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Im looking to buy my first motorcycle ... a 2003-2007 Cruiser either Honda Shadow or Yamaha/Kawasaki equivalent. In city traffic where the Biker is stopped behind a car , how much of an impact can these Bikes endure before some serious damage occurs to the Rider ? 10 mph, 20, 30 mph ??? And...are there any crash test reports on such issues ? If youve been rearended on your Bike in stop n go City traffic, what were your injuries and how fast was the guy going who hit you from behind ? DId you get wedged in-between the two cars ? Trying to get some idea as to how much of an impact a Rider can typically withstand being a new future Rider. Thanks.
There is a potential threat to life and limb getting knocked over at 0 MPH. If you take the MSF course you will learn to not get hit from behind, because you will have eyes in the back of your head and an escape route to ride into. Always have a place to escape to.
There are other things you can do, to avoid stopping for a red light. I never ride right up to a red light. I slow down a lot and stay moving, pray the light goes green, and if it does I don't just zip out there either. The light doesn't mean it's safe to proceed.
When caught in traffic and I am not first to a red light I stop pointed in a direction I can go. It might be 10 feet, but I have that much to go and I only need 8.
You will learn how to take shelter behind road islands too. One day some fool all hot and bothered came up behind me at a red light, I was back from the while line about 12 feet. he didn't slow down to my liking and I moved left to take shelter. The light went green I, I paused the guy blew his horn and I waved him around. BAM another guy was running the red. They both had a bad day and I just took a wide turn around the wrecks and went on my way.
I've yet to see a bike get bumped from the rear at anything more than slow walking speed where the bike came away with nothing more than superficial damage. They're not made to withstand anything. As to the rider's injuries? At best, a nasty case of whiplash. At worst, you don't want to know, but I've read and heard about some particularly gruesome ones even at the speeds you're talking about (serious injury up to fatality, usually caused by being slammed into the car in front of you).
A motorcycle's defense is a good offense. When approaching a stop, keep your eyes on your mirrors. My general rule is to watch until the car behind me comes to a complete stop, if not a few more behind them. Stop at an angle that leaves you an 'out', whether it be to the shoulder of the road or splitting between lanes of traffic. Keep the clutch in and the bike in 1st, at least until you're assured the cars behind you have stopped safely (some would advocate keeping it in gear always, but I'm a realist).
Slightly OT, but situations like these are why lane-splitting is a good idea and should be legal in all states. I'm just glad that, for all its wrongs, my state got that one right (CA).
I never ride right up to a red light. I slow down a lot and stay moving, pray the light goes green, and if it does I don't just zip out there either. The light doesn't mean it's safe to proceed.
The worst accident I ever had was because I took off on a green light without looking both ways first. It was the other guy's fault, but that didn't help my ruptured spleen any.
Just assume that you can't get hit at any speed on a bike. It isn't damage to the bike that you should be most concerned with. It's damage to you.
Cat, How has your basic heath been since you lost your spleen? I lost mine in 79' and am damnned glad it's gone. I used to cath every common cold there was till that went away. Now I am almost never sick.
Yeah non-riders that drive, take a bit of time to come to the understanding bikes ain't cars. Since they don't ride they can't imagine bikes are a whole other game.
Wait till he reads on counter steering.
I don't mean any offence either. Bikes are just not like cars.
It doesn't seem to matter that I lost my spleen. I've done pretty well without it. I'll be 65 in two weeks, and it happened in 1976.
A lot of things that don't make much difference if one is in a car make a lot of difference on a bike. The tradeoff is well worth it, though, even without a spleen.
It doesn't seem to matter that I lost my spleen. I've done pretty well without it. I'll be 65 in two weeks, and it happened in 1976.
A lot of things that don't make much difference if one is in a car make a lot of difference on a bike. The tradeoff is well worth it, though, even without a spleen.
Silly question but....do you think a seatbelt would be more advantegous or not on a bike concerning more minor side and rearend collisions ... or do you then have to worry about the bike falling on you and pinning you as the car behind runs over everything ?
Seatbelt probably wouldn't help a thing. The newer GL1800's (Goldwings) have an option for an airbag. And there's a manufacturer who has an airbag vest for riders, it uses a bungee attached to the tank/seat/etc that pulls a pin and uses CO2 to inflate the vest to help protect your vital organs....works well except for punctures, which are a problem with everything, even leather.
Silly question but....do you think a seatbelt would be more advantegous or not on a bike concerning more minor side and rearend collisions ... or do you then have to worry about the bike falling on you and pinning you as the car behind runs over everything ?
First, there is no such thing as a 'minor collision' on a bike. What would amount to a fender bender in vehicles will usually total a motorcycle and likely send the rider to a hospital.
Second, being anywhere on or near the bike during a crash is a terrible idea. In a collision, the bike is just a multiple hundred pound projectile looking to take out whatever it can. You don't want to be on it or anywhere near it. Take this pic for example:
The bike is SPLIT IN TWO, but the rider walked away. How? Well, the rider low-sided, at which point he came off the bike. It slid a lot farther than he did, ran into the post for the guardrail, and ended up as you see it. The rider, not being belted to the bike, slid for a bit and then stopped. As he was wearing proper gear, he simply got up and walked off.
Remember, a bike is not a car. There are no crumple zones, no airbags (yet), no giant mass of steel to protect you.
As to getting your leg pinned, yes, it can happen. My mom had this happen to her when she had to low-side her cruiser at slow speed to avoid hitting a driver who ran a red light. She was perfectly fine, but she was stuck under the bike and had to wait until a good samaritan came and got the bike off her leg. It wasn't crushed or anything, just stuck. She had freeway bars on her bike that kept it from applying the bike's full weight to her leg, though.
Mike
Last edited by whiteboyslo; 06-23-2011 at 09:59 AM..
A seat belt on the bike is a Royal Sin. The last place you want to be is strapped to a bike that is flipping and rolling for the distance it travels, untill it comes to a stop. A ride wants to be free of the machine in a crash and in a very big way. All bikes of hiway capacity weigh more than people do. A human body will not travel so far, not having as much stored energy, and the bike won't be there to beat the tar out of you on each flip and roll it takes.
Air bags are new on bikes that have any, and there isn't any data to say if these are safer or not. Probably under certain criteria in a vbery specific way air bags maybe be safer, but under the wrong criteria they will kill. If something causes an air bag to explode when a rider could other wise correct the crash, there will be no possible chance.
This happes in cars all the time where I live. The air bags are made for cars hitting other cars and not moose. However moose get hit by cars nearly as often as by cars.
The car moose crash with no air bags is survivable, but not the car moose crash with air bags. The air bag blast the occupants back into the vehical, but the vehical had been reduced to rubble and the roof has been crashed in at the windshield pillars. This brings the roof down to the dash board, and so people in the ft seats suffer death by broken neck, since the air bag blasts then into the crushed roof. This is an example of when air bags become more dangerous.
No mc has any saftey built in crumple zones. Almost all cars and trucks do. A simple fender bender on a car isn't going to be that on any bike made. To ride means you accept more risk. These days with cagers doing anything but drive or pilot cars and trucks you have to pay attention all the time.
Very few people drive cars with that type of attention span, a bike requires. Riding is a lot like flying a fighter plane in a time of war. One must have their head on a swivel of they are going to crash and burn. There is no place for anger on a bike either. If something sets you off, the best thing to do is forget it and move on, and if you can't then stop on the road side and get over it that way. Do not ride in anger. And for anyone that is often in a rage over anything that hapens on the road, they should not consider to ride ever.
Story Time:
One day riding with my wife as pillion on my 850, a very eldery man backed out of his driveway. He didn't look and if he did he sure didn't see. I hit the brakes, and the engine Kill switch, blowing the horn and yelling loud. I stopped with in 2 feet of his car. I remained yelling, and he never ever had the slighest clue we were there.
Then he pulled off down the road ahead of me doing 25 mph in a 45 zone. I was forgeting the incident, but missed over his slow rate of speed. There was a double yellow line, but no one coming and with ease I could have passed still in anger. I choose not to pass.
From when he began to drive his left hand signal was ON. I didn't know if he set that on backing out, or if he was going to make a left turn somewhere. You for sure don't pass wen a left signal is on. After miles of this, he finally turned off into the dump.
At that time if I were in anger and out of controll in my mind I would have rocketed the bike around him on the right, and gone whizzin into the twisties ahead well over the posted limit. I was still upset, but not out of controll. I eased around him knowing he still had no idea I was there, and proceeded into the twisties at the legal limit and when I did a flock of about 60 wild turkey were blocking the road in both lanes.
Had I gone there at 75 mph in anger I wouldn't be sitting here typing any stories at all or forever.
With a cage you can mash down a whole entire flock of wild turkeys, but you sure can't on a bike.
A June bug can take a unarmored rider right off a bike.
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