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Heads-Up Displays for Motorcyclists
An anonymous reader writes "An NYT article describes a new invention by a former racing driver to incorporate displays in the visors of helmets used by motorcyclists. A GPS receiver in the helmet is used to calculate position and speed of the wearer, and presumably in displaying route guidance. I'll bet some horrifying data could be gathered on the speed with which riders' heads impact the pavement after an accident."
As if riding a motorcycle wasn't dangerous enough, soon somebody's going to be watching a TV show in their helmet while riding around.
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Bugs are just features that have been fixed.
Only teenagers and lucky macho-idiots ride donorcycles.
Hurm, Detecting attempt of the cloaked url vulnerability in IE, luckily it doesn't work.
Your hair look like poop, Bob! - Wanker.
i always wanted that bike and helmet
Does it run Linux? And specifically, will it run Gentoo?;) Seriously though, wouldn't a HUD distract a motorcyclist? I know it probably would distract me if one were put in my truck...
If my answers frighten you, stop asking scary questions.
I'll bet some horrifying data could be gathered on the speed with which riders' heads impact the pavement after an accident.
Umm... Wouldn't it be aproximately the same speed that the motercycle was going when it crashed?
If this just attaches to the outside of a helmet, it probably won't catch on. No way I want more windnoise or extra vibration on my head. If it was integrated in a helmet it would be sorta nice. On the track it would be rather usefull to keep a eye on the rpms easier. A gear readout to go with that would cover most/all of my needs while riding.
Motion Research - SportVue
Quite the morbid commentary posted beside the article there, but the Chevy Corvette Z06 already possesses HUD-capabilities - speed, current gear, etc. Helmets would be a nice next step, but incorporating it into more cars would be nicer.
I've had some experience with motorcycles, and it sounds to me like this would just be a distraction. It may be real neato and stuff, but in a practical sense it may be a safety concern. Putting the display in the driver's helmet reduces the field of peripheral vision available (when focusing on the display). How about designing a display mounted on the motorcycle instead? We're familiar and comfortable with gauges already. This would reduce distraction, and increase safety.
Hi there
I am waiting for the prices to go down in the glasses version of this type of technology. That would allow me to not only added data wile I am riding but when I am walking down the street. Imagine you can pull up your date file an impress her with all the stuff you remember about her. Also you can have that poem there for you to recite that will rock.
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I use a motorcycle as my primary form of transportation and I have never had a problem checking my speed, odometer, RPMs, etc, simply by glancing down.
Personally, I think I would find it MORE distracting to have all that information in the "periphery of one eye". I'm always looking as far ahead as I can at road conditions, intersections and a million other things. The last thing I want is my vision obstructed
I really don't think this will be a boon to motorcycle safety...maybe if there were a switch on one of the handle bars that would flick the information on/off. That feature seems crucial, yet very difficult to package when you have no idea what bikes your consumers own, etc.
Motorcyclists already have to pay closer attention things on the road -- and the conditions of the road itself -- wet leaves, potholes, puddles -- than those on four wheels. Is putting more -- continually -- in their visual frame a good idea from the standpoint of safety? (and yes, all the cracks about why-are-you-on-a-motorcycle in the first place stand, but there's a difference between risking death and egging it on)
You know the way an interior light in a car is distracting at night because the reflection of things within the car obscure your perception of those outside? I'd feel safer sparing a glance to an instrument on my bike than having it in my face at all times. The helmet already narrows my visual field as it is.
You ride your bike! "Officer, I wasn't going over the speed limit, but I was reading a reply, and this guy linked me to the Goat man!!!"
You just have to look down a bit for your HUD...in which case, don't you consider that just as unsafe since your focus isn't on the road?
This would probably increase the usage of Helmets, if only for the coolness factor of a HUD.
;)
;)
Other ideas:
- The helmet should also play mp3 and display the song at the bottom or top each time it changes (tho this could be distracting, and the RIAA would oppose it
- 0 Lux camera to superpose picture at night to improve visibility on highways and blacktops. But with enough intelligence to supress the flaring of incoming vehicle
- SMS !! So you can get localized spam from nearby stops and restaurants (joke)
BTW: no bikers i know would even want to know/care the speed and deceleration of their heads hitting pavement. I believe the whole point of riding a bike is not to crash
With witty lines like that, I can't believe the poster refrained from making reference to 'murdercycles'. Helmets are largely a nonissue WRT motorcycle safety these days. They are 'safe enough', provided they are worn. (I'd like to ride in a state with helmet choice, but I'd always choose a lid.)
There are three issues that overwhelmingly appear in motorcycle fatalities. The first is alcohol. Alcohol use BY THE MOTORCYCLIST is the number one rider controllable factor in fatalities. Eliminate alcohol, and you eliminate 25% or more of motorcycle fatalities and accidents. That is why Harley does its customers a disservice by providing beer tents at events. Because of the number of factors a rider must juggle, the effects of alcohol are more readily apparant on bikes than cars.
The next issue is ignorance by other road users, primarily passenger vehicle operators. Nope, bikers aren't getting squashed by semis, they're getting squashed by SUVs and minivans. I've long been a proponent of tougher licensing standards in the US.
And the final issue is rider skill. Riders who are self taught or taught by friends and family are over six times as likely to be involved in an accident. That's why the MSF came into being. Yes, I'm an instructor, no, I don't speak on their behalf.
The value of HUDs, particularly WRT driver/rider safety at highway speeds found in the US (where this inventor is located) is of questionable. Lack of access to engine and/or vehicle statistics doesn't even appear in any accident statistics. Sure, this is a neat toy, but judging by the writing by the AC submitter, I think he's just pissed at having been passed by even the most mundane of motorcycles.
Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. -John Lennon
I know on my Intruder 1500LC, I'd like this on my windshield. My speedo is on the tank, and it's a good glance down to check speed & fuel level (no tach on my V-Twin yet). On my old FZR600, this would have been sweetness indeed in my helmet - mid-corner, close to apex, check RPM/gear/speed - without looking down. IF you could make it unobtrusive yet visible. IF, if, if. Motorcyclists don't need distractions - I'm using 100% of my senses to look ahead, beside, and behind to watch for cagers when I'm riding.
If you've never ridden before, don't condemn or judge or pretend you know anything about motorcycling. Until you've tagged your favorite twisty road on two wheels, just ridden 150+ miles to have breakfast with your buds, or just ridden to be out... I can't explain it to you. You have to experience it.
If you ride, keep the shiny side up! Winter won't last forever...
"If there's hope, it lies in the proles..."
"I'll bet some horrifying data could be gathered on the speed with which riders' heads impact the pavement after an accident."
wish I could mod "-1: distasteful"...
Insightful: 76, Off-Topic: 379, Flamebait: 24, Funny: 152, Interesting: 201, Underrated: 55, Troll: 9, Total: 896
If you've ever driven a car and instead of focusing on the road in front of you, tried looking at the windsheild, you'd realize just how hard it is to change focus quickly from the glass to the road. Now try driving with glasses on and focusing on the lenses of your glasses, while staying in your lane.
Further, when I go riding I spend most of the time with my visor up, to feel the wind on my face and enjoy the ride. Why would I want to keep my visor down, just so that it can tell me I'm speeding when I already know?
0110100100100000011000010110110100100000011000100
...other than in a car, and I know I pretty much have a +/-5mph idea of my speed (and +/-500 RPM), just by the car, the road, the feel of all the inputs, where my foot is on the gas, the sound of the engine, road-noise etc...I would think most people who ride regularly have an even more accurate 'feel' of their situation (the non-morons anyway) and the loss of peripheral vision and subconscious distraction of the read out would do more harm than good. For cars I think they should be standard safety equipment, but I think responsible bikers have a situational awareness that rivals a HUD. Again, I'm NOT speaking from experience on bikes, just extrapolating from driving a car.
I'll bet some horrifying data could be gathered on the speed...
Or on the amount of heat generated by a pair of "ass brakes".
Mommy. What's a karma whore?
Related to the above, wouldn't it be better if the GPS receiver/electronics could be integrated into the motorcycle and then connected by wire (or perhaps by Bluetooth?) to a compatible helmet, saving some potential weight in the helmet? It would also make the helmet less steal-worthy.
I'm not a motorcycle rider myself, but I'm the curious sort. :)
Sorry, but I have enough to worry about on my bike, here is a short list.
(1) drivers who are conditioned to not notice anything on the road smaller than an excursion, and will pull out in front of me while seemingly staring at me.
(2) Those same drivers making a left turn at a light, not noticing I'm in the oncoming lane
(3) wet leaves
(4) oil, antifreeze, pretty much any liquid
(5) deer (PA, nuff said)
(6) Other bikers. Don't get me wrong, it can be very safe if you just take precautions, unfortunately sometimes it seems like I'm the only one on two wheels who is sober, wearing safety equipment, and not trying for the sound barrier.
(7) People. They won't walk out in front of a car but for some reason will dart out in front of a motorcycle. Mutually assured destruction I guess.
So no thanks, I don't need any more visual distractions. I wouldn't say no to a device that spoke my current speed into my ear at the touch of a button (preferably on the handlebars).
Finkployd
There's no way in hell that GPS will be used to administer speeding tickets. First of all, what if you had to speed up a couple mph to avoid an accident? would the GPS recognize this? or just send you a ticket in the mail for speeding? Secondly, I'd like to see the politician who actually tries to push this through the legislature. Talk about bad publicity. No one goes the absolute speed limit. The speed limit on most freeways is 65 mph but the highway patrol estimate the average speed of traffic to be around 70-75. I say it's around 75-85 most of the time. The fact is, nothing is absolute (not even the law). That is why we have judges, and not robots or GPS' to decide things for us.
This company needs to use something other than GPS to determine the speed of the bike. GPS's method is to collect a location point every few tenths of a second, then add the distance between each of the last twenty points or so and divide by total time. This means that your "speed" is an approximation at best (almost always to low because or curves in the road) and doesn't show double-zero until a few seconds after you've stopped.
I did a fleet management project using GPS-able PDAs in trucks. We had to kill the big spedometer in our interface because the GPS delay caused it to fuck with peoples' heads.
If they're serious about this, they need to either hang a Hall effect sensor on the output shaft of the engine, or tap into the bike's speed sensor line if it has an engine-control processor and then relay that info to the helmet with bluetooth or something. Otherwise it just won't work.
This tagline is umop apisdn.
You are absolutely correct in your underlying statements about bikers having a lot to pay attention to, yet you don't draw the conclusions. I take it from your comments about bikes being dangerous that you don't drive one yourself?
I drive a Suzuki Hayabusa. For those of you who aren't familiar with it, it's a bike basically built for insane speeding. It starts to accelerate seriously around 80 mph, from where it kicks you up to 180-190 mph while leaving your guts behind.
(As a side note here, speeding is not seen as a particularly serious crime where I live. It's regarded more like a sport. A friend of mine referred to speeding tickets as "fun tax".)
Anyway. When you're cruising down the highway at 140-150 mph or so, there's just no looking down at the instrument panel. The concept of looking down does not exist on this planet. Your focus is ahead, on the road, on the traffic. And sharply so.
Therefore, this is something that will actually make you READ the speedometer. Read the speedometer AT ALL. As it currently stands, the only speed indication you have as a sportbiker is the pitch of your engine, because you sure as hell aren't taking your eyes off the road.
In these conditions, the "spare of your glance" which you are talking about, means you are unaware of the road and the traffic for a minimum of 100 yards travelled (about one second to look down, refocus, and interpret what you are seeing).
So, bring on any and all information you can onto my visor. Anything that rests in my field of view is good, if it means I don't need to take the eyes off the road.
Speaking as a motorcyclist, I don't think this will be much use for me. When I am riding hard, the thing I might possibly be able to use in a head-up display would be a tachometer, not a speedometer. On straight roads, I can spare the glance down. If I cannot glance down because I am in traffic, or heading down streets with blind driveways, etcetera, I am going too fast for conditions, and my life expectancy will reflect that.
If I am on a twisty road, and going very hard (I am thinking of the fabulous Duffy Lake road, a very remote and senic one, famous within the sport rider community in BC, on which I have never seen any scenery), there is no way I am going to use a speedometer at all. In that case, one doesn't use the tach either. Though it is true that a rider at the limit is not easily able to use gauges (a very athletic activity that invloves moving your body aggresively forward, back, and to the sides to change the weight distribution of the bike), the pace of events is too fast for them to be of any use anyway. Race bikes don't have speedometers, and the tack is usually oriented such that at redline the needle is pointing straight up. With experience, you do not need to look directly at it.
An important skill for fast road riding (even more so than on the track) is a zen-like ability to scan your visual field without fixating on anything. Particularly when you 'see' something you must avoid. Looking at an obstacle will often result you riding right into it! Anything that adds distraction in that visual field is not useful. I hold that a rider at the edge needs less information (just the important stuff), not more.
Spare me the head up display. I can see it now, mounted on the helmets of Gold Wing riders everywhere, helping them know the speed at which they are adjusting their radio pre-sets.
That said, how about making that GPS provide you some route data? Arrows that flash left or right, according to a pre-planned route, with a heading? I think that might be more useful and safer than a tank bag map...
Remember: always ride with two fingers over the front brake. Unless your hobby is rock climbing, and you are on a CBR 900. Then use one. DOH!
If the HUD showed:
* speed
* trip distance
* number of FRAGS
* ammo remaining
That would be sweet.
X-Ray vision would be neat during confrontations with a rough/tough bikey gang member in a bar. You can see if they have a knife or a gun. Although you would look like a dag wearing a helmet in a bar - you could choose your fights carefully and live.
And how many CAR drivers forget to take off the turn signal when they decide not to turn? Or more likely, simply fail to ever put it on.
I used to have a habit of this as a learner rider and was taught to check the indicator whenever I change up gears. As you most often change down gears before a corner, it works out surprisingly well.
Riders don't need a HUD. They need better training to get rid of bad habits.
You know what? A few minutes after I made the post I changed my mind completely and decided this was a bad idea, mostly for the reasons you now write about. :-)
:-) Like you say, the cool factor does not cut it.
When going with the flow of traffic, looking at the speedometer is not important. When ignoring speed limits altogether, looking at the speedometer is not important, either. And like you say, you get the rpm info from the engine pitch, which is plenty.
So I swiftly turn 180 degrees to "get that crap outta my eyesight, I don't need it".
I guess what triggered my post was your reflection that it's much safer to look down. That I still don't agree with, but that's another story.
You are right that I haven't had a deer wander into my peripheral vision, vectoring towards where I'm going to be driving in a split second. That's mostly because they're not so common here, though. Pedestrians happen. Cars definitely happen. The guy who taught me to ride always told me to drive like I was wearing fluorescent clothes, and the first car driver to hit me would win the $1 million jackpot. I still think he has a point.
So, mea culpa, you're right, get this crap off my gear.
(and just for the record, I always wear protective gear: full helmet, bulletproof vest against sharp metal, impact protection jacket, and full-body sliding protection.)
Only those who haven't ridden call them 'donorcycles' or wonder about the speed at which a rider's helmet touches ground during a wreck. Seriously, that was the lamest comment I've seen yet at ./ ... and that's saying something. I wish I had mod points today. Do me a favor -- if you even thought about making a comment like that, go take a motorcycle class. The MSF (Motorcycle Safety Foundation) or your local equivalent (i.e. TeamOregon in, uh, Oregon) offers them in every state. Taking that class is guaranteed to make you a better cage driver, and you could walk out of it with a motorcycle endorsement and an appreciation for the lifestyle and risks that motorcyclists accept in exchange for being able to bomb down that perfect canyon.
As for the HUD ... I don't need any other distractions. Riding a motorcycle, by itself, requires 3 times the concentration that driving a car does. Add in the fact that everybody else on the road is quite literally trying to kill us ... and then add in some serious distractions from a HUD, and you've got a recipe for disaster.
HUDs in cars are a good idea, but motorcyclists are already at their information saturation limit.
--
Vote for your hopes, not for your fears - Vote Third Party
While it sounds cool and all... nifty gadgets and all that. There's no F'ing way I'd want something like that in my field of vision.
I like my guages where they are, and putting something like that in my helmet is just a recipe for disaster as my eyes try to focus in and out between the display and the road and the horizon. It would lead to a lot of eye strain, which directly translates to extreme danger for a motorcycle.
Thanks... but no. The only time a motorcyclist could safely view data like that is when he or she doesn't need it.
If I could get the job of writing this software for this thing it would be the sweetest deal ever. The software would be sooo easy:
while(true) {
if( isGoldWing() ) {
print "Speed: Too slow";
} else {
print "Speed: TOO FAST!");
}
if( rider.age() < 23 ) {
print "Reminder: You suck for wearing a tank top, shorts and sandals.";
} else if( rider.age() > 50 ) {
print "Reminder: You bought a Harley for the vibration, there are cheaper and more portable alternatives";
}
if( speed < mph(60) ) {
waste_of_bike++;
}
excitement_factor += random() + radar(CONST_SUV, 42.0);
if( stoppie_detected() ) {
dumpRider( "You cocky fool" );
}
}
My instructor -- very careful rider, showed up to my road test in a neck brace and a back brace. Could it have happened in a car? Sure. Would it likely have happened being rear-ended at a stop-light from a little old lady from Portage la Prairie? Only if she was going a hell of a lot faster than she was.
Two autumns later he dove off his bike to avoid being crushed by a half-ton when he heard it's brakes lock on a bridge downtown. The man is super-experienced on a bike, and he's dangling for dear life on a friggin guard rail.
Yeah, motorcycles are dangerous if you do stupid things on them. Motorcycles are dangerous if you are Mr. Safety, too, because there's always the other half of the equation -- the idiot who comes out of nowhere.
Saying that, I still ride, but I don't pretend there's no danger.
Nissan has this back in the 240SX (S13). It was one of those late 80s early 90s toys. I've never seen on work, but it basically had an LED on the dash and a semitransparent reflective coating in the bottom left corner of the windshield. They tended to burn out after a while.
Tim Smith - Ramblings from Nerd Land
Gauges, bah! - back in my day sonny we just listened to the hum of the engine and we knew approximately how fast we were going - some drivers increased the accuracy by having an experienced Harley Ho on the back telling the driver their exact speed - we also cooked our grub on the exhaust pipe!
and...we liked it.
PS. I'll bet your one of those sissy geeks that actually use the temperature gauge on your mobo instead of using the old finger lick test...
From excellent karma to terible karma with a single +5 funny post...
I've been riding on the street since 1969, and have owned nine motorcycles, and was an all weather rider for two of the wettest years California's Santa Cruz Mtns. had on record, so I'm qualified to respond as a rider who didn't dare look down at his instruments on Highway 17 between Los Gatos, and Summit Road, on my way home during some incredibly wet nights.
I think it's a great idea, and will adopt it just as soon as it's much smaller, and "transparent", as in, built into a helmet.
Until then... too BIG, and I agree that wind noise could be an issue with the unit as it is now.
Very good idea though.
If it don't GO... chrome it. ~ Frank Banks
I would much rather see something like this worked into a HUD.
"It is a solemn thought: dead, the noblest man's meat is inferior to pork."
I've responded to a handfull of motorcycle collisions in my area and only one of the drivers survived. He was bruised all over and had a broken radius and ulna.
Everyone else died instantly when they slammed into another vehicle, guardrail, divider, or embankment.
It's strange though--even after responding to all these, I still want to get a bike...
There's no place like
Yeah but didn't Australia have a problem with motorcycle gangs in the 80's.
I can't remember the names of the gangs, but Mel Gibson seems to come to mind...:-)
Actually, here in the UK the biggest problem is "born-agains", who are men in their late 40s to late 50s, taking early retirement, and go buy themselves a nice big bike with that fat wodge of cash they've just been handed.
Sadly, what they fail to realise is that the VFR750 they've just bought is a hell of a lot more bike than the CB750 Honda they had back in '75. Well, *initally* they don't realise this. Shortly after getting to a quiet back road, they find this out, usually a little before they realise that hedges aren't very comfortable.
HUDs are a nice thing ... but I think this will lead to bad stuff happening. ... actually most of them did so. There were a few who actually saw the smaller plane pull out onto the runway right in front of them and promptly pulled up into a pattern for another go-round ... the rest of the guys missed seeing the smaller plane pull out onto the runway ... right in front of them .
For example, there has been research done on HUD units that build the "highway in the sky" display for commercial pilots. These guys (commercial pilots, remember) were thrown into a simulator, told to land the plane, and did so.
Well
Needless to say, there were a lot of people really shaken up that day, and 2 pilots reported that they shouldn't be flying at all, after seeing that.
The point of it is this: HUDs are nice and all, but they cause cognitive tunneling, which is awful - especially in people not trained for it. I meant to find the NASA Ames article, but I can't recall it off the top of my head. Rather, I direct you to C.D. Wickens & J. Lang, "Object Versus Space-Based Models of Visual Attention: Implications for the Design of Head-Up Displays," Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, 1 (1995), pp 179-193 for some background information.
I'll bet some horrifying data could be gathered on the speed with which riders' heads impact the pavement after an accident.
/.'ers have already pointed out that HUD's (Heads-Up) mean that you don't have to look down at your instruments thereby taking your eyes off the road. This much is true, but it's not always that helpful really. Every motorcycle I've ever ridden has had the instruments in a position that are quite easy to read with a casual (and speedy) flick of the eyes as opposed to a full head tilt. This means that I choose when I fill my head with this information and wait for moments of safety (i.e. not passing any junctions with those lethal car things peering out of them). But with a HUD, the rider has an abundant display of information all the time. Now actually I'm not so sure this is a good thing. I wouldn't mind a HUD too much myself, but we have to bear in mind that many motorcyclists are fairly casual (think born-again-bikers). These people are already a liability to themselves and others and I can't help but think that a HUD with all the 'cool data' (GPS, telephone, trip computer, fuel, speed etc.) would distract them a little too much.
Speaking as a motorcyclist, thanks for that unnecessary and rather gruesome little tid-bit. =/ I'll save you the research though; if I'm doing 90mph on my bike and I hit something that jolts me clear, then my head will hit the road at a little under 90mph. Or I suppose if I hit a truck doing 60mph head-on then similarly my head would hit the grill at just under 150mph.
Now, "horrifying data" aside, I also have a concern about HUD's in bike helmets. A few
Military jet pilots travelling at supersonic speeds with a huge and deadly payload screaming towards some unsuspecting target not only need that level of information in a HUD, but they also have to be trained to cope with it.
Aside from military pilots, perhaps F1 drivers and some other 'extreme' activities, I think that HUD's are an unnecessary and potentially quite dangerous distraction for your average civilian motorcyclist.
"His HUD was still frozen on the last thing he did before the crash. Apparently he was trying to dial the 1-800-How's my driving service."
does it work during daylight hours too ?
i have some fat LEDS mounted in the dash of my vw bus that reflect off the 'screen to remind me that my turn signals are on (the self cancel no longer works as i've swapped the steering wheel) but it doesn't work very well in daylight.
Fry: heh, Yakov Smirnoff said it
Leela: No he didn't.
BTW The Hurt report quoted earlier is now 20 years out of date.
It is but it is all we got until someone does another study.
Good points regarding the latest sports bikes. I personally think it is an ego thing. Heck, even some salesmen will still first time buyers away from anything less than 600-1000cc ("you will out grow it in a week") which is just murder. The 600cc bikes today are WAY more powerful than the 1000cc bikes of a few years ago.
Finkployd
"I'll bet some horrifying data could be gathered on the speed with which riders' heads impact the pavement after an accident."
CowboyNeal, you are a fuckwit of the highest order.
Motorcyclists are half as likely to be involved in an accident as other road users. You want to know why? Because we're fucking careful on the roads, we actually *observe* what's going on around us despite the fact that when you look up from doing the crossword, driking your latte and putting your fucking contacts in you think we're going too fast when we pass.
So go on, you sit stationary in your cage in that traffic jam for 3 hours of your life every day.
Government of the people, by corporate executives, for corporate profits.
Couldn't resist getting in the anti-motorcycle jibe in there, could you? So many people have been subjected to anti-motorcycle propaganda that they just accept it as truth. Yes, please, by all means go through life without ever taking any kind of risk whatsoever. I'm sure you are popular with the ladies since you are such a totally feminized wussy boy!
I rode motorcycles for years and barely ever looked at the gauges while I was underway to any significant degree. The speedos on bikes are notoriously imprecise, and all they really tell you is how much you are violating whatever local speed limit is posted. And if you can't shift a bike without a tach, you had better just park it and do something else because motorcycles are not for you.
In all the years I've ridden bikes, I never remember abiding by a single speed limit at any point. Never once got a ticket and never had any accidents.
If you want to help riders, invent something that makes other motorists more aware of them. A device that jams cell phones would be good.
The old "going too fast" chestnut. I don't like the phrase excessive speed I prefer the phrase inappropriate speed. In the UK 70MPH is legal on a motorway but is it safe on a raining or foggy day with limited visibility or with a lot of traffic on the road? Conversely is 100MPH unsafe on a straight dry road with little traffic and great visibility.
My bike accelerates faster than an average European car and stops quicker than an average European car (0-100-0 mph in 15 seconds) and as any good driver will say it's often safer to accelerate out of trouble rather than to break in to it (ask any traffic cop who's been properly trained). I have done 135mph on public roads with the right conditions. But in built up areas with children and pedestrians I will ride somewhat under the speed limit.
If speed per se was the factor then there would be deaths in motorbike racing all the time. There aren't and those that are usually not because of the "off" but because they get hit by another bike or hit something hard.
As a motorcyclist myself, I'm not sure which is more worrying. The sad comments by the computer-potato set, who have no clue about risk and reward outside of the virtual world; or, the others here who ride, but seem to have a rather narrow view of the motorcycling experience.
As has been mentioned many times, alcohol is a major cause of motorcycle accidents, and a major source of fatalities. This is no different than automobiles. Perhaps the car or truck driver will "get away with it" a little more often because they can stumble home with a few dents on their Hummer, rather than laying on the side of the road with a broken leg (or worse). Motorcycles do require more attention and fitness of mind and body to ride safely than do automobiles.
Sportbikes are better motorcycles for road use. They handle, stop and accelerate (often a safety feature) better than nearly any vehicle on the road. They are not inherently more dangerous than other types of bikes. Most bikes, even mundane ones, will out accelerate a car and exceed 100 miles per hour. This power always carries responsibility.
As far as "image" goes, one could argue that cruisers with their "biker lifestyle" baggage (no helmets, drinking, thong-wearing passengers, older RUB riders) contribute more to accident statistics and injury with their habits. Or the big tourers with their generally older riders and heavy weights, overloading and high-mileage skew the statistics. Not to mention off-road bikes and the "evil" ATV!
But I've owned or ridden all of these, so I don't plan to throw any stones. They all provide a quality of life that few inanimate objects do. If I die doing this (and I don't try or plan to), so be it. What "wonderful" way will you check out? None of them sound too good to me (ok, I can think of a few that might not be too bad).
If this "padded cell" mentality is Darwinism in action, I'm sure good old mother nature will come along and nip that limb of the tree in the bud. I don't think people that work up a sweat reformatting a hard drive are the pinnacle of natural selection.
Don't like the ER folks slagging-off bikers? Don't give them your organs!
Open your minds a little folks! Or is this the eventual attitude of any group of zelots?
is something that the people around you aren't expecting. If there is a traffic signal that says stop, the other drivers are expecting you to stop. If you don't stop, I wouldn't expect them to feel bad about running you over. Of course, that implies that they are paying attention to the traffic and not jabbering away on their cellphone, stuffing their face with a Big Mac, applying make-up, etc. However, this sums up the counter-point... Here lies the body of Old John Jay He died maintaining his right of way He was perfectly right as he plodded along But he's just as dead as if he was wrong!
The manufactuer had a booth at the Seattle Bike Show last weekend with a demo "box" - basically a video screen showing the road and a helmet with the HUD system attached. The result is very neat: the thing is so close to your vision that your eyes pick up the information and display it "over" your normal field of vision. Within a few seconds, I wasn't looking "at" the information but at the "road" of the video. I could still see what gear, rpm and speed was being projected without refocusing. That being said, I didn't care for it: It is an external mounted display that I know I would lose or damage. If helmets came with the system built in, I would consider it, but...
- Erston
How about designing a display mounted on the motorcycle instead? We're familiar and comfortable with gauges already. This would reduce distraction, and increase safety.
And that said super-duper motorcycle would be out on the street about
You can take your helmet in with you to dinner, or when shopping.
Yet another "invention" by some idiot who doesn't ride, like airbags for bikers etc etc etc.... A biker does not need ANY instruments to ride, you judge you speed to the road conditions, the actual mph doesn't matter, just "safe" and "smooth" and "controlled" is all that matters. You don't need a bloody revcounter, fuel gauge, selected gear indicator, tyre pressure indicator, inclinometer or any other crap, you can hear and feel everything you need to know, this is the WHOLE POINT of being a biker.... In the real world a speedo has one use and one use only, to make sure you don't get a ticket, particularly here in the UK where councils use speed cameras set at arbitrarily low speeds on good roads and revenue generators, for everything else your brain and your experience tell you everything you need to know about speed. Another thing about this thread, people writing about their local experience and making it sound as though that applies worldwide, it doesn't, alcohol certainly is NOT the major cause of death amongst motorcyclists in the UK... in my own opinion that would be "born again" bikers who sold a 500cc bike years ago when the kids came along and now in later years with increased purchasing powers buy a 1300cc 200mph penis extension, and only discover that they lack sufficient training and experience going into that 60 mph corner at 120..... Similarly helmets, ride here (UK) in winter on motorways and (full face) helmets are beautiful things, they stop your brain from being chilled down to the processing power of a chimpanzee on mogadon... ride in southern europe in summer and no helmet is the only sensible choice, assuming the law allows you to make a sensible choice, which it doesn't. Then we have riders who wear bulletproof kevlar everything and ride around like assholes thinking they are superman, and others who ride around wearing shorts and a tee shirt and sneakers... stupidity, no more and no less. Bikers do not need or want more crap getting on the bike with us, bikers need LESS crap, less distractions, less gizmos, and MORE bonding and feedback between rider and bike in the seat of your pants area. As for me, I'm mid 40's and I've ridden just about everything one time or another, in a lot of places around the world, currently running a 23 year old xs11 special that does everything I ask of it, don't own a car and don't posess a car licence, winter / summer, rain / shine, year in year out and more miles than I can shake a stick at. In all of that time and experience there is ONLY ONE THING that I can think of that is any use, and that is training, not the sort of training that you forget 2 minutes after you pass the exam, but the sort of training that sticks with you and changes how you do things... you just can't have too much of it, and it would be nice is some of the car drivers had some compulsory (2 wheel) training too... ride safe, and don't forget what makes biking fun. freedom. not reading instruments.
http://slashdot.org/~GuyFawkes/journal
...Since they never wear helmets (at least here in Texas where there's no helmet law), then this is useless to them. They'll have to wait until this is shrunk into a pair of cool name brand sun glasses. Or perhaps made of flexible circuits and builtinto a n American flag patterned bandana.
I disagree completely. Speed in and of itself is not a problem. A good biker who knows his bike in and out can take the twisties at speeds that would make my stomach churn.
It's the idiots who run out and grab a 200-mph rice burner right after they get their license and think they've got nothing left to learn about riding safely. It's the ones who weave through rush-hour traffic at 90 mph. It's the morons who don't change their riding style when the pavement's wet or icy. It's the idiots who take hairpin curves at 90 and wonder where the hell that car came from.
In every one of those cases, "excessive speed" would be listed as a major factor by the cops, but it's not. That's great for paperwork, but it doesn't tell the story. Speed is not the problem. Riding too fast for conditions and not knowing your bike are what kills.
That, and as the poster above said, alcohol or drugs. People who drink and ride are a Darwin award waiting to happen. I made the mistake of doing this once. Luckily, I got home ok, but nothing scares the living hell out of you like falling asleep at 65 mph. It remains the dumbest thing I've ever done.
Gifts for Geeks - Stuff that really matters!