New Cartoons!

The European motorcycle manufacturers organisation ACEM has released the first in a series of cartoons aimed at highlighting the risks to riders posed by the infrastructure of the road on which we ride.

The first cartoon strip deals with hazards posed by junctions.

In the coming weeks, new strips will be released regularly dealing with issues like road surfaces, traffic calming and the hazards that can pose to motorcyclists, and decreasing radius curves. You can register on the site to be kept up to date with each new release as it appears.

They are downloadable as PDFs so can be printed out by trainers and bike clubs.

Thanks to Kevin Williams of Survival Skills Rider Training, for:
1. Bringing them to my attention
2. Actually doing the research they're based on
3. Posing for the pictures

NB One of those statements is not true ;)

#1: How To Avoid Problems At Junctions
http://www.acem.eu/cartoon/pdf/nr1_en.pdf


There's a 'sign up' here to be emailed when the new cartoons are released.


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A Joke

My lad's school is compiling their annual joke book. This one caught my attention:

Q. How does a Yeti get to work?

A. He rides there on a motoricicle!



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"The Tree Jumped Out In Front Of Me!"

That's supposed to be one of the old insurance report chestnuts.

But I've found a place where the tree's jumped in front of a sign . . . Well, almost.

Narrow lane, leading to houses, then a tight, blind, bend. No footpaths, apart from the one that joins from the side just by the tight bend.

However, just a few yards around the corner is the entrance to an infants school, so you'd expect to see a warning sign.

You'd expect to see it - but at the point this one is visible your attention is likely to be towards the tight bend. It's not visible sooner because of over-hanging trees.


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More Great Parking

Don't know which car arrived first . . .


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Garbled, Mangled, or Just Half-Baked?

I like to think I can write understandable English.

But today I happened across some of the most mangled and confusing explanations I've ever seen in bike training paperwork, apart - perhaps - from some of the more unusual 'explanations' of counter-steering.


So what do you think?

First:

'the inability of being unable'

And my particular favourite:

'particularly on left hand bends with 23% of manoeuvres leading to a fatality'

My, perhaps twisted, English reads that as "23% of times riders attempt to go around a left hand bend they're involved in a fatal crash".


Sadly, this is from a DSA production, 'explaining' the background to motorcycle casualties.

It continues:

'It is very important that we understand where things are going wrong'.

With 'explanations' like those quoted, I wonder whether a real understanding is understandable.



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No Title Necessary

Isn't the Internet wonderful?

Browsing around, and within a minute or two found these two pictures . . .



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Helmets

I was musing yesterday about helmets have 'changed' in the time I've been riding.

For instance, back 'then' - I bought my first bike in September 1976 - 'full face' helmets were still something of a novelty, and open face, or 'jet' helmets were still common.

One of the major innovations since then has been the 'flip front' pioneered by BMW with their 'system' range of lids. 'System 1' was never sold in the UK, but '2' was available from about 1988.

Other major improvements have been with visors, with abrassion and misting resistant coatings, rather than just cut from a sheet of plastic.

Then today I happened across some photos of helmets . . .

Eek!

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Techno, Techno, and More Techno!

I liked the BMW C1 because of its quirkiness. At times it wasn't particularly 'practical', from using its convoluted stand arrangement to not being able to see traffic lights when you're at the front of the 'grid' because of the roof!

But it was innovative in may ways, particularly the frontal crash performance, equal (with the rider seat-belted in) to that of a small car.

However, it wasn't a sales success, and rumours of a big-engined BMW super-scooter haven't made it in to the metal at the recent Euro bike show. Instead, BMW's 'new' bikes were the previously exhibited World Superbike contender, and cc hikes for the K1200 up to 1300. Ho hum.

However, a new Concept machine from Peugeot, the HyMotion3, takes things to a whole new level, by combining features from a number of vehicles:
BMW 'cell' shape
'MP3'-style 3 wheel leaning front end
'Prius'-type hybrid drive
Electric motors within the front hubs, with driven rear wheel
ABS

Read more here from Peugeot

"Fantastic!" Is my low-hype view :)


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'Wrecked' and Weird

Sent to me as an attachment, but obviously from www.wreckedexotics.com


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Superstitions Can Kill You

Sometimes a simple question can set your mind off on a trail of its own.

Well, that's the way mine works (and I use the term loosely)!

One simple question from a colleague set off a train of thoughts.

Read the full account here on UKBike's new blog.




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New Situational Awareness Test

Situational Awareness.

Scenario:

You are riding your motorcycle at a constant speed within the speed limit.

On your left side is a deep valley,and on your right side is a fire engine travelling at the same speed as you.

Directly in front of you is a galloping horse which is the same size as your bike and you can't overtake it.

Behind you is a helicopter flying at ground level.

Both the horse and helicopter are travelling at the same speed as you.

What must you do to get out of this dangerous situation??










Get off the childrens merry go round, you are drunk!


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Another Uncrashable Car!

. . . Although this one's a little way from being roadworthy!

I've posted before about in-car technology which aids drivers (to get a good sleep?), but the Telegraph has news of this:

The concept car, called BR23C and created by Nissan Motor alongside the University of Tokyo, has been fitted with a sophisticated sensor system enabling it to avoid obstacles it encounters in its path.

The technology mimics the skills of the compound eye of a bumblebee which has a bio-mechanism enabling the insects to instantly avoid approaching obstacles.

As a result, the Biomimetic Car Robot Drive is able to detect an object up to two metres away in a 180-degree radius before instantly swerving away to avoid crashing.

Toshiyuki Ando, the Nissan engineer leading the research, said: "The split second it detects an obstacle, it will instantly change direction by turning its wheels to a right angle or further to avoid collision.

"The whole process must mirror what a bee does to avoid other bees. It must happen with the blink of an eye."

The concept robot has been developed as part of Nissan's road safety project, which aims to half the rate of traffic accidents in its vehicles by 50 per cent by 2015.

Nissan the country's third largest automaker – plans to install the technology into its electric vehicles as early as 2010 in Japan and the US before expanding internationally by 2012.

Cornering - Is Your Brain Bigger Than A Sheep's?

BBC news reported a car killing five sheep after a . . .


. . . "Man was driving around a blind bend on the Auchmuir Bridge to Ballingry Road when he struck the group of sheep."

Ah, thank Heavens for that - at least it wasn't his fault!

Indeed, he was actually quite lucky; if it had been a farm truck coming the other way around that blind corner he would have only had about half the braking distance available, and a far harder object to hit than the sheep.

By coincidence, I happened to be looking at a sheep skull last night.

They have an amazingly small brain space compared, in relative terms of overall skull size, to a human skull.

But even more amazing that - with all that potential brain power - it's not the sheep that were hurtling around the corner unable to stop in the distance available - let alone half that distance to allow for oncoming vehicles - it was the supposedly 'intelligent' human.

Even if the driver was not a regular user of that road, there's normally plenty of warnings when there's livestock about:
- Triangular warning signs
- Cattle grids
- Dung on the road
- Tufts of wool stuck in barbed wire fencing

But whatever roads that driver is used to, his method of driving doesn't allow for possible - and quite likely - dangers.

In fact, that's quite like many motorcyclists, who take the sheep comparison even further, with 'herd' mentality while out group riding and abdicating responsibility for cornering speed and overtaking to be delegated to the lead rider.

Unfortunately for those riders, they often draw attention to themselves, and the farmer comes out to round them up . . . although these particular farmers usually have blue & yellow cars instead of Land Rovers ;)

So when you're out riding, try to avoid being a sheep. You have a brain and the bike doesn't - so you need to think for both of you. And if the rider behind you is a bit 'keen', try to allow for them too, then have a word - nicely - and suggest they think a bit harder.

OK, so you're not responsible for their life, but I'm sure you wouldn't want to be even a little bit responsible for their death.


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New Keith Code Article

I wonder if Keith COde's internet connection could do with a dose of California Superbike School training to speed it up . . .

An e-mail arrived today, partly reminding of free CSS dates, but also announcing a new article. Keith's articles are usually worth reading, so I clicked the link . . . then thought "Hold on, I've seen this before!".

Scroll back to the top . . . 'Feb 11 2004'.

Ah well, it's still worth reading!

'Presence'


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