SuzukiSavage.com - Motorcycle Safety Myths

justin_o_guy2

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Re: Motorcycle Safety Myths
Reply #15 - 09/18/13 at 14:56:06

spacepirates wrote on 09/18/13 at 07:42:42:

Most of these seem pretty common sense (maybe because I was taught in PA's Motorcycle Safety Program before getting a street bike).

I'm surprised that there is a statistic showing that 'loud pipe crash more' of course there could be a lot of other factors there just aside from the volume.

#10 was a bit of an eye opener to me (about lane splitting in slow, heavy traffic). I'd love to know why that is, or get a source to the study (so I have more proof than just 'I read it on the internet')

As for #1 and #3... I don't think any (normal, sane, well-adjusted) person actively goes on the road wanting to hurt any group of people (in this case motorcyclists), but I think all riders should go with the mentality that you will not be noticed when approaching intersections. And after my crash I know I'll always wear a helmet. Got to protect the money maker, ha ha! That and seeing what happened to my hand (through gloves!) makes me cringe thinking if that were my face...

JOG... I think we'd have to see each other in person to explain the physics/geometry to each other. In my eyes I see the helmet contacting your shoulder, putting the stress from the side of your head off your neck onto your shoulder, but I could be misinterpreting it. I'm also basing it off a full-faced helmet, so who knows, you were there so I'd imagine you have a better perspective than I do. Maybe I'll try it out when i have my helmet with me.

My legs were up, right shoulder hit the ground, head was pressed onto my left shoulder. Think Lawn Dart.. If I had landed on asphalt, I woulda been ruined,,speedo said 58 when I rolled off the bike,, I thot I was headed into a stand of pines,, It was an open & recently plowed field, but, in Louisiana, you go off road, youre usually in trees, so, once I was forced off the road, I bailed,.My intention was to roll onto my back & bring the shoulders forward, pullingthe jhacket tight, but, I pushed the bike away & killed the roll, landing on the shoulder & rite side of my head. I went Up in thge air & came down onmy forehead,, then I went to sleep.l.

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The people never give up their liberties but under some delusion.- Edmund Burke.

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Midnightrider Serious Thumper Offline Alliance Member Posts: 3244 Winston Salem, NC	Re: Motorcycle Safety Myths Reply #16 - 09/18/13 at 15:41:41 A large % of riders don't know the exact spot the horn button is and have to look down to find it. Your time could be better spent looking for an escape route.
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Serowbot

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Re: Motorcycle Safety Myths
Reply #17 - 09/18/13 at 15:53:26

Midnightrider wrote on 09/18/13 at 15:41:41:

A large % of riders don't know the exact spot the horn button is and have to look down to find it. Your time could be better spent looking for an escape route.

That's very true... I can never find that thing without looking down...
... but, I never use it for accident avoidance...
Mostly just to let the idiot in front of me know that the light has turned green and he can quit texting now...
Angry

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Ludicrous Speed !... ... Huh

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HondaLavis

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Re: Motorcycle Safety Myths
Reply #18 - 09/18/13 at 16:14:49

I feel the statistic for #2 is useless unless it's a per capita count. Think about it, how many people change their exhaust system to something louder? If they have a larger population, then of COURSE they'll have more crashes. My lizard agrees with Serowbot, and I'd be too afraid of some careless, inattentive driver spontaneously changing lanes to ever lane-split.

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LostArtist

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Re: Motorcycle Safety Myths
Reply #19 - 09/18/13 at 19:31:26

remember when I said "hey I'm riding here" was a biker attitude, just saw it today, on my way to work. 5 lanes (2 lanes each way with a turn lane in the middle) so I'm heading south to work in my car, there's a blue pick up truck going my way but in the turn lane and it turns left in front of a couple of bikers and a car or two in the other north bound lanes, the pick up truck had enough time/room to do this, the north bound traffic with the bike never got closer than maybe 50 yards to the truck, yet the biker took both his hands of the handle bars and threw them out wide gesturing like "hey don't you see me"

nothing happened, it was a total non incident, what did the biker want? for traffic to stop just for him to ride through?

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WD

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Re: Motorcycle Safety Myths
Reply #20 - 09/18/13 at 20:00:46

Spiff wrote on 09/18/13 at 14:11:18:

WD wrote on 09/18/13 at 12:39:33:

I've buried far too many riders who's necks got broken in otherwise light injury/damages crashes to ever believe #3.

Color me confused.

Does that mean you think the myth is true, or vice versa?

On second thought, maybe my question is confusing. So I'll ask it this way: Do you believe motorcycle helmets break necks?

In plain English, I've buried several friends and relatives who would have had bruises or a couple broken bones if their helmets had not snapped their necks. And that is straight from the medical examiners in each incident.

Far as I'm concerned, helmets kill. Not always, not even often, but they can/do cause otherwise survivable collisions to become fatalities. As soon as I enter a free choice state, or private property, my helmet comes OFF.

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justin_o_guy2

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Re: Motorcycle Safety Myths
Reply #21 - 09/19/13 at 20:05:46

Ofthe3 totaled bikes, 2 I had no helmet. One, the helmet woulda killedme, one, head never touched anything.
Last one? SMASHED my face into a cab corner on a smallish pickup. Bent the cab in, flexed the chin protector in enough to split my lip 2 stitches worth. At best, myface woulda been crushed,
Popeye said

Ya pays yer munney& ya takes yer chances,

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The people never give up their liberties but under some delusion.- Edmund Burke.

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Spiff

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Re: Motorcycle Safety Myths
Reply #22 - 09/20/13 at 08:12:54

WD wrote on 09/18/13 at 20:00:46:

Spiff wrote on 09/18/13 at 14:11:18:

WD wrote on 09/18/13 at 12:39:33:

I've buried far too many riders who's necks got broken in otherwise light injury/damages crashes to ever believe #3.

Color me confused.

Does that mean you think the myth is true, or vice versa?

On second thought, maybe my question is confusing. So I'll ask it this way: Do you believe motorcycle helmets break necks?

In plain English, I've buried several friends and relatives who would have had bruises or a couple broken bones if their helmets had not snapped their necks. And that is straight from the medical examiners in each incident.

Far as I'm concerned, helmets kill. Not always, not even often, but they can/do cause otherwise survivable collisions to become fatalities. As soon as I enter a free choice state, or private property, my helmet comes OFF.

I'm sorry to hear about the loss of your friends and relatives, WD. I've not had to face that myself so far, thank goodness.

Although there are exceptions, statistics say that overall, one is safer to ride with a helmet than without.

I'm remembering a talk I had with a State Patrol Officer after a car was T-boned by a semi-truck where a back seat passenger survived, probably because she was NOT wearing her seat belt. If she had, her body, anchored at the waist by a seat belt, would have been sheared in two by the truck's front end coming through the side of the car. Instead, she was slammed to the other side of the car. She suffered serious injuries, but she survived.

So, do I wear a seat belt when I'm driving a car? You bet I do, because the odds are in my favor, despite some crash conditions that would make them detrimental.

The question to ask, and there may not be an answer for many of the cases you cited, is whether those crashes were so violent that necks would have been snapped with or without helmets.

Me, I wear a full-face helmet and an airbag vest that inflates in .25 seconds if I'm thrown from my motorcycle. The inflated vest has a collar/cuff that surrounds the neck.

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WD

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Re: Motorcycle Safety Myths
Reply #23 - 09/20/13 at 10:04:48

The track class my CL was being built for changed the rules to full face street helmets mandatory. Bike is being converted back into a street bike.

The day full face helmets are made mandatory, my bikes go in the metal shredder. Regardless of any sentimental or collector value. As to seat belts, under state law July 1 1966 and newer need at minimum lap belts. So my late 60s and newer are mostly parked where they can peacefully rot away to their base elements. Bringing a 1949 model back from the dead to take their places.

Keep in mind, I'm more than a bit strange, converted my Savage to a front drum brake, will be converting to chain drive and a rigid frame as money allows. I really ought to concentrate on my kick only, dual point ignition 1963 parallel twin, but it too is a swingarm chassis... going to have to design/fab/install a one off hard tail conversion for it, and fill the hydraulic forks with at least 60W motor oil for it to feel correct. Savage forks need the same thing, has ATF in the tubes right now, too squishy.

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