First ride....be careful

We have already had our first local motorcycle death due to a woman turning in front of a 23 year old guy on a motorcycle. He hit the passenger side of her car.

I know we all REALLY look forward to those first rides of the season, but keep in mind that the general public has not seen a motorcycle on the road in a while and they are NOT looking for them.

If you have to feel that burst of power, do it on an isolated road and don't over drive your bike. If you are in traffic, be extra aware of what traffic is doing around you. Run your headlight on bright during the daytime and try not to put yourself in other people's blind spot. Make yourself noticeable, weave a little when coming up to an intersection. Also, make sure your bike has a LOUD horn.

These first rides are great, but they can also be deadly.

This is one reason other people do not see us: http://www.msf-usa.org/motion.html

RandyA

Wow Randy, I am truly saddened to read that, thats terrible!! My heart goes out to the family who lost their son!! Wow..

Thank you for the reminder!! I, for one, was AMAZED with that link!! It didnt take long at all before ALL the outside dots just disappeared - and by continued staring they STAYED invisible - UNREAL!!!!!! I was so amazed that I sent a message to all my neighborhood biker brothers with that attached - THANK YOU!!!

Sure gives credence to your

Ride as though you are invisible, not invincible.

Sorry to hear about this young man. We all need to safety check our bikes before we take them out also. Brakes, tire condition and pressures, all signal and headlights,and fuel lines brake lines for leaks. Road surface is also a concern as potholes, salt, and sand have been liberally applied for several months now.

Be safe

Here's an interesting side note that I discovered when playing with those dots Randy. If I move back away from the screen a few feet the dots dont disappear,,,, could it be that staying out of bottle necks (finding that open area and staying there) has added benefits,, hmmmmm...

'

Wow Randy, I am truly saddened to read that, thats terrible!! My heart goes out to the family who lost their son!! Wow..

Thank you for the reminder!! I, for one, was AMAZED with that link!! It didnt take long at all before ALL the outside dots just disappeared - and by continued staring they STAYED invisible - UNREAL!!!!!! I was so amazed that I sent a message to all my neighborhood biker brothers with that attached - THANK YOU!!!

Sure gives credence to your

 

Ride as though you are invisible, not invincible.

Years ago I was in the right lane with a car in the left lane slowly passing me. A car pulled to a stop on a side road and was watching us(I thought), and just before we got to her, she started pulling out into my lane. The ONLY thing that saved my butt was my Loud air horns.

It really scared me that she almost killed me, as I had my headlight on bright and it was a sunny day. Why did she not see me? After seeing this video, I realized I was a yellow dot to her and she was watching the other car to see if he was going to change lanes and to her, the other car was the green dot she was fixated on. I simply disappeared in her mind. Just like if you move your head a little, the yellow dots will instantly pop back up, slightly weaving when coming up to an intersection or coming up on a driver in a situation like I did, the slight weaving is like moving your head to the other driver.

This also works when you are the person waiting on oncoming traffic. Don't let yourself get fixated on one vehicle, or the other ones can simply disappear.

I really do feel like this mental phenomenon is a major contributor in people saying; "I did not see them". They became a yellow dot and disappeared.

It is also fun to play around with this and change speeds and other things.

RandyA

I can attest to the same thing Rand, many times over!!

Most recent was last year on my 69 Honda Chopper.. Running four open pipes (LOUD), 18 inch over BRIGHT Chrome springer front end, wearing a LONG hair hat with hair flying in the wind and a high output BRIGHT xeon headlight.. I am cruisen down one of our main roads, traffic was lite, only one car in front of her and she turns to her left right in front of me.. Thankfully there was just enough room for me to hit the throttle and fly between her and the car that had stopped at the stop sign at the corner she was trying to make..

She didnt even stop, I chased her down, walked up to her window and asked why the heck she did that.. She starting crying and said "I just didnt see you".. Her son (about 12 years old) said "but mom, I was screaming at you to watch out for the motorcycle".. She said "I remember you saying that but I still didnt see him"...

The whole time we were talking I was "sniffing" for booze,, looking for a reason to call in the law BUT she was absolutely sober..

Thanks to this thread I NOW understand that she was probably being totally honest - she literally didnt see me even though I was the ONLY vehicle in my lane that day!!!

This is scary stuff!!!!!

I had not seen this one before but when I had my first air medical what seems like an eternity so the doc had something similar but old tech. A black backdrop with a dit middle. The drill was to stare at the dot and then he moved a pointer in from the edges at which point I had to announce when the pointer became visible. The point as I recall was to quantify where the blind spot in every pilots eye is. We all have them. When flying of course the habit instilled is a regular interval head turning scan. One direction to watch outside for other aircraft and then the return pass the instruments. I've been flying recreationally for 40 years. I have always tried to keep that same routine even when on land vehicles.

It's hard to get a land lover to understand why i do it. But I usually spot the deer first that way. Most of the time anyway.

Bob Evinger

Marshall, Il 2002 midnight

One other thing that is interesting is to increase the size of the yellow dots and still have them disappear. Also, focus on the green dot and after the yellow dots disappear, very slightly tilt your head and see how instantly the yellow dots reappear.

RandyA

Yea that is really weird,,, I wish there was a way to play with colors and see if that made any difference.. It would be really neat if there was somewhere in the color spectrum that would eliminate the disappearing dots - than we just wear that color.. Also,,, I wonder if the outside dots were flashing,, what affect would that have,,, maybe those strobe headlights?? Just thinkin..

Try focusing on one of the other dots. I did and at least for me the same other dots disappearing happens. The middle one blinking isn't anything special

Bob Evinger

Marshall, Il 2002 midnight

You do not even have to be looking at the grid

While reading the instructions I could see dots coming and going even while reading.

I also wish you could play with colors other than the background. I wonder if yellow shows the peak of the effect, or if color makes no difference.

Ontop of basic human error we have many distracted drivers. Illinois passed a no talking and driving, the real issue is texting and driving and it's tough to enforce. We have seen most of our fatal accidents involve someone texting while driving, from 20 texts a minute sent 40-50 total in a minute.

I have been trying to use mirrors and am in the habit of . . . trying to see drivers eyes as I drive. Remember the most dangerous time for motorcycles to drive is 4-6PM but anytime someone is distracted it's dangerous.

As far as colors, you would think that yellow would be one that would be the least likely for your mind to not see. Have any of you increased the size of the balls and been surprised at how big you can make them and they still disappear?

This just goes to show you that riding a big yellow Goldwing may not help.

One thing that I did notice for me is since I had this before I lost the vision in my right eye, it still works for me the same with just one eye.

RandyA

This mornings ride to work found a car/cage trying to turn into me in my lane on Route 95.My air horn got his attention luckily.

JB

Sorry to hear about that... It's rough. I'll try to ride a bit more carefully but honestly. Regardless of what color we're wearing or even reflective vests. Some cagers just drive so distracted. The most important hting is to gear up and be prepared for a wreck. On summer days is when I'm most at risk because i'm only wearing a vest ( http://www.motorcyclehouse.com/motorcycle-vests.htm

) ... might change that soon if i can find some better stuff.

I took a look at it. When the yellow dots disappeared I blinked and they were there.

Well, we just had our second local motorcycle death today. A rider going around a curve crossed the centerline and crashed into a Sheriff Dept SUV.

RandyA

UNREAL!!! Prayers and condolences to the family for sure!! Spring time is always rough,, bikers all hype up to be riding again and cagers forgetting to look for us - terrible combination!!! WOW.......