Motorcycle Safety Study - Virginia Tech

[tshelfer]

Not a brand new article, but I spotted this today in a Revzilla roundup. The article has some interesting observations about where and how motorcycles crash.

One reason that intrigued me was motorcycles running into the back end of cars. When I was first riding street (1976 in Germany), I was driving in traffic at 50kph (30mph), and nearly went into the back of a BMW Bavaria who braked in front of me. What saved me from a rear-ender was that (1) German curbs are only about 2.5 to 3" high, and (2) the bike was a Yamaha enduro, making it easy for me to suddenly pop onto the curb. I startled a pedestrian; well, I also startled the Beemer when I ended up in front of him moments later. But I avoided the crash. At that moment I realized that, when riding a bike, I tended to follow MUCH more closely than when driving a car under the same conditions. Since then, I've made a lifelong effort to artificially "stretch" the distance between my bike and the car in front of me.

https://www.revzilla.com/common-tre...ed-about-how-and-why-we-crash-our-motorcycles

 

[StromXTc]

But where's the excitement in that?

 

[StromXTc]

Talking about panic stops...I know the idea of abs and offroading is poo pooed but i have thoroughly real life tested the value of my ABS system on many gravel roads and I believe it has save me from losing control during the stop.

 

[tshelfer]

But where's the excitement in that?

Trust me - being 67 y/o isn't all that exciting, either. But being alive because I've stayed out of mishaps is pretty rewarding.

Talking about panic stops...I know the idea of abs and offroading is poo pooed but i have thoroughly real life tested the value of my ABS system on many gravel roads and I believe it has save me from losing control during the stop.

Well, that brings up an interesting issue. Here's a quote from the article: "Many accidents are simply caused by riding over one's skill level." One thing I've found to be true about people who are passionate about riding - or driving - or wine tasting, for that matter - is that it's easy to confuse passion and enthusiasm for skill. Reading the letter columns in automotive mags when I was growing up, I realized that a lot of people confused owning a sports car and knowing the lingo with actually being an expert at driving it. The reality is that, in that giant 80/20 rule of the universe, the vast majority of us are somewhere toward the middle of the curve. I'm realistic enough to know my place on the rider curve, and it's a pretty mediocre spot. So as far as ABS goes, I'll take every advantage I can get.

 

[Meriden]

I haven't had a chance to read the study, just the article, but it sounds like a distracted rider who is aggressive and a beginner has about 50/50 odds of something bad happening. I'm pretty clumsy by nature and have learned by the school of hard knocks to set up safety zones around myself. It drives the wife crazy when I'm in the kitchen turning all of the pan handles a certain way for example. As far as motorcycles go, I like space - space behind, space beside and space in front. ABS has saved my bottom from more than one hard landing in my pea gravel driveway and wouldn't have a street bike without it. The sig line says it all! The idea is to be far enough back to avoid the debris field.

m

 

[tshelfer]

Based on personal observation, and on studies I've read, my assessment is that if you survive your first year of riding, your odds get way better. Seems like in the 80s, I read that nearly 50% of all riders have some sort of crash within their first 3 months. Much of that definitely goes to riding beyond your skill level, showing off (which is exactly how I dumped a bike after 2 weeks street riding), riding aggressively, and being so inexperienced that "you don't know what you don't know."

 

[StromXTc]

Tim , of course I'm just stirring the pot.

I think about cars piling into me from behind and usually watching the mirrors and tapping the brakes while waiting at lights, but not so much the other way around. Probably because I tend to avoid traffic situations mostly and stay on the country roads etc.

Proper spacing, Good practice to stay alive for sure.

Something else I remembered from my mc training while riding in medina county saturday was, the time to brake is before the curve.

My little thing (habit) I do in my mind before/during the ride is say to myself, "100%SEE" . In that if I don't feel or get into the ride 100% I need to get off. And the "SEE" being what they teach as Seek, Evaluate, Execute. "SEE" works every time whether it's for curves, traffic, or terrain.

That's true what the article says about the 20 foot area around your bike as being the past. The key to avoiding the crash is way beyond that, maintaining your focus further on down the road.

Excellent article Tim, thanks for posting.

 

[notyou83]

in the kitchen turning all of the pan handles a certain way

I thought I was the only person who did this. My wife is left handed and I am right handed so I can make her crazy really fast with that.

Related to the article. I recall being told to follow the "2 second rule" when driving my car when I was 15 in drivers ED. Meaning to leave 2 full seconds between me and the vehicle in front of me. I don't know about the rest of you, but 2 seconds is a huge gap and no one leaves it there for long before someone pulls into it making the gap less than 2 seconds. I try to follow that idea, but I fail at it on the bike and in the cage.

 

[tshelfer]

The 2-second rule works as long as you can live with the fact that somebody will inevitably pull between you & the car ahead, and you'll have to create a new 2-second buffer. But all aspects of driving are a process of continuous correction - following distance included. When I was a kid, they taught the old "one car length for every 10 mph." I taught the 2-second rule in Defensive Driving and most of my students immediately discovered that a safe following distance was much closer than what they had previously been maintaining. And in today's world with better tires and better brakes, 2 seconds actually gives you quite a bit of margin as long as the guy behind you is halfway paying attention.

 

[garfey]

... Related to the article. I recall being told to follow the "2 second rule" when driving my car when I was 15 in drivers ED. Meaning to leave 2 full seconds between me and the vehicle in front of me. I don't know about the rest of you, but 2 seconds is a huge gap and no one leaves it there for long before someone pulls into it making the gap less than 2 seconds. I try to follow that idea, but I fail at it on the bike and in the cage.

The 2-second rule works as long as you can live with the fact that somebody will inevitably pull between you & the car ahead, and you'll have to create a new 2-second buffer. But all aspects of driving are a process of continuous correction - following distance included. When I was a kid, they taught the old "one car length for every 10 mph." I taught the 2-second rule in Defensive Driving and most of my students immediately discovered that a safe following distance was much closer than what they had previously been maintaining. And in today's world with better tires and better brakes, 2 seconds actually gives you quite a bit of margin as long as the guy behind you is halfway paying attention.

When I took Drivers Ed, I'm not sure seconds had been invented yet and, like tshelfer, was taught the old "one car length for every 10mph" rule. I never did get good at eyeballing how far 7 car lengths was (Electra or Corvair? Fleetwood 60 Special or Falcon?). 12 car lengths? Fugeddabouttit! It wasn't a bad rule, just an impracticable one.

I wasn't taught the 2sec rule until I took the Motorcycle Safety Course in 1979 and I was then on my 3rd bike (15th car) and had survived two ol' Cushman box scooters before getting my 1st car at 15. Hey! That I can do! To this day, whether on a bike or in a car/truck, out on the road in any sort of traffic, I am seemingly powerless not to count: 1 Mississippi, 2 Mississippi . . . . . 1 Mississippi, 2 Mississippi . . . using centerline reflectors, road signs, or whatever to begin the count. It's an unconscious thing and when I see someone about to overtake and pass I start easing off the speed to aid in re-establishing that safety cushion. If I were counting out loud and anyone else could hear me s/he'd probably reach over and slap me upside the head in short order but, as Mothra Stewart might have said, "It's a good thing."

Thanks for the OP link, Tim; it never hurts to think about it.

 

[StromXTc]

Of course the other idea is that if you leave the door open in frontofyou , you leave room for the slow poke to pull in and hold you up. Much different on a bike for sure.

 

[Meriden]

As a motorcyclist you do have to defend your space. Sometimes that means getting closer to one side of the "box" than another. Maybe you follow a little closer with finger and toe on the brakes to keep from having someone cut your off, or ride on the side of the lane next to traffic to keep people from passing in your lane. It can be a dangerous game of chicken and often the best solution is to avoid situations where you have to deal with metropolitan 75mph bumper to bumper traffic.

I remember reading a study in the American Alpine Journal that the main reason climbers get hurt is because they keep climbing. Weather, bad rock, unstable snow, that's what the mountain environment is made of. Lots of drivers are idiots who don't pay attention and we keep choosing to ride motorcycles in traffic with them.

 

[tshelfer]

Lots of drivers are idiots who don't pay attention and we keep choosing to ride motorcycles in traffic with them.

Which arguably makes us idiots by association? Yeah, bumper to bumper traffic probably scares me worse than anything else because things happen so quickly. There are certain freeways - Hwy 183 through Hurst comes to mind - that I avoid because diving from 70-to-20-to-70 is such a repetitive pattern along that stretch. And sooner or later it causes a sandwich accident. And eventually, there'll be a bike in the middle of the sandwich.

 

[Meriden]

Which arguably makes us idiots by association?

How about "Chronic Adventurer."

Off to the gym now. Truth be know most people die early from lack of exercise and what they eat.