Lessons in the Conservation of Momentum

So, here is the physics lesson of the week: objects in motion tend to stay in motion , unless acted upon by an outside force.

I was on my way to work early Thursday morning and the following story happened.

There is an intersection less than a mile from my front door that I take across a very busy main road which has a gas station on either side of the intersection. As I cross the main road, I observe a Honda Accord pulling up to the exit of the gas station on the far side of the road, far side but also on the right hand side from my direction of travel. So, as is proper when you see a vehicle coming up to a place where it could potentially jump out and bite you, I rolled off the throttle a little. Then I realized that the speed of the car was not slowing enough to allow it to come to a stop before exiting the parking lot.

I hit the brakes.

The car continued into the roadway, making a left turn directly across my lane.

I really hit the brakes.

Then I really hit the car.

The sequence of events directly following the impact is a little faster. I see the surprise on the face of the car's driver. Then feel the impact of my front tire on the car's rear door. This is followed by the sense of being flipped over the trunk of the car and falling to the road on my right shoulder and back.

Thankfully, I can report that my gear (full face helmet, mesh jacket, over-pants, gloves, and boots) all performed the job of keeping me intact admirably. I felt to be in remarkably good shape for having just hit a car. A feeling that an ambulance ride to the ER confirmed after several x-rays, just to be certain. That is the first lesson from this encounter: wear your gear. Even if you don't think you'll need it. Wear it.

The second lesson is one of visibility. Many of you may already know that, in addition to my other protective apparel, I wear Icon's military spec high-visibility orange, reflective vest. Even with that vest and the headlight on (not only a legal requirement, but also an automatic feature of most modern bikes) the second thing I heard the other driver say was, "Did you have your lights on? Because I didn't see you." This statement is precisely why I reduced speed when I saw the car. I didn't trust him to see me.

You may want to know what the first thing I heard him say was. To his credit, the first thing out of his mouth when he got out of the car was, "Are you ok?"

I hope this little lesson in physics is helpful to those who ride, and to those who share the road with us riders. Ride safe.

Mental Conditioning

From what I have seen, many riders try and avoid hitting the roads when they aren't dry. Well, most of us try to avoid hitting the roads at all, but you know what I mean. I generally will stay off the bike when there is a pretty good chance that I'm going to get poured on, or if I would have to start the ride in the rain. But I made an exception for today since the weather after 7 am was forecast to be amazing (along with sunny days for the rest of the week, but I digress.) Riding to work on wet roads and a light sprinkle got me thinking about something: how should road/weather conditions change the way you ride?

Riding a motorcycle, especially for commuting in Atlanta, is always an exercise in defensive driving. Wet roads before dawn just magnifies that. I'll try to give a list of things to be more conscious of while riding in these conditions.

First, wet roads:

• Give yourself more space for stopping, the tires will be more likely to skid under hard braking.
• Take turns more slowly, for the same lower-traction reason as adjusting your braking.
• Be on the lookout for debris that rains might have swept into the road.
• With light rain, beware of oil rising to the road surface.
• Watch out for the paint on the road, the lane lines, turn lanes, etc. The paint has very little traction to begin with and a layer of water only makes it more slick.
• Lastly, remember that drivers seem to forget how to use turn signals, brakes, and the gas pedal when it's raining. (At least this is the case here.)

Second, when the sun is down:

• Be as visible as possible, for me that means my reflective vest.
• As a corollary, use lane positioning to be sure your lights are out of other drivers' blind spots.
• Use other vehicles lights to aid in seeing the roadway. Motorcycle lights are notoriously dim, if you have cars in front of you, look at the section of the road they illuminate, too.
• Flash your brake lights when slowing down, a flashing light attracts more attention than a single, steady light.

And remember, never trust the drivers around you, no matter what the conditions are. I had a truck try to merge into my lane this morning; had I not have been watching him I may not have slowed down before he had more than just a tire in my lane.

Ride safe.

Visibility and Commuting

One thing we have talked about here and gets discussed on several of the forums out there is visibility. One of the common comments from people who have hit a motorcyclist is "I just didn't see them." Fortunately, gear manufacturers have listened and the selection of jackets and helmets in bright colors is massive. In addition to that, the US military has mandated the use of reflective gear for the people in the service who ride. Gear manufacturers have also picked up on this and the recent proliferation of brightly colored vests with swaths of retro-reflective material shows it.

I wear Icon's Mil-Spec vest whenever I ride, especially since I commute at times when the lighting is bad. I know that wearing it has made people more aware of my presence and suspect it may have saved me from having to execute quick stops on many occasions. One way to know that people notice is to see all the stares I get when I ride to the mall. ;)

Why do I bring this up now? Only because I've recently been made aware of another Icon product that addresses some of the issues I've had with my vest. Wearing the vest makes me not want to use a back-pack, if only because it blocks a huge section of the vest from view. So unless I want to have my saddle bags on all the time, I have to use my tank bag for carrying my things while commuting. Not the best way to carry a first aid kit, rain gear, and lunch. SO, to alleviate this issue, they have developed a mil-spec compliant back pack. I can't give it a review yet, but I figure anything that can carry a lap-top computer, first aid kit, tool kit, spare face shield, and still have room for my rain suit and lunch will be worth a look. Now to scrape together the cash to get one. I'll let everyone know what I think whenever I can find one to at least take a look at.

Full disclosure, I am in no way affiliated with Icon Motorsports or any motorcycle gear distributor or retailer.

The Importance of Paying Attention

For a long time, ever since I first became interested in motorcycling, I've been told that motorcycles are invisible. Having grown up around bikes, friends and family's, I never really understood that. The fact is bikes are small and fit very well into blind spots. Why do I point out the obvious? No matter how often it gets repeated, it can always be said again: drivers need to look for bikers.

You know I wouldn't have this on my mind for no good reason, so here comes one more commute write up.

Friday's ride in to work was the usual, mostly harmless with one tailgater as I stayed pretty close to the speed of traffic. But it was the ride home that got interesting for a moment. Part of my evening commute is a stretch of interstate with a long, convoluted entrance ramp with multiple entrances/exits in the same access road. As I rode down the roadway, I watched a man in a sedan in the lane to my right, which was both an entrance and an exit only a few blocks down. He wasn't signaling and stayed in the lane so I began to pull past him. When I was even with his door, he started into my lane, still not signaling. Fortunately, I was watching for such an action and had my finger on the horn. When I pressed the noise making button, he jumped in his seat and pulled back into his lane.

That was an instance of driver inattention, not due to any major error, merely because he didn't expect a motorcycle right next to him. Even checking your mirrors is no substitute for looking. Also, as a motorcyclist it was my task to SEE everything that was going on around me. Had I really been being careful, I would never had pulled into his blind spot, no matter that it seemed like he was going to exit.

Good Morning

A good morning for the commute, mid-50's and relatively calm breeze. I filled up the tank at the outset of the ride. Yet again, 3.5 gallons were used for 220 miles. What made the morning even more fun was that I played a little bit of follow the leader with a guy on a Harley the whole way in. When he pulled up next to me at light I noticed we have two different approaches to visibility. First, I have a smaller bike with little room for even the single tail light that's on it now, so I go for the large amounts of retro-reflective clothing. He was on an Electra-glide (I think) with all the room he needs for his five large tail lights and the neon blue lighting kit in the chassis. The fact that he was in all black leathers was more than balanced out by the simple act of lighting the bike up like a Christmas tree. Either approach is fine, so long as people see you.