Motorcycle safety advertisement

[cageyar]

OT: What do we need to do to be seen by cars, etc?

[turboflyer]

I think I will stick with the mil spec bright orange reflective vest, well I would't mind the rear female collision avoidance device with the large dual air bags.

[BumbleBeemer36]

Australia is so cool. Definitely my first out-of-country trip (in my life) will be there.

[OwenM]

Wows haven’t seen that on TV yet, but I almost never watch free to air so I could have easily missed it. Clever campaign I must admit, I’ll keep an eye out for it.

[NakedRider]

Originally Posted by OwenM

Wows haven’t seen that on TV yet, but I almost never watch free to air so I could have easily missed it. Clever campaign I must admit, I’ll keep an eye out for it.

It's from a couple of years ago. May not still be running.

Pretty funny. You'd never get it to air here in the states.

[Kieran R1100S]

Cageyar,
I haven't seen that add also but it certainly has a message.
In Australia we have mandatory Motorcycle Rules.
1st we have to wear a Helmet.
2nd we have to have lights on, due to no control over the front light.
The stupid thing is there's no rule to say you have to wear protective clothing.
I think since 1989 we have hard wired bikes on lights, that means we have no light switch to control light on/off.
The question should be Not, what do you need to be seen, But rather, What do car drivers need to do to be aware of others.
ie: Turn music down
No mobile, etc.
I personally try not to commute on the bike, simply because car drivers, once behind the wheel do not give a flying **** about anyone else thats uses the road.

[cageyar]

In the US, we've had headlights on with no on/off switch since 1976.
We had almost universal helmet laws in all the states but about 15 years or so ago, the A.M.A. (American Motorcyclist Assoc.) started a campaign against helmet laws. They were hoping it would drive more members to their ranks among the clientle that doesn't like helmet laws. Now we have quite a few states where you can ride sans helmet. It just confirmed for me what a BS organization the A.M.A. had become and I haven't renewed my membership since. During that same time they also managed to render motorcycle racing in this country irrelevant. They're quite a crew.
In NJ, we have to take the bike to inspection each year and they check for proper eye protection and 4 square inches of reflector material on your helmet. They won't pass the bike without it. I don't know about anyone else, but I don't want to put that reflective tape on my $600+ Arai with graphics. So we keep some old crap helmets with the tape on them just for inspection. What an effective law.

[bradzdotcom]

headlights can help. reflective clothing can help.
but definitely not always, not often and not very much.

in the last month, two riders around here were rear end slammed by a car while waiting on a red light at an intersection. one was fatal, the other not-so-pretty either.

part of the problem is that drivers don't see the motorcycle.
they're tooling along in their cocoon, casually looking for a nice fat 4-foot wide steel, glass and chrome structure with at least three taillights and a trunklid/tailgate. they recognize and acknowledge those things.

what they don't see is some skinny little bike, with a weak-suck wallet-size taillight and a rider (often decked out in black or gray)
.
they plow right through you.

"I didn't see the motorcycle."

about the only thing that they MIGHT notice would be a revolving blue wal-mart-ish flashing light, bolted to the top of your helmet.

maybe.

cover your butt at the light.
lock the bike down. pocket at least 2 possible emergency exits.
don't make assumptions: the stopped-at-light fatality i saw was a chain reaction, started by a truck that was three vehicles behind him. he could/should of seen/heard it coming. the car driver directly behind him did and had started to react and bug out.

don't just sit at the light counting butterflies. keep scanning. use the mirrors: they often work their best when you're dead stopped. might as well use them.

i treat the green light i'm waiting for as the least important thing on my list.
number one on the list is all that moving metal, which means more to me than putting my life into the hands of some mindless switch and a little green light.

i don't jump on the light when it goes green. there's that little scan left, right, left again ritual before the wheels roll.

...unless the intersection is dead empty, and there's a jeff williams at your elbow, who wants to play the "race ya the first 20 feet" game...
then i leave when i see the red light go out.
i don't wait for the green. i assume it'll happen.
unfortunately, i showed this tip to williams once, and i've seen him use it on a few of you guys to get that half bike head start while you wait for the green.

my apologies.
go get him.

ps: a tip: at the traditional bulb-powered lights, he waits until the red goes all they way out, rather than reacting to the red as it starts to dim. (don't anybody tell him, okay?).

[cageyar]

Originally Posted by bradzdotcom

part of the problem is that drivers don't see the motorcycle.

This is the single, most important motorcycle survival principle to always keep in mind everytime we ride-never assume the car driver sees you, even if they are looking right at you, that assumption can get you killed.
Which was the message contained in the Aussie video spot-short of riding naked, you have to assume they do not see you and ride accordingly.
Of course, if I rode naked, their vision would be obscured by the vomit on the inside of their windshield so they'll likely kill me anyway...........

[BumbleBeemer36]

When I started street riding at 15 my father said "drive like they can't see you" before handing me the keys.

That was later revised to "drive like they're trying to kill you."

I've been tapped from behind while waiting for a light. Slow speed and no damage so the driver just scrugged it off when I screamed at him.

I was really glad when my R11S came with hyperlites. I need to add them to the other bikes - I think the flashing is annoying enough to be effective.

Here in AZ we don't have helmet laws but ARE required to wear eye protection and run our bikes through emissions every year. Dumb!