Motorcycle Myths
By John Davis • Nov 12th, 2007 • Category: Northwest Cycle News HeadlinesArt Friedman has detailed a dozen motorcycling myths over at Motorcycle Cruiser:
- Other Drivers Don’t Care About Motorcyclists
- Loud Pipes Save Lives
- Motorcycle Helmets Break Necks
- Helmets Block Your Ability to See or Hear Danger
- A Helmet Won’t Help in Most Crashes
- A Helmet Will Leave You Brain Damaged in an Crash When You Would Have Simply Died
- A Skilled Rider Should Be Able to Handle Almost Any Situation
- If You Are Going to Crash, Lay It Down
- One Beer Won’t Hurt
- It’s Better to Stay in Your Lane than Split Lanes
- I’m Safer on the Street than on an Interstate
- A Skilled Rider Can Stop Better with Conventional Brakes than with Anti-Lock Brakes
Good stuff.
John Davis is the owner, editor and publisher of Northwest Cycle Report. John also owns and writes for MotoSkagit.com and is the administrator for the Washington 120 State Park Tour. In addition to his own sites, John is a contributing author for MotorcycleLife.com and Motorcyclebloggers.com. He lives in Mount Vernon, WA and rides a candy-red Honda VTX1800 Retro.
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Ridden with both stock stealth pipes and V&H LS. Drivers hear the V&H first then start looking for the bike. Seen it happen many times on 520. When I had on Yamaha’s stock stealth pipes drivers don’t look and don’t see until it is too late. The author’s assertation that the sound id directed behind you is correct. Until that sound encounters another object such as the road or another vehicle where the sound reflects off that object. Unless of course that object has sound dampening material installed on its outer surface.
Loud pipes are no substitute for solid riding skills but they do help. There are new aftermarket pipes availiable, i.e. Hushers and Peacemakers, that have an electric diverter that allows the bike to run in either baffled (quiet) or unbaffled (loud) modes. These may be a happy middle ground to keep peace with the neighbors & LEO.
On loud pipes saves lives (#2), I could just about agree when it comes to lane splitting. The exhaust noise would bounce of the other vehicles and possibly warn the cars that something is coming. Otherwise I agree, loud pipes do more harm than good. Especially with the public’s perception of motorcyclists. Take Boise Idaho for example. They just passed a law banning all but stock pipes. As far as it being better to split lanes than stay in your own lane(#10)well, that’s certainly debatable.
With regard to #10, I wish that we here in the People’s Republic of Washington had the opportunity to disprove it as a myth. I would fully support a new Washington State law allowing some form of lane sharing but it would have to include funding for educating cagers about the legality. On the extremely rare occasions where I’ve done it here, (knowing full well that I’d get a huge ticket if caught), to get around just one slow driver, you’d have thought I had kicked someone’s puppy or something.
It’s funny to me how many people who, when the subject comes up locally, immediately say something like, “Oh, you mean riding down the dotted line between the cars?” They just don’t understand what the term means.
Delta88,
I spent years commuting by motorcycle in Southern California. Even where it’s legal to lane split there is no shortage of folks who get plenty ticked off when you do it. Some will intentionally squeeze in on you, throw lit cigarettes, open doors, etc. I always figured it was something about me getting somewhere ahead of them.
Still, one of my biggest fears is getting pancaked between two cars. In stop and go traffic it’s easy to see how it could happen. Splitting lanes gets me out of that danger zone.