tales of two motorcyclists

[iowabeakster]

Within 5 minutes I saw two motorcycle riders doing things I thought strange.

1. A GSXR rider was behind me at a red-light. In the typical fashion of a 20 year old GSXR rider, he had: no helmet, no jacket, no shirt, and no boots. He was wearing: shorts, a gold chain, and fingerless gloves. Anyway, he puts his kickstand down...runs to the corner...pushes the button for the pedestrian light...runs back and jumps on his bike. He then shouts, "IT MAKES THE LIGHTS TURN FASTER" at everybody who was staring at him. I am not sure if it helped, but the light did turn green a minute later. We both made a left turn...we both turned right at the next light...then he tore past me down the block. He was at the next red light when I got there. Oddly, he just sat there on his bike.

2. This other kid..riding a CX500 (I think that is what they are called)...the Honda with a V-twin like Guzzi's. It also had a big Windjammer on it. The kid was at a stop sign. He stalled it while taking off and dropped the bike. He then was trying to lift the bike while straddling it. For a second I actually had X-ray vision and could see the damage he was doing to his spine. I winced in sympathetic pain. I was preparing to jump out of the car, so I could lend a hand. He got off to the side, and got it upright on his own. Then he couldn't get it started. Once it sputtered, he let out the clutch...and dropped it again. Immediately he tried to lift it again while straddling it. He's gonna feel that in the morning. He got going and I was alongside him a few blocks later. The poor kid was shaking like a leaf.

[famousperson]

Within 5 minutes I saw two motorcycle riders doing things I thought strange.

1. A GSXR rider was behind me at a red-light. In the typical fashion of a 20 year old GSXR rider, he had: no helmet, no jacket, no shirt, and no boots. He was wearing: shorts, a gold chain, and fingerless gloves. Anyway, he puts his kickstand down...runs to the corner...pushes the button for the pedestrian light...runs back and jumps on his bike. He then shouts, "IT MAKES THE LIGHTS TURN FASTER" at everybody who was staring at him. I am not sure if it helped, but the light did turn green a minute later. We both made a left turn...we both turned right at the next light...then he tore past me down the block. He was at the next red light when I got there. Oddly, he just sat there on his bike.

When I lived in So. Cal. there were a couple of signals on my way to/from work that required manual intervention like that to change in any reasonable length of time. There were also a couple of others where I would not infrequently have to get off the bike/out of the car and walk up to the car at the head of the line of vehicles waiting for the light to change to tell the driver to move ahead a few feet so they'd roll over the mechanical trigger that caused the light to change.

[iowabeakster]

Oh Yeah, I forgot about that issue. That makes sense. What a pain. Myabe he just moved here. But he was in line behind a couple cars and they ditched those types of triggers in my town. They replaced them with the motion sensors mounted up above. We also don't have "large" roads or intersections in Iowa City either, so if a light doesn't change...running it is not so dangerous. I end up treating everything like a "flashing red" if it won't change. I don't ride my bike in town much...it's not much fun. I am always 55+ on some highway .

I would not infrequently have to get off the bike/out of the car and walk up to the car at the head of the line of vehicles waiting for the light to change to tell the driver to move ahead a few feet

I know what you mean. I'd try the horn...quick little friendly beeps...at first...

[Airman]

Oh Yeah, I forgot about that issue. That makes sense. What a pain. Myabe he just moved here. But he was in line behind a couple cars and they ditched those types of triggers in my town. They replaced them with the motion sensors mounted up above. We also don't have "large" roads or intersections in Iowa City either, so if a light doesn't change...running it is not so dangerous. I end up treating everything like a "flashing red" if it won't change. I don't ride my bike in town much...it's not much fun. I am always 55+ on some highway .

I would not infrequently have to get off the bike/out of the car and walk up to the car at the head of the line of vehicles waiting for the light to change to tell the driver to move ahead a few feet

I know what you mean. I'd try the horn...quick little friendly beeps...at first...

I think all the triggers in the Seattle area are in the pavement. Sometimes they don't work for motorcycles, but actually that's rare anymore. I think they have the mass sensor pretty well set up these days. Back in the 70's almost none of them worked for bikes and I ran a lot of red llights.