Why Drivers Don't See Us - Featuring the CB1100

[Offroad]

I've always wondered about helmet lights/strobes...I figured the there is a reason police lights are on top of the car...we might look like Christmas Trees or school buses but whatever works?

This one looks different....wonder if it would flex for a modular helmet.

https://www.lumenflex.com/motor-lightrider/

Does anyone have helmet lights?

[the Ferret]

I have some reflective tape on most of my helmets.. doesn't help during the day but helps at night. Same with the reflective sew into my jacket, Hi Viz vest and riding pants

[stateboy_imp]

I have a flashing headlight when on high, goes back to normal when it gets dark or I switch to low beam. I also have a flashing brake in the taillight, and my rear signals are always on red, light up bright red when I brake, still blink orange.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

What company/companies did you get your light accessories you mentioned in this post? I just ordered the tail light bulb the ferret uses (from superbrightleds.com) and should be getting that in the next couple of days. I like Norton's link for the triple light display as well. I'm still considering all lighting options.

I don't get to ride very often (just over 500 miles on my deluxe). The last time I was riding earlier this week, I had a soccer mom in a minivan nearly take me out when she began to pull out from a side street at four in the afternoon. I was n/b with the right-of-way in a 40mph (65kph) zone. The highbeam was on. She was w/b preparing to turn s/b. I watched her front tire and sure enough, it began to roll from the stop sign. When she turned her head back in my direction from looking n/b, I was already down shifting and braking like a mad man. I wish I could have taken a picture of her face when she realized what she had almost done.

[Stichill_imp]

As a rider, I'm very leery of the social trend toward total risk elimination where it means total elimination of the activity. Example: American football and traumatic brain injury.

Motorcycling potentially falls into that category. It can't be made risk-free, therefore to eliminate the risk of motorcycling we must eliminate motorcycling.

I've also been leery of the autonomous car trend. When cars become interconnected robots, all doing a coordinated safety dance that eliminates traffic signals and traffic jams...is there a place for the lone motorcyclist riding outside the connected digital AI cloud?

One optimistic idea occurred to me: perhaps - just maybe - we could carry transponders that would alert all the autonomous robot cars around us to our speed and course. As AI, they would have to yield to us, as humans. Perhaps - just maybe - the robot cars would respect our right-of-way far more than the aggregate of humanity and we could have the best of all worlds: the reduction of risk and the freedom to keep riding.

What if he pulls out right in front of you and you have a fraction of a second to react? I'm $20,000 out of pocket and still have $130,000 of unpaid medical bills because this happened to me.....on a near empty rural road. Fortunately my lawyer thinks the majority of the outstanding bills will be covered by insurance. A huge relief!

I now wear a high vis jacket and white helmet and all the other gear all the time. After reading this thread I am seriously considering a modulating headlight. It's a dangerous world out there.

Right on
I'm a big believer in freedom and the option to choose, but as I said in an earlier post, it's bright jackets and white helmets for me too for the past 15+ years.
I've had similar experiences on empty rural roads (but no crash) when farmers on tractors, sometimes pulling machinery, suddenly pull out on the road without looking - or maybe a lone motorcycle doesn't catch their peripheral vision.
They get so used to empty roads that they don't seem to think about oncoming traffic. I've had two pull out and their heads didn't turn to look at all.
Just one of the many lessons I've learned over the years.
So far, so good

When I first started riding a motorcycle my dad warned me about drivers on rural roads. "If they pull over to the right of the lane, they are probably going to turn left, because that's how they drive the tractor and hay wagon." I thought that rather silly advice.

A couple of weeks later I was just about to pass a car on a rural road that had pulled to the right, when I remembered his words. So I slowed down and stayed behind the car. Sure enough the driver turned left into his laneway without signaling. Thanks dad!

Truth! Riding rural carries a different set of hazards as riding urban/suburban. Mail trucks, tractors, crops/vegetation on the roadway, animals (wild and domesticated), and so on. Just because a rural road "seems" deserted doesn't mean the guard can be let down.

[Nortoon_imp]

On most of my rides on the back roads I usually see at least one deer. Sometimes they surprize me by bolting right out in front of me. On yesterdays ride I had a young moose cross the road ahead of me. Now that's a rare sight.

We have suicidal red squirrels and chipmunks in our area. They are constantly running across the road in front of me. I slowed for one at Calabogie Lake, but it was so determined to end it all it doubled back under my front tire.

Wild turkeys are the dumbest of the bunch. They will ignore you hurtling at them and the horn.

Biggest scare so far was a black bear that bolted out of the bush right in front of me last year.

Yesterday was dragon fly day on the Opinicon Road west of Chaffey's Lock. Was a mess without a windscreen. No hits in the visor though.

Hey Stitch, I rescued another turtle from the road yesterday!

[CB4ME_imp]

I did some research on modulated headlights. There are a lot of negative comments out there such as drivers pulling off the road when followed by a flashing headlight.

Not wishing to cause confusion or be a nuisance with a flashing headlight, I read up on auxiliary lighting.

Does anyone have fender mounted Denali high intensity LED lighting or similar lighting on their bikes? There are lots of positive comments on the benefits on daytime riding with these light.

[Rocky_imp]

On most of my rides on the back roads I usually see at least one deer. Sometimes they surprize me by bolting right out in front of me. On yesterdays ride I had a young moose cross the road ahead of me. Now that's a rare sight.

We have suicidal red squirrels and chipmunks in our area. They are constantly running across the road in front of me. I slowed for one at Calabogie Lake, but it was so determined to end it all it doubled back under my front tire.

Wild turkeys are the dumbest of the bunch. They will ignore you hurtling at them and the horn.

Biggest scare so far was a black bear that bolted out of the bush right in front of me last year.

Yesterday was dragon fly day on the Opinicon Road west of Chaffey's Lock. Was a mess without a windscreen. No hits in the visor though.

Hey Stitch, I rescued another turtle from the road yesterday!

Your post really made me chuckle.
I've had most of the same experiences except we don't have any wild turkeys around here.
I once had an arms-length encounter will a full grown moose on the Cabot Trail which reeeeeaalllyy got my attention.
The same with several deer, but (knock on wood) I avoided a collision. That was probably more to good luck than good management

[Offroad]

I ride back country roads as much as possible. No moose or bears here but everything else.
My biggest fear is topping those little blind hills not knowing what's on the other side. I know of two people who have had trouble with that....one was loose gravel the other a mail man.
I always cover the brake and try to be prepared but it's probably more about luck than being prepared.
That being said, most of the worry happens when I'm not riding but just thinking about riding.
Once I start riding it reminds me of how I felt when flying my plane 30 years ago.....before takeoff, even during preflight and run up I worried....but once the wheels left the ground all that disappeared, I was at peace, living in the moment doing something I enjoyed.....same with riding!

[Stichill_imp]

Nortoon, yes it's turtle-saving season! But now I'm seeing mean old snapping turtles. I won't tangle with them.

[CB4ME_imp]

I just installed a set of Denali DM Micro hi-intensity LED lights on my front fenders and ordered a Denali SoundBomb mini horn to replace the mickey mouse OEM horn. I now ride with a hi-vis neon jacket, white full-face helmet, gloves, heavy jeans and boots all the time. Yes, the bad accident last year altered my priorities a bit.