
Acura MDX 126


Longest

Sports/Sporty cars
Volvo C30 143

Small cars
Dodge Caliber SXT 149

Nissan Cube S 149

Family cars
Toyota Camry Hybrid 145

Upscale/luxury cars
Cadillac DTS Luxury II 145

Small SUVs
Jeep Liberty Sport 150

Midsized SUVs
Jeep Wrangler Unlimited Sahara 150

So Camry Hybrid is pretty bad. But how about a regular Camry.

Edmunds as the 2012 Camry at 129 (and the Accord at 128), Motortrend has the Camry at 128:

http://www.motortrend.com/features/consumer/112_1003_unintended_acceleration_test/viewall.html

Chevy 130 ft
Ford 124 ft
Honda 125 ft
Hyundai 123 ft
Nissan 124 ft
Subaru 121 ft
Toyota 128 ft

 

[TC]

Still, anytime you share the road with a bike, you have to treat it like a liability, even the most insignificant little bump that wouldn't cause any damage to another car, could end up destroying the bike and putting the rider in the hospital with a 6 figure medical bill, which they will of course sue you over.

 

[Bubs360]

Another idiot in a car (with a bonus idiot) observed by a female motovlogger:
[video=youtube;lYb-K-XMuao]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYb-K-XMuao[/video]

She makes the very same imporant point I often make to people: The problem is not driving in the snow, it's other people driving in the snow.

 

[AiR]

As I ride a bus almost all the time and thus sit at the same level as truck drivers as we overtake them with our 10km/h advantage I get to see a bit of what they do. Friday I saw a guy texting with both hands listening to his iphone on in ear headphones. Of course he only had 1x20' on the trailer so it was perfectly safe.
Well at least he didnt break the law.

 

[NecroJoe]

One thing I've discovered while riding with a friend of mine...while he had his white earbuds in...it's because it was his hands free. He never used it to listen to music, he used it to talk on the phone because he didn't own a separate Bluetooth thing.

 

[That American Girl]

Still, anytime you share the road with a bike, you have to treat it like a liability, even the most insignificant little bump that wouldn't cause any damage to another car, could end up destroying the bike and putting the rider in the hospital with a 6 figure medical bill, which they will of course sue you over.

I have a lot of friends and family members who ride, so I do keep an eye out for those on bikes.

However, here it seems that so many bikers just go out of their way to jump right in front of you with little or no warning, weave in and out of heavy traffic, all while not wearing any safety gear. And then turn to give you the shitty look when they come to within an inch of your car while blowing by.

So many of them anymore scare the hell out of me.

 

[Spectre]

The problem is that it seems to take people longer to realize that a bike is stopping. Sport bikes can stop very quickly, especially compared to an average car. Performance cars like a WRX STI, RX-8, or Corvette will be able to out stop most bikes, but your typical Camry can't.

Not so sure about that...

M-U has a known not-great test track for their brake test. Motorcycle Consumer News routinely shows bikes stopping in 108-115' and sometimes less. On a bike, operator skill makes up much more of a factor in braking distance than it does in a car, especially after car ABS became widespread. A bad operator can double stopping distance. Someone like Valentino Rossi can get my 919 to stop 15' sooner than even the engineers that designed it. (Rossi loved the 919.)

Further, a proficient motorcyclist *always* has a 1-2 second advantage over a car operator. We're able to 'cover' or 'guard' the brake lever such that there's not a significant delay between realizing you need to brake, dropping the throttle and applying the brakes. Watch my right hand in the following video and note that I'm constantly resting my first two fingers on the brake lever ('guarding' it) for instant brake application. You can't do that in a car - there's a 1-2 second lag between letting off the throttle and mashing the brakes in a panic stop in a car. *That* is the single largest advantage a bike has over a car - please note how it gets used right after 0:52.

Further, Blind is right. It's a perception issue - people have a hard time judging the relative velocity of a motorcycle due to their size and they almost always figure incorrectly. It does take people longer to realize that a bike is slowing down than, say, my F350. It has nothing to do with the colors or anything, but the actual size of the vehicle ahead.

Still, anytime you share the road with a bike, you have to treat it like a liability, even the most insignificant little bump that wouldn't cause any damage to another car, could end up destroying the bike and putting the rider in the hospital with a 6 figure medical bill, which they will of course correctly sue you over.

FTFY. Same thing goes for those pesky pedestrians, etc., etc.

However, here it seems that so many bikers just go out of their way to jump right in front of you with little or no warning, weave in and out of heavy traffic, all while not wearing any safety gear. And then turn to give you the shitty look when they come to within an inch of your car while blowing by.

So many of them anymore scare the hell out of me.

We call these people "idiots" and more recently 'squids'. Nobody (except them) will have a problem with the inevitable happening to them.

 

[That American Girl]

Was that twice on the same roundabout!? What do you have...an invisible bike? Or some weird cloaking device?

I hate to say it, but this is why I never ride with my bf. It's not his driving...it's the others around him.

 

[CAPT_Howdy]

Look kids! There's Big Ben and there's Parliament!

Sorry.

 

[Spectre]

Was that twice on the same roundabout!? What do you have...an invisible bike? Or some weird cloaking device?

I hate to say it, but this is why I never ride with my bf. It's not his driving...it's the others around him.

It's a big black Honda 919 and I wear a mostly-black riding outfit. However, it wouldn't matter much if I was wearing day-glo colors; the Brits conducted a multiyear study (the famous MAIDS study) and one of the the odd things they found was that wearing hi-viz gives you no statistical advantage. In some cases, it can actually increase your chances of getting hit, especially with drunk drivers. Other studies have found that policemen on police motorcycles with lights and sirens going are just as likely to get hit as the rest of the two wheel population.

My other bike is a slightly smaller 700, painted a vibrant red white and blue (factory paint job). I get at least as many idiots on that as the 'stealth' 919.

What it boils down to is that most people do not see, or if they do, do not process the presence of a motorcycle. It just doesn't get through the mental filters - not even one with a wailing siren, blinding explosions of light and a black and white high contrast paint job.

Anyway, I favor black gear not just because of personal cosmetic preference but because the human subconscious is usually geared to trip the flight response if something big and black comes rushing up at you. I have noticed that more people get the hell out of the way or flinch away (assuming they do notice me in the first place) wearing black gear than in less stark tones.

 

[prizrak]

Was that twice on the same roundabout!? What do you have...an invisible bike? Or some weird cloaking device?

I hate to say it, but this is why I never ride with my bf. It's not his driving...it's the others around him.

It's a simple case of people either not looking at their blind stop (bike can hide very easily in one) or plain not giving a shit (well I'm in a CAR so he should move over)

 

[NecroJoe]

35 years ago, my mom was hit on her bike. She wore my dad's blaze orange hunting clothes, and she had a taxicab yellow bike. The guy said he didn't see her.

 

[Spectre]

35 years ago, my mom was hit on her bike. She wore my dad's blaze orange hunting clothes, and she had a taxicab yellow bike. The guy said he didn't see her.

People hit fire engines and police cars sitting by the side of the road with their lights going and all their bright paint and shiny chrome. Not just drunk people either. When later questioned (some with polygraphs) people quite honestly do say they just didn't see the vehicle they hit. Of course, it's more like they saw-but-didn't-process, but that's the situation.

To wear hi-viz or not hi-viz gear is one of the perennial debates in motorcycling. I am in the 'don't bother' camp - I figure that the stats basically show hi-viz doesn't work and if people are hitting gigantic fire engines with their eye-searing strobes of light because they honestly didn't see them, wearing hi-viz on your civilian bike isn't really going to do much.

It's a simple case of people either not looking at their blind stop (bike can hide very easily in one) or plain not giving a shit (well I'm in a CAR so he should move over)

It's tempting to think that, but those are actually minority causes. Most people just don't process the motorcycle they're looking at.

 

[NecroJoe]

I'm convinced that people subconsiously drift towards things they see. I know I've told the story before, but my parents have a tree in their front yard...it's the only tree on that side of the road for at least a half mile...and it's been hit twice.

 

[prizrak]

I'm convinced that people subconsiously drift towards things they see. I know I've told the story before, but my parents have a tree in their front yard...it's the only tree on that side of the road for at least a half mile...and it's been hit twice.

It's called target fixation but it wouldn't really hold up in a polygraph.

 

[That American Girl]

It's a big black Honda 919 and I wear a mostly-black riding outfit. However, it wouldn't matter much if I was wearing day-glo colors;

I know...I know. I was sort of joking.

But it still boggles my mind how people can't see another driver right freaking next to them.