Safety - MSGroup.org

Bet'cha he can find some NHTSA money to spend on this "Idea".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rQr8YkzEEWQ

Not all ideas are good ideas.

Note intentional(?) use of rear brake to cause the high side.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DOMc...RVAAAAAAAACA

There are 10 replies, with the last one, shown below, posted on 02/04/2012 at 11:29 AM by Scooterwolf Sorry, didn't mean to imply that one snap releases the throttle when reaching for the brake, but to lessen you grip on it with the thumb as you move your fingers for the brake control. Your reaching hand movement will serve to roll the throttle forward, but if your thumb is still clinching it you may roll the throttle back when pressure is applied to the controls (if that makes since)

Also, on a minor note the right brake control is for the front brake on a scooter. The left is for the back. There's no clutch, unless you are riding an actual vintage model

There are 7 replies, with the last one, shown below, posted on 02/04/2012 at 10:07 AM by SAS Mayhem Thank you everyone for pointing these issues out. I'm very grateful for the info and insight, and I do feel that I can address these if I choose to ride with them again.

Thanks you all

Cheers
Ron

There are 2 replies, with the last one, shown below, posted on 02/04/2012 at 8:24 AM by James R. Davis This thread will be locked if it becomes a cop bash.

I have enormous respect for our policemen, generally, and I grew up in a police family. My father was an Investigator Sergeant - Homicide, Los Angeles PD. My regard for the police is second only to my regard for our military.

I posted this topic because of how UNUSUAL and UNFAIR this particular police officer's deposition was, and to demonstrate that with the right help you can overcome that authoritative disadvantage.

Cop bashing stops now.

There are 12 replies, with the last one, shown below, posted on 02/03/2012 at 5:35 PM by rayg50 quote:are there deals to be had from the vendors that show up?Yes and No. LOL.

My personal experience has been that you have to be an educated consumer. 300 for a Shoei may be a steal but for another brand it may just be robbery. [88] If you know the normal retail in most instances you can get the price brought down to where you both do OK on the deal. Keep in mind that your purchases are pretty much as-is since the vendor is most likely from out of town and gone in a day or 2.

BTW, the best deals I have gotten at any type of "expo" has been as they are closing up on the last day. They can lug it home or put some cash in their pocket. YOU just have to know what you would have paid elsewhere.

I usually will get one or two good buys but I manage to offset the gain with the 5 gallon drum of chrome cleaner and windmill driven battery tender. [:D]

There are 12 replies, with the last one, shown below, posted on 02/03/2012 at 1:31 PM by Cash Anthony Here's another, similar issue. The following is a quote:

"It is usually easier to steer out of a situation than to stop. Because total stopping distance -- perception, reaction and braking -- eats up so much time and distance, it is often faster to swerve around a problem than to stop before you become part of it.

"The 2-second rule was created to allow drivers to swerve out of danger, not necessarily to stop. The 2-second-or-more rule was developed to give drivers time to swerve or stop, as the situation requires."


That's from a recently edited (2009) defensive driving course! Not one set up for motorcyclists in particular, but it's still wrong.


Cash

There are 5 replies, with the last one, shown below, posted on 02/03/2012 at 6:03 AM by kacinpa quote:Originally posted by Night Train

At the risk of going "off topic", I am intrigued by your comment regarding the BRC and ERC being free in PA. How much is the add-on fee for the M license? Sounds to me like a system designed with safety foremost as opposed to simply paying lip service to safety and obtaining revenue.


I think it's $5.00. I'm pretty sure not all of that goes towards the courses, PENNDOT also runs Motorcycle awareness ad campaigns in the spring, and a separate campaign encouraging wearing gear and riding safely they call "Live Free, Ride Alive". But despite the crazy helmet laws here, they do have a decent focus of safety.

There are 11 replies, with the last one, shown below, posted on 02/02/2012 at 3:18 PM by D R quote:Originally posted by teabowl1

Addition:

And I guess the other thing is this:

On the two scooter forums I peruse, I have noticed time and time again that when someone announces an accident they were involved in there is no, if any, discussion about what actually lead to the accident. Rather, the typical response is a sort of camaraderie (which is nice) that builds towards blaming "cagers" (not so good) and it ends at that. A kind of "pat on the back good feel" without figuring out how to avoid something similar the next time.

Don't hesitate to point the others on the scooter forums to this site, especially the section on Motorcycle Accident Reports. Motorcycle or scooter, two wheels are two wheels.

There are 3 replies, with the last one, shown below, posted on 02/02/2012 at 10:28 AM by gymnast Here is a new "word" for you Daddio (or any else that wants to take a shot at it). This term relates to what separates beginning riders from highly experienced riders and what may be missing or cause problems when you get on a bike that is different from the one/ones that you regularly ride.

"Subcortical motor skills"

There are 6 replies, with the last one, shown below, posted on 02/02/2012 at 6:06 AM by SkootchNC Unless your bike/scooter is going to be parked for a month or more. There isn't much need for either a "stabilizer" or cleaner.

If you are concerned with keeping your engine clean, There are many products that will clean a fuel injection system, and others that will clean a carburetor system. Both are readily available at any auto store (Pep Boys, AutoZone, Wal-Mart,etc). It certainly won't hurt to use any of them, per the instructions on the container.

Fifth, or tenth tank? well.... that would depend on length of time/miles per tank. You're a better judge of your scooter's health than I.

Weather wise???? LOL don't count this "winter" for anything. This was the third warmest winter at RDU, but last winter... was the third coldest winter at RDU. There was an eleven degree (average day time temps) swing between 2010-2011, and 2011-2012. Last year we had several snowfalls. This year none. (source WRAL-TV weather).

Should you decide to store your bike for a winter.. or other extended period. Here is a link to the AMA article on that.
http://www.americanmotorcyclist.com...keRight.aspx
Just as important... AFTER storage... how to prepare the bike/scooter for use
http://www.americanmotorcyclist.com...rSpring.aspx

Whether you are a member of AMA, or not, these articles are available for the general public. Bookmark, and enjoy.

regards
Frank

There are 9 replies, with the last one, shown below, posted on 02/02/2012 at 12:30 AM by proney2009 I don't know if my PLP practice strategy is advisable or not. Perhaps others can chime in, but I will start off by practicing stops at slow speeds using only the front brake and then gradually I will work the rear brake in. Then I will increase speed slightly and do the same thing again.

My reasoning is that the front brake is our most important stopping device and the rear brake is there to make the stop smoother. And of course, it also helps me to avoid the rear-brake lock-up.

There are 5 replies, with the last one, shown below, posted on 01/31/2012 at 3:29 PM by kacinpa quote:Originally posted by scottrnelson

quote:Originally posted by greywolf

2007 was the last year there were any changes other than paint and turn signal lens colors.
Which is better than the Honda XR650L. There has never been a change to that bike since it was introduced in 1993, other than color schemes.

I'm curious why KTM didn't make the list. Too expensive? Too tall? Only comes in Orange?

The other three bikes are all good choices too, and I wouldn't mind owning any of them.


Actually the KTM is still on the list, provided I can find one to ride before decision time! The closest KTM dealer hasn't had an "Unspoken for" 990 ADV available to test ride. I've lucked out with being able to ride everything else except, of course, the ones that aren't out yet!

I guess the KTM ended up in the back of my mind as I despair that I will never get to ride one before I am ready to make a purchase.

There are 25 replies, with the last one, shown below, posted on 01/31/2012 at 9:30 AM by SAS Mayhem Thanks for your input and your reason, Mr. Davis.

Cheers
Ron

There are 12 replies, with the last one, shown below, posted on 01/30/2012 at 5:31 PM by Scooterwolf I think if one has a prepared plan they're increasing their chances of avoiding a crash, or other unfortunate events. Driving without a strategy for different, but foreseeable situations leads to regret at best, or something worse.

There are 32 replies, with the last one, shown below, posted on 01/30/2012 at 5:07 PM by rkfire This 10 year thing, sounds like an opportunity for some shops to advertise that they work on bike of any age.

I never heard of this before, but something I'd like to know in advance on my next bike.

The concept of steering efficiency has confused many riders. That is, if you turn the handlebar, say 20 degrees, your motorcycle will almost always turn a different number of degrees. Sometimes more than 20 degrees, sometimes less.

If the bike turned 20 degrees in response to a head steering angle of 20 degrees, that would be understood to be 100% steering efficiency. If it turned more than 20 degrees, the steering efficiency would be greater than 100% and, of course, if it turned less than 20 degrees, steering would be less than 100% efficient.

But what actually causes steering efficiency to vary?

Well, let's first discuss what is NOT a steering efficiency example.

Experienced riders know quite well that the faster they are moving, the less steering input (turn angle) is required to make a turn. One might assume that indicates that speed in some way changes steering efficiency. It does not.

If you want to cause your motorcycle to move to the left or right by five feet in a period of time of one second, then if the bike is moving at 25 MPH, it will travel 36 feet longitudinally while it moves to the side that desired five feet. On the other hand, if the bike is moving at 50 MPH, it must move a total of 72 feet longitudinally as it moves five feet to the side.

The following graphic demonstrates that the amount of steering input required is half at 50 MPH than what is required at 25 MPH. That is merely the fact that you wanted to move laterally five feet in the same amount of time - it is NOT a demonstration of different steering efficiency at different speeds.



When you turn your handlebars, because your steering stem has a rake angle, part of the turn results in a tilt of your front wheel while another part of the turn results in the wheel pointing in a different direction.

If there was no rake angle, then no part of your steering angle would cause the wheel to tilt and 100% would be used to change directions. On the other hand, if your rake angle was 90 degrees, 100% of any turn input would be used to tilt the front wheel and none of it would be used to change direction.

In the following graphic, turning the handlebar 'x' degrees results in the front wheel changing by 'y' degrees as a result of your rake angle.



But from what was said earlier you should conclude that the angle 'y' can never be as great or greater than angle 'x'. And that would be true except for the fact that your bike can lean. The greater that lean angle, the greater the effective steering angle will be. In fact, if the bike were leaning at the same angle as your rake angle, any steering input would be effectively the same as the bike would actually turn (in other words, steering efficiency would be 100%).

Further, if your bike is leaning more than your rake angle, steering efficiency would be greater than 100%.

Street legal production motorcycles (not 'choppers') have rake angles that range from 22 degrees to as high as 32 degrees. The H-D line of touring bikes have a rake angle of 26 degrees.

So, if you are experiencing more than 0.5g's of lateral acceleration (centrifugal force), your steering efficiency is almost guaranteed to be greater than 100%, because your bike's lean angle is greater than 30 degrees.

And then there is the fact that while you are braking you are compressing your front forks which shortens them and DECREASES your rake angle. That means that your effective steering angle is greater when braking than without deceleration even though you have not changed your steering input at all.

This is a fundamental reason for why your path of travel WIDENS when you brake in a turn (unless you change steering input) as a more effective steering angle is a counter-steering input.

There is a new model (calculator) on the system now called the 'Effective Steering Angle Calculator' that demonstrates these concepts.

The reason the new model does not show 100% efficiency when the lean angle and rake angle are identical is that the bike's lean angle is used as input whereas that is not the same as the lean angle of the front wheel. Because riders are comfortable and familiar with 'lean angle' meaning the angle the body (rear wheel) of the motorcycle is leaning, I prepared the calculator to accept that angle instead of the lean (tilt) angle of the front wheel.

There are 10 replies, with the last one, shown below, posted on 01/29/2012 at 3:20 PM by teabowl1 Thanks for all the advice and techniques. All very useful and sound to consider.

I did get on this particular portion of the highway today. Being that it is Sunday, it is quite quiet in town so I was able to do two things: 1. assess what it feels like to ride at a higher speed (around 50mph) and 2. observe that very merge that I wrote about.

I knew theoretically my 250cc scooter is quite capable of high speeds but didn't know how it would feel like. I got my chance to try it out today and oh yes, it rides quite comfortably and steadily at 50 and even 55mph and I'm don't yet have the throttle all the way down. I like that! I bought this scooter because I wanted the smallest engine scooter that can comfortably accomplish freeway rides. I look at this machine as a commuter. It's a car replacement for me.

The merge on that road today was a piece of cake being that traffic was very light. I'm glad to familiarise myself with this part of the road system.

There are 2 replies, with the last one, shown below, posted on 01/29/2012 at 11:39 AM by gymnast The Latin Square Design where appropriate, tends to minimize error when used appropriately to test a research hypothesis. To my knowledge, it has never been used as a research design to test for the effectiveness of various motorcycle rider training treatments. http://www.stat.tamu.edu/~hart/652/anova4.pdf

There are 7 replies, with the last one, shown below, posted on 01/28/2012 at 2:16 PM by Alan_Hepburn I started riding motorcycles relatively late in life - I was 54 when I got my first one. In the following 6 years I got about 20,000 miles worth of experience on 2 wheels, then replaced the two-wheeler with a sidecar rig. I went from counter-steering to direct steering and although there was a distinct learning curve, it didn't take long to adjust - minutes at most. Maybe having extensive experience with 4 wheels makes a difference - who knows. But the single biggest thing you can do to fix the issue is PLP - parking lot practice!