| Author | Message | ||
     Fast1075 |
I ride as if every person is mad as a hatter and every animal is a wanna be kamakazi. Roads with fences and no intersections or driveways are my friends. If it looks like someone is going to pull a bonehead move, I stand on my horn and waggle a finger at them. Leaves 'em gawking in suprise. | ||
| Mr_grumpy |
My head & eyes never stop moving when I'm riding. You have to pretend you're a WW2 fighter pilot, the enemy can be coming to shoot you down from anywhere! Yes even behind, I've been cracking through the twisties & had muppets with Porches & such overtake, relying on the power of prayer presumably as there's no way they can see round the bends. Autobahns in Germany are frightening too, especially at night. | ||
| Littlebuggles |
I use the Rim Stealth reflective rim stripes by TapeWorks Graphics. Even the black is very bright when hit with light at an angle, 3M stuff. right now running red on the M2, have run both black and white on it and having those big 17" glowing hoops catches the eye. Need to get some for the XB, will prolly put black on my black wheels. Seriously lights up like crazy when it's dark out. I have trimmed my tail piece and mirror stalks with the black tape for more visibility after the lights go out. TapeWorks will do custom graphics for you out of the reflective colored tape, I think you can send them a graphic and they'll cut it for you out of whatever tape you like. Friendly and helpful folks there as well. They did the "Buell American Motorcycles" graphic on my Cyclone too. Good stuff. | ||
| Kilroy |
I saw a guy yesterday, on a bike, on a curvy road, with a little girl on the back, and HE WAS TALKING ON A CEL PHONE WHILE operating the bike! OF course no helmet either. I have seen a lot of stupid S@*t in my life but that one was near the top. | ||
| Jaimec |
There is that famous video of the guy in India... no helmet, in traffic, TEXTING on his phone while riding. Future organ donors, that's all I have to say. | ||
| Torquehd |
ride naked. you will be seen. | ||
| Littlebuggles |
...by the cops... ...and all your friends on the six o'clock news. | ||
| Jaimec |
...and the whole WORLD on YouTube. | ||
| Whatever |
No one offered to pay me cash to do a naked victory lap at night of the infield at DIS in boots, gloves and helmet...  | ||
| Jaimec |
I did about a mile up and down the Trans Canada highway on Cape Breton Island back in 2001. Only one person noticed me... a fellow refueling his Harley at a gas station. It looked like he got gas all OVER his bike... | ||
| 86129squids |
Buggles, I think that was the company! TapeWorks- good to hear the black reflective does a good job. | ||
| Littlebuggles |
Here's a pic of the red stripes next to a sheriff's car with similar reflective emblems.  | ||
| Sifo |
As much as that looks cool as hell, I wonder what percentage of accidents would be affected by that sort of added visibility. I would expect that percentage to be very small. Most times when you are sideways in a cars headlights the chessboard is already set in motion and if you are about to get hit, I have my doubts that glowing wheels will help. Still way cool though, and it certainly won't hurt! | ||
| Iamike |
The reflectors on bicycle wheels and pedals are very effective at night. If there was a way to simulate that. | ||
| Sprintst |
YOU ARE INVISIBLE The sooner you believe it, the better off you will be. Look - they can't see a 40 foot long, 12 ft high, bright yellow school bus. They have to add flashlights and people still hit them Sorry, but all that high viz stuff is fine, but don't count on it | ||
| Froggy |
Your bike came with reflectors stuck to the forks and mounted to the turn signals. Take a notice next time you are at a bike event of how many people remove the reflectors because they "are not cool". I like the reflective stripe, but it ain't going to do jack, especially being like mentioned already that people hit school buses like they didn't exist. | ||
| Sifo |
I think one of the best things can be jackets with reflective piping that makes the shape clear that they are looking at a human being. It's becomes easy for people to forget that IMO. Beyond that just adding more light (reflective or powered) to the point of blinding people seems fairly ineffective. It just reminds them of another mechanical thing that they have insurance for in case they run into it. It's one of the draw backs of modern cars that we have become accustomed to keeping us quite safe even when we do stupid things. It makes drivers very complacent. Technology hasn't been able to make bikers safer at the same pace though. Prepare the best you can, and know that you are still invisible. | ||
| Iamike |
That's what I told my kids when they started driving "Look how often drivers turn and pull in front of semis, dump trucks, busses. Do you think they will respesct you? What has kept me alive is going though my mind what I will do when that car turns or pulls out in front of me". When it does happen it's amazing how much quicker I can react. Froggy, I agree on the coolness factor but the movement of the bicycle ones really catch your eyes. | ||
| Littlebuggles |
Ride like you are invisible, then take appropriate preventative measures. Could very easily add that reflective tape in matching color to the spokes in a vertical strip to provide additional night time visibility. That's a good point about moving parts being marked. I'll prolly add that to my spokes and see how it looks. | ||
| Ratbuell |
I guess to clarify my earlier post...stop counting on the other guy. Time after time, the "other guy" proves they're a moron. Count only on yourself. Period. Pay enough attention for you, and the other guy, and the guy behind them. THAT is how you survive. I also have reflective pinstripe tape on my bikes...but I don't *rely* on them. It's like saying "loud pipes save lives". LEARN TO RIDE saves lives. Not "do a track day" learn to ride..."learn to predict the other moron's moves". Plan for your environment, plan for the worst, and don't count on anything except yourself. Ever. | ||
| Hughlysses |
The topic brings this to mind: | ||
| Littlebuggles |
Well said Joe. Excellent perspective Sprintst. I think we're probably all saying much the same thing here, just with different words. Ride safe out there friends! | ||
| Sifo |
Look - they can't see a 40 foot long, 12 ft high, bright yellow school bus. They have to add flashlights and people still hit them BTW, the feds have just past legislation last month that will be pulling fed funds for states that don't pass new minimum penalties for passing school buses with their red lights flashing. New penalties are to be up to $675 and up to 30 days in jail for the FIRST offense. For a second offense, up to $1,875 and up to a year in jail! It really is a very dangerous thing to do that does get kids killed. It's amazing how often it happens too. Once a year the collect data from drivers on a specific day. I don't remember the exact numbers, but it happens tens of thousands of times per day across the nation. I actually had someone hit the freakin' stop sign with flashing red lights that sticks out from the side of the bus one day!  | ||
| Xdigitalx |
Anyone who doesn't see and also hits a schoolbus should haven their license revoked for their remaining days. I put some tape on my wheel spokes but don't know what it looks like while moving. The 3m tape probably would the best to use. | ||
| Reepicheep |
This seems to have worked pretty well against a distracted texter... http://video.foxnews.com/v/1557000252001/black-bea r-spooks-distracted-texter?intcmp=features | ||
| Jaimec |
Sunday night, on my way home from dinner at my mother's house, a bike passed us in traffic splitting lanes (we were in the car). It was at night and his wheels were glowing BRIGHT BLUE. I'll admit... I'm a bit out of touch these days, but... HOW'D HE DO DAT??? | ||
| Aeholton |
It was at night and his wheels were glowing BRIGHT BLUE. I'll admit... I'm a bit out of touch these days, but... HOW'D HE DO DAT??? Maybe with these: http://www.ebay.com/itm/2x-LED-Wheel-Stem-Valve-Ca ps-Tyre-Tire-Light-Solid-Still-Blue-Steady-On-/290 645312796?pt=Motors_Car_Truck_Parts_Accessories&ha sh=item43abcf851c&vxp=mtr | ||
| Littlebuggles |
That's what I was think of too, they used to call them "fire-flys". They turn on when the bike is moving. | ||
| Jaimec |
Wow... I've heard of those things, but they are a HELL of a lot brighter than I imagined if they can light up the entire wheel like I saw on this guy's bike. Hmmmmm... I guess if he'd had his wheels CHROMED and then had these things installed it MIGHT have that effect. | ||
| Pkforbes87 |
An earlier quote reminded me of a shirt I bought from PJ's Parts. "If loud pipes save lives, imagine what learning to ride that thing could do." I like wearing it any time I have to go to the HD dealer. |
