Almost any disappointment from you is a positive thing from my point of view, seriously.
There is no fear, because I stay off of the things. There is no uncertainty, the facts are there to be seen, and no doubt either, as I have never seen a collision between a motorcycle and a car where the 2-wheeler did not get the worst of it by far.
If the motorcycle does significant damage to the car or occupants, it is a safe bet that the motorcycle rider is dead.
That is not my opinion. If you disagree with that, then you are either going senile or you have not been paying attention.
Yes, but we also have things like seat belts, reserve parachutes, condoms, kevlar vests, helmets, smoke detectors, etc. If none of it matters and we are just going to die anyway, why bother with all of that?
Most people wear seat belts in their cars because it increases their chances of living in a bad wreck. Not exactly an option on a motorcycle.
I am not suggesting that we huddle around in fear and never take any chances, but if someone chooses to ride a motorcycle on the same roads that thousands of large vehicles with very bad drivers share, I don't have a lot of sympathy when they get flattened.
Actually, the 7 was essentially a street-legal formula car (which weren't mid-engined yet in the mid '50s). It was designed as a cheap kit car (to avoid the steep UK purchase tax on finished cars) that could be driven to the track, raced, and driven home. Lotus abandoned the 7 when the UK joined the EEC in 1973, because the tax dodge evaporated under the new European rules.
Taking a step up, you have cars and trucks and the exact same can be said. And based on the number of car/truck accidents around here almost none resulting in injury to the truckdriver while the car drivers are either killed or at the least seriously injured maybe we need to consider not driving cars anymore either.
Which fails to take int o account the notion that I have a better chance of avoiding the accident at the very last minute with my bike which I don't have in a car, even my Miata.
One takes reasonable and prudent actions. That does not necessarily mean giving up our life so someone else can enjoy theirs more.
More hype than reality. Standard seatbelts are seldom 100% effective and the kind that would be (6 point racing harness) are illegal in street cars almost everywhere at this poiknt and in some locales can be used as prima facie evidence of street racing. And I believe that Ontario Province has even gone so far as to ban Roll Bars in the last year or so!!
Funny, that's what the truck drivers in PA say about car drivers.
"We" don't need to do anything. I choose not to ride a motorcycle, but I am not trying to make the choice of which vehicle to drive for you or anyone else except perhaps my daughter.
I mentioned hitting a deer at 60 mph in my last Miata. I would not have seen or been able to avoid this animal in any vehicle at that speed, it was a perfect jump, and a helmet would have made it harder to notice if anything. I would probably still be recovering from my injuries had I been on a motorcycle, assuming that I lived. Instead, both myself and my daughter were shaken up but completely unhurt.
Lots of different perceptions on what is reasonable and prudent, and I am not suggesting that people quit doing fun and dangerous things. As long as it does not harm others, I say go for it.
Seldom 100% effective? That is a hell of a lot better than never effective at all because they are not there. One lady from Houston that posts on here would absolutely be dead without her safety belt and airbag.
I have a racing harness but I seldom wear it. No problem with roll bar bans, I can't see that happening anytime soon.
I have a feeling that Texas has more trucks than PA. One of them ran into my rear bumper years ago. I was in a car a little bigger than a Miata and was pushed forward and had a sore neck for a while.
Had I been on a motorcycle, I probably would have ended up underneath his truck. That is at least twice that I would have been seriously injured and possibly killed on a motorcycle, with no amount of skill or experience possibly saving me.
Instead, a little sheet metal surrounding me took care of the problem each time.
Not at all. The motorcycle rider is making a decision that I consider foolish, but I have no problem with them doing it, it just is not something that I will do. Nothing illegal about it and I don't think that it should be.
As far as driving drunk, I still support a very minimum of a two-year revocation of the driver's license on the first offense. Second offense, permanent loss of license.
To get caught driving at any time with a suspended license due to drunk driving convictions should result in a minimum of 10 years in jail with no early release.
I think I'd be more comfortable making a hard panic-type evasive move in the Miata, because it doesn't fall down when the tires slip. But then, the Miata is also about 4x wider than my bike so it's clearly not going to slip thru the same gaps.
That's funny..... Actually, it was my daughter (29 years old) who got me back into riding after a more than 30 year hiatus. And I now ride more than she does and plan in the near future to make it my primary way of getting back and forth to work for a substantial savings, even over my Miata!!
The anti-helmet crowd always seem to cite visibility problems, but I have failed to see (sic) any of this.
No doubt, if you were riding your motorcycle in a crosswalk when the "Walk" light was lit. :-)
If you carry your daughter on one of those rolling deathtraps while riding in traffic, you should have your head examined. They are dangerous (and obnoxious, but that's another matter).
Certainly, but shouldn't the driver be allowed something better? In every state I am aware of (and worse in Canada) they are not.
And people here are killed all the time with seatbelts and airbags. They offer little protection when being struck by truck weighing more than 29 ton doing 90mph. Happens on the Interstates here sevral times a month.
Read what I said. They have already been banned in Ontario Province (I am a member of a British Car Club in Kingston and this was big news when iyt happened as many people with MG's and Triumphs have them.) And I do not know of any state in the US that allows the use of a racing harness in a street car. Not sure of current law but at one time if you were SCCS and raced your sgtreet car on weekends (for things like Gymkanna) you had to remove the racing harness to get the car inspected.
It really has nothign to do with the number of trucks, it has to do with how they drive which is more based on law enforcement than numbers. There is no enforcement against trucks in PA, the drivers know it and drive accordingly. And, if all you got was a sore neck your truck was not like ours as he had to be doing somewhat below their usual 90mph.
Or possibly gotten out of his way, unless you don't pay attention to traffic around you. I always watch behind me, wether on the bike or in the car.
Sorry, but if you got rearended while stopped, I don't agree that you could not do anything about it. Guess it depends on driving style.
All the sheet metal in the world wouldn't save you in opur usual truck/car collisions. And the truck driver always walks away.
I know my Miata's capabilities. And I know what we learned in school about last minute avoidance with the bike (yes, I went to school before taking up the bike again even though I had ridden in the past.) And in the case of being rear-ended at a stop, I am sure I could get a bike out of the line of fire easier than the Miata.
But don't get me wrong, I still love the Miata!!! :-)
There is a lot in your post to respond to, but just this one part shows that you are too unintelligent to debate with.
You mentioned me getting my head examined, taking your own advice may be beneficial.
You have extreme overconfidence in your abilities, and if you think that keeping an eye out behind you will basically end rear end collisions, then that is just ridiculous, unless you have special powers of observation beyond the rest of us mere mortals.
It seems to me that you are suffering from delusions of grandeur. Faster than a speeding bullet? Able to leap tall buildings?
All just my opinion, as usual. :-)
I'll let you get your last word in, don't worry.......
Many do. Virginia, for one, even has a provision concerning how the minimum number of points of the harness which must be fastened (2) in order to provide the legally-required protection. My Miata has a Hard Core and five-point harnesses, and has never had any problem passing inspection. I generally drive on the street with three points fastened (two lap, one shoulder). My street seatbelt in no longer accessible.
Motorcyclists are routinely taught to plan a route of escape even when stopped for traffic controls, and to constantly check behind to determine if using that escape is necessary. It's that kind of awareness that Bill is referring to.
That sounds good in theory. In reality, when I am coming up behind a person on a motorcycle in my car, they are literally never looking behind them to "plan a route of escape".
Bill questioned my getting rear-ended, (in a car), based on my driving style, as if looking behind me would have saved me from that happening.
I was stopped at a light. Even had I seen the person in the pickup truck that hit me, my choices would have been to try to shove the car beside me out of the way or go into oncoming traffic for a head-on collision.
He wasn't there and he talks like he knows what the circumstances were, hence my serious questioning of his intelligence.
I guess that's part of the justification for lane-splitting (AFAIK it's legal only in California, mainly because the CHP wants it).
Lane-splitting means at a light you can pull your bike up inbetween the cars ahead of you, thus foiling the SUV driver who wants to pull up to the car taillights in front (ignoring the bike behind the car).
But lane-splitting is also going between two adjacent moving cars on the freeway. During gridlock I can see it, sorta. At 70mph or more I can't even imagine it. But CHP wants it.
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