| Author | Message | ||
     Jaimec |
After reading this article: https://electricmotorcycles.news/hands-up-for-the- feet-forward-community/ I immediately thought of this old bike: https://www.odd-bike.com/2013/01/gurney-alligator- all-american-oddbike.html | ||
| Aesquire |
Recumbent bicycle with lots of power... I like recumbent bikes but don't own one yet. I like electric assist, I'm old. Don't own one of those either. I'm poor. ( As with all electro toys the battery doubles the price ) The down side is the comfy, aero, low position makes you even More Invisible. Partly because of the low profile. You look at the underside of trucks. Disappear behind cars, planters, large dogs... A mast and flag are wise. Mostly the problem is psychological. The reason motorcycles are invisible, is non riders just don't register you. Motorcycles aren't in their mental universe. It's why the car that turns in front of you had that "idiot" driving that claims "I never saw him!" With a 800 lb. Goldwing with extra lights embedded in the passenger side. They didn't see you. Looked right at you. "Made eye contact" you thought... You were wrong. You don't exist in their heads, so even though an image was there on their retinas, it never became an object in their world, until that unexplained loud noise. That's not a joke. It's true for bicycles too, ( not as bad but almost ) and really true for recumbent ( supine ) bicycles. Not In Their Universe. And a recumbent Motorcycle, that's not in a LOT of mental galaxies. Just an unknown blur that gets ignored. Until After the loud noise of impact. Then they get all upset! I don't care if you believe that people can be that mind blind. It's hard, painful Truth. As to noise, "loud pipes save lives" ( we can argue that ) electric vehicle quiet sure doesn't help alerting others to your presence. Otoh, quiet machines bother others far less too. I can get away with running an electric bicycle, down a bicycle trail. A bicycle with a Chinese 80 cc 2 stroke clamped on laying smoke, that gets annoyed attention. I don't ( that I'd admit in public ) ride a motorcycle down bicycle paths. It's Wrong. ( I say with fake piety ) And the police frown upon that. ( damhik ) Those warnings of impending potential Doom aside, I like it! | ||
| Ourdee |
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| Aesquire |
https://www.catrike.com Lots of fun. Fast. & you look up at truck axles. | ||
| Glitch |
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| Ourdee |
People used to comment on how will anyone see you? I would ask, "Can you see the lines on the road?" | ||
| Jaimec |
I guess the biggest issue would be drivers in those tall SUVs looking in their rear and sideview mirrors... I'm not particularly concerned about commercial truckers as they're TRAINED to check carefully... but the average driver who rents a U-Haul truck, or a non-commercial pickup truck is another story. | ||
| Ourdee |
Penske rental trucks! If you are on a regular bike, you are already invisible and drive accordingly. | ||
| Aesquire |
Just assume you're invisible, not invincible. You don't need to worry about pros. The ones like me see bicycles, motorcycles, skate boarders, children, dogs, cats, everything. I suppose I might miss any given object in the road, no claim of perfection. But an unidentified object in the road gets a "wtf is that?" response from me, not rejected from consciousness as is common. YOUR problem ( all our Problem ) is you can't tell if the minivan oncoming has a professional driver, an alert amateur, or a NPC that just isn't programmed to see you, at all. And NPC drivers bumbling though space time are common. So common the #1 bike car accident, is the Left turn in front of you ( right in the UK drives on the left lands ) and Never Saw You. Bright colors don't help. I'm usually wearing a bright yellow and black armored jacket on a reactor yellow bike. Just as invisible as black. Or red. Think of those danger drone NPC drivers as badly programmed self driving vehicles. The cheap programmer from New Delhi just never wrote the motorcycle identification algorithm. They might see children and puppies. But you? File not found. Being low slung and less visible even to alert actual humans is just a fact recumbent bike riders have to be aware of. | ||
| Ourdee |
I road LasVegas 79 through 81 with a life threatening event every 1 mile back then. You had to do something every mile to save your life on a bike. From there I went to England from 81 through 84. In England there was a life threatening event every 10,000 miles at that time. I rode from the North Sea through London weekly. 1 time in 10,000 miles I would have to do something to save my life. I rode 20,000 miles a year while there. Never saw a right turner call my bluff. In the US I have been passed on the left from behind while I was making a left turn. I've had people try to pass me on the right after I passed a truck on the interstate. I've been rear ended in the left turn lane and cussed out by the driver's father because I slowed down. I told the kid he better explain to daddy who was at fault when they rear-end the vehicle in front of them. Daddy was aggressive enough that I had a pistol in my hand in my pocket. Most non driving people in the world are in the US. | ||
| Zac4mac |
Busan, South Korea had the worst drivers I have witnessed. I was amazed I never saw a crash. | ||
| Aesquire |
You don't blame a wood lathe for grabbing your scarf and yanking you face first into a spinning block of wood. You shouldn't have a scarf hanging off your neck and run a wood lathe. Nominally, other people in cars on the highway are humans with brains and sense. https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/englis h/nominally If you consider them badly programmed robots with a poorly written script, that use machinery they don't understand, or care to learn, you may live longer. ( this applies in so many ways ) Everyone thinks their local drivers are the worst. Everyone might be right. I'm constantly amazed so few get killed. | ||
| Shoggin |
Everytime the engineer boffins decide to save us from ourselves with lane departure correction, automatic braking and dare I say "rain mode", those skills are IMMEDIATLEY forgotten by the masses. Anyone test their own threshold braking lately? Like speelcheeck too I guess, lol. |
