[TubaMuffins]

this happened a block away from where i work, needless to say i was abit shocked driving to work Sunday morning and seeing this.

http://www.startribune.com/stories/462/5289814.html

[xenu]

As I was approaching work the other morning, I could see flashing lights in the distance.
As I got closer I saw an ambulance and a couple of police cars. As I turned into work I saw a man laying in the gutter, his motorbike laying on the footpath. The ambulance people were talking to him, so he was alive then. I have no idea if he still is.

I hate motorbikes.

[Apple Pro Underwear]

hate motorbikes in general

i would not put myself in a situation where i can be permanently disfigured or paralyzed


i learned my lesson from christopher reeves

[ghporter]

The problem with motorcycles is twofold: 1)everybody else is completely unaware of your existence, and 2)they are all, at the same time, out to get you. There is a third problem that affects young men; they feel they are invincible and indestructable. This is, of course, completely at odds with the laws of physics, but it's still true. They don't seem to understand that once they get going, it's going to take the same ammount of energy to come to a stop.

It isn't the existence of motorbikes that causes accidents, it is almost always the rider attempting to exceed the parameters of how the bike can handle and perform. You CANNOT stop in zero feet. You CANNOT make a 90º turn at ANY speed. You CANNOT occupy the space currently occupied by another object. Control REQUIRES friction between the tire and the road surface. Speed DOES kill.

I have had exactly three motorcycle mishaps, and they were all on a 73cc Honda Passport. Here in the States, that was a bike sold in the early '80s. It looked a lot like a scooter, except that it didn't have floorboards. I found out that you shouldn't brake hard in certain situations (went over the handlebars onto my hands and elbows), that puddles can hide dangerous potholes (went down onto one knee and scraped it up a bit), and that some people are a**holes that will run you off the road (went into a ditch and bruised myself when the bike came to a stop).

After the Passport, I got a 500cc semi-touring bike called a Silverwing, which I miss to this day. Wonderfully powerful and easy to control, this bike was my commute from one end of Austin, TX to the other for about three years. I NEVER had a single bobble with this, much larger bike.

The only reason I stopped riding was that I was transferred to Central America and I didn't know what kind of roads to expect-not great, as I found out. My wife stopped riding a bit before that due to her pregnancy.

I don't hate bikes at all, but I do cringe every time I see someone riding without a helmet, or riding far too fast and manuvering in and out of traffic like a ski slalom. Rainy, wet streets still give me the creeps, too.

[macaddict0001]

ghporter is completely correct.

and sorry to hijack this thread but does anyone understand why racing karts are illegal on roads? what with their low centre of gravity and tight suspension they should be great.

[ghporter]

Originally posted by macaddict0001:
ghporter is completely correct.

and sorry to hijack this thread but does anyone understand why racing karts are illegal on roads? what with their low centre of gravity and tight suspension they should be great.

They aren't street legal because they aren't street legal. No lights, no horn, not built to SAE safety standards, you name it, the things just don't measure up. They're not supposed to-they're for the track, not the street.

By the way, a lot of low-COG vehicles are out there. Unfortunately, they're marketed as sports cars, have more power than they can possibly use for effective road work (but enough to get the driver into a LOT of trouble), and demand serious, well experienced drivers but get inexperienced kids who want the thrills-kind of like those "crotch rocket" motorcycles. My back hurts just looking at those!

[ChrisF]

Originally posted by macaddict0001:
and sorry to hijack this thread but does anyone understand why racing karts are illegal on roads? what with their low centre of gravity and tight suspension they should be great.

One of the cars I own is a Miata. A kart is even too small to be seen from the driver's seat of that car. Keep in mind a cycle rider sits probably 2 feet or more higher than a kart driver. As for driving them on the road, all those guardrails designed to keep cars on the road are at just the right height to decapitate a kart driver. (and karts generally don't have a suspension other that what's designed into the chassis flex... they are punishing on bumpy surfaces.)
Furthermore, a truck driver could easily run over a 400lb. driver+kart and never even know it. Karts are wide enough- and aren't particularly maneuverable for their size- that a driver just wouldn't have as many options for evasive maneuvers as would a motorcycle rider.

[OldManMac]

Originally posted by Apple Pro Underwear:
hate motorbikes in general

i would not put myself in a situation where i can be permanently disfigured or paralyzed


i learned my lesson from christopher reeves

So you live in a coccoon?

[ghporter]

Originally posted by ChrisF:
One of the cars I own is a Miata.

A local Op-Ed cartoon here a while back shows a little boy in the passenger seat of an enormous SUV looking behind the vehicle and saying "Mom, that wasn't a speed bump, that was a Miata." I think cars as small as Miatas, S2000s, Z3s and Z4s, and such are in danger from the pondering preponderence of SUVs on the road. Add to that all the folks that jack their vehicles (trucks, SUVs, sometimes "other things") so high that you'd need a boarding ladder to get in, and I'm amazed that there aren't more cases of trucks litterally running over small cars.

The mere fact that racing carts will fit in the bed of a standard pick up truck should say something about why they aren't allowed on the street. Besides, wouldn't you much rather run into a bale of hay than a guard rail retaining post?

[ChrisF]

Originally posted by ghporter:
I think cars as small as Miatas, S2000s, Z3s and Z4s, and such are in danger from the pondering preponderence of SUVs on the road.

My first sighting of a Ford Excursion was on the way home from the Mazda dealer with the car. The realization that its bumpers- as well as those of most every truck or SUV out there- is at head level was daunting. A side impact accident in cars like these is not pretty.
Driving it definitely requires a mindset similar to that of driving a motorcycle; people do not see the car, but that's true regardless of whether or not they're driving an SUV.

[wdlove]

Oh my! I hope that the driver will be OK. This accident sadly has affected many.

[jcadam]

Originally posted by KarlG:
So you live in a coccoon?

How true. In life, just about everything is a risk. Your job is to discern the 'reasonable' risks from the 'unreasonable' ones.

[t6hawk]

Originally posted by Apple Pro Underwear:
hate motorbikes in general

...paralyzed

i learned my lesson from christopher reeves

slightly off topic but I have a dislike for closed minded individuals.

1. People that ride their motorbikes responsibly and actively pay attention to their surroundings rarely if ever have a problem. Most motorcyclists are better drivers than people in cars, they have to be and you'll know why if you have been around the morons in cars lately. Many of my family members still ride motorcycles today and have been for decades without incident.
2. Christopher Reeves was paralyzed by a HORSE accident not a motor bike and he did more to help people with paralysis than anyone has in a long time.
3. If you're worried about doing things that could paralyze you, then you may as well just be in a padded room or a bubble and even then you could be paralyzed simply by a blood clot (and yes it does happen). One of the the anterior arteries/aterioles of the sixth thorasic vertibrae for example is one spot it can/does happen.

[ghporter]

Go here for details of where this particular bumpersticker came from. It's not the only one of its type, but it's particularly relevant.