Ahhhh Lanesplitting

In aus.motorcycles on Thu, 24 Jun 2004 13:47:20 +1000

And not particualrly useful for people trying to get directional
information. "something loud somewhere" isn't useful.

ONly faint given the bouncing surfaces, and the closed doors. They
don't particularly need to know "nearby" they need to know "close enough
to matter to my proposed manouver"

Same fallacy as headlights on. If they see you miles away that's
irrelevant, you want them to see you when it matters, and a properly
adjusted low beam is useless for that.

Which would be fine if the game was worth the candle. If a pipe did a
even vaguely useful job of that without having other drawbacks such as
being both a reason and an excuse for anti-bike feeling and
legisliation.

IT doens't do much at all for your safety, certainly a lot less than
proper lane positioning - a thing you have control over, and a thing a
lot of people seem rather bad at.

So? If you are hoping it works then you have to hope you don't get a
deaf one. If you are riding so it doesn't, then it doesn't matter.
I've met a lot of people who given closed car, people talking, and poor
hearing cannot tell where a bike is when it matters if it's just about
pipes.

Exactly. But if you ride thinking it will help, then it's going to be a
factor in your riding. How can it not be if you are so certain it
works?

Those who are certain are so very vocal about it... meaning they must be
thinking "I will be seen".

I think people who are basing their safety on other people's good will
are foolish. They are expecting that the other will notice, will notice
in time, and will behave in an expected fashion. One of those fails and
you were relying on it... bang.

I prefer to ride so that if someone does something stupid, I can save
myself. Rather than hoping that they'll spend their effort trying to
work out where that bloody annoying noise is coming from and whether
it's something they *need* to care about.

Zebee

 

paulh wrote:

Yes (for approriate values of "strictly")

"perfectly OK"?

Not by a long shot.

The human ear tends to be good at locating higher frequency sounds, but
quite poor at detecting the direction of low frequencies.

Hence the subwoofer parked under the coffee table.

If the pipes on a bike are loud enough to be heard by cage drivers
ahead, all they will know is that there is a bike around somewhere.

Part of the feeling that bikes can "come from nowhere" derives from the
fact that by the time we are aware of where the bike is, it has already
gone past.

That's quite true. What concerns me here is that the "loud pipes save
lives" brigade are convincing new riders that loud pipes are a necessary
safety item. This gives the impression that they are an effective cage
repellant, when they are not. This can lead to impressionable people
(e.g. Harley riders or Suzuki riders) believing that their loud pipes
enable them to ride with a little more abandon.

I have no problem with 'nice' pipes and 'distinctive' sounds.
While I wouldn't spend money on pipes just for the sake of the sound, it
doesn't worry me that others do.
I have a problem with the kind of sophistry that trumpets them as a
safety item.

Deaf people don't stand out much. There are a lot more around than you
might think.

"loud pipes save lives"

If that were true (that "no one's saying ... ") then I would be happy.
But there are a lot of people prepared to make much stronger claims for
the efficacy of loud pipes.

I suspect that in many cases they just want to make a lot of noise, but
feel the need for a 'legitimate' reason.

Precisely.

Moike

 

oops, forgot.
that should read

"Precisely, Dickwad!"

Moike

 

You might get lucky - the driver's name might be Danny

 

If your just riding along standard country roads I don't think it would,
but if your fighting your way through peak hour traffic at low speeds
(bellow 50) it does. Sometimes I give the bike a couple of revs to let
people know I'm around or if a car isn't going when the lights goes green.
People seem to always hear me even when I'm behind them and give the bike a
couple of revs to get them to go even though its Less Revs than what I
normal ride with.

Finally I refer to the article in Australian Motor Cycle News Magazine May
to June 3 2004 addition. on page 87, it says "Fact: Loud bikes keep us
alive". The article is called Let's Get Loud. Might be worth a read for
some of you guys. Sorry no scanner

If its in a mag it must be TRUE ;-)

 

Some of us don't agree and we've been riding in heavy traffic for years, so we
don't need to read a magazine article to dictate to us what is safe and what
isn't, when we know what is, and especially when a lot of the journalists
writing those articles have less road riding experience than the rest of us.

Magazines are not impartial, you'll never read a bad review of a bike in AMCN,
no matter how bad the bike may be. Go to the AMCN website and load up the
main page. There's an advertisement at the top. I reloaded the page a dozen
times to see if it was dynamic or whether it was loading a specific
advertisement. The advertisement for "Micron Exhausts" came up first, twelve
times out of twelve.


Nev..
'03 ZX12R

 

These the same Microns you had fitted to the bird?

 

No, the ones depicted are those type which are heat treated or whatever to
give them the different colours, mine were plain alloy. Happy to clear up
your misunderstanding.

Nev..
'03 ZX12R

 

amen

sadly there are still heaps worse drivers than them!

 

Isn't that why there is the "Double White Line" down the centre of the road.
The 3" tarred bit between the lines is the bike lane...

R. P. Codswallop
BMW R1150 G/S
** I'll keep wearing black until something darker comes along **

 

Yeah... At least when we are lane-splitting, everyone is travelling in the
same direction...
Only thing I hate are Volvo's and Mercedes...

Bloody BIG mirrors, have pinged a few of them... :c)

A few years ago whilst lanesplitting, a car driver I was passing decided
that he didn't want me to pass there, so he squeezed the lane narrower. At
that time I was wearing Rossi Enduro boots (remember those, the ones with
the 8-10 buckles down the side), when I got home I noticed I had blue paint
on the buckles... Bugger that was a bit close... Wonder if he noticed the
scatches the full length of his car...

R. P. Codswallop
BMW R1150 G/S
** I'll keep wearing black until something darker comes along **

 

I had a bike prang a few years back, when being questioned by the copper
about the accident he asked me, "Did you sound the horn?"
I told him I didn't even have time to get on the brakes, never mind sounding
the bloody horn. I T-boned a car that failed to give way to me. The old
prick was on his way to a knocker shop and pulled across in front of me. It
happened so fast, like I said, I didn't even get the brakes on... He told
the cop that I didn't have my lights on... Stupid old prick, my lights went
on with the ignition... When the accident happened he got out of the car and
came over to me while I was lying in the middle of the road, he leaned over
and said "I am sorry I didn't see you", so I reached up and grabbed his tie.
I didn't let go, even when the cops arrived... I still have it now, the cops
had to cut it in half... I learned by that experience, you have to have your
eyes everywhere all the time.

Expect the unexpected...

Anyhoo... I digress...

Lanesplitting... Yep I do it all the time, the only bikes I have never seen
do it are those big Road Tourers...
With my GS, my handlebars are so high off the ground I can clear most
mirrors, the only ones I have problems with are buses, delivery vans, and
bloody Volvo's...

R. P. Codswallop
BMW R1150 G/S
** I'll keep wearing black until something darker comes along **

 

I thought that was what all those lanes with the pictures of bicycles are
for. I figured the RTA just didn't have a stencil of a motorbike, so they
used the pushbike stencil instead.

(On a serious note, while I do occasionally ride in the push bike lane, I
make sure to always do it at a safe speed, and not to get in the way of the
push cyclists who the lane is really for.)

 

Thank you but they were still microns then.

 

If you feel that being louder makes you safer, why not tape the horn button
down?

Theo

 

"Raymond P. Codswallop" wrote

Codswallop!

Theo

 

Yeah, I used to use them occasionally, pushies travel at
about the same speed as I do in those circumstances anyway,
you're limited to lanesplitting speed anyway.

I reckon it's good for the pushies too, because cars might not
always see motorbikes, but they just plain don't give a shit
about pushbikes and will quite happily turn across the pushie
lanes without looking, indicating, whatever.

-----sharks

 

Yes. Do you want a balloon for exhibiting outstanding recall or something?

Nev..
'03 ZX12R

 

that sounds like a good argument against using pushbike lanes...

Nev..
'03 ZX12R

 

i believe that a lot of them live in Toowoomba QLD