CLANMOTHER'S
POCONO BIKER NEWS
Hi Back Again !
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TECH TALK
LET'S HEAR YOUR PROBLEMS AND FEEDBACK
Email us at clanmother@angelfire.com We’re waiting to hear from you.
BIKE TECH
Have you ever wondered how to change oil and filter without dripping any oil on the ground? Just click here to see a pictorial guide to a clean oil and filter change.
LOUD PIPES
Loud pipes save no lives; loud horns do! Pipes direct sound to the
rear, where you've already been, and where it makes babies cry, hurts dog's ears
and generally irritates and aggravates the majority of the public. These
are the same people who vote for the politicians who may eventually legislate
our bikes off the road. Use your head for something other than a head wrap
holder!
There;
I said it !
Be
cool (not annoying), Clanmother
P.S.
Drag pipes rob your bike of low-end torque due to lack of low frequency
backpressure. Drag racers never lug their engines; they come off the line at
high rpm and keep the revs high. Running drags on a street bike only shows
ignorance.
Safety
and Street Survival topics are further down on this page.
Yost Magic..
Hey
Clanmother,
Some
time ago you recommended the Yost Power Tube to me, so I finally got around to
putting one on the stock VC carburetor, and all I can say is Holy jeezzz....
I
had been changing slow / main /needles & settings for the past year, getting
small changes, screwing up my gas mileage, and getting my clothes smelling like
gasoline, but nothing really worth while, till I got The Tube. I didn't use the
instructions, I used what I had learned from fooling with all the other jets
& settings, but I musta just hit on the right combination, and thought I'd
send it in so someone else might benefit from all my mistakes!
It's
a 2002 Road King, around 25,000 miles with the SE open intake & V&H
piles with the baffles cut down (just the rear flange is reinstalled.. I used
the #46 slow jet (don't come with the hit, gotta buy it separately) I used the
#165 main jet I used the BLUE needle with the clip in the 3rd. slot (Most will
go for the red needle here, but I know it will result in an overly rich
condition. trust me.) I used the lighter spring that comes with the kit, and. I
drilled the vacuum hole in the slide to 5/32", a little larger than the
1/8" that the instructions call for. The result is IMMEDIATE starting, like
it explodes to life. on the first full cycle. It now runs perfectly smooth even
from a stone cold start. The bike now pulls harder all the way through the full
throttle travel, especially mid to high end is vastly improved. The plugs stay
almost new - clean, no build up at all. It seems to warm up faster, and it
definitely runs cooler, by 20 deg. or so...The best part is the engine will now
rev. higher than before, it don't "run out" near the top end, it just
keeps pulling & pulling. It's like a different bike all together, and I
didn't sacrifice fuel mileage this time. I think the bike is finally running the
way it's supposed to run, and delivering all the power it's capable of, for an
un-modified TC88. My mileage improved by 8 MPG. Seems too good to be true. It
really does make the liquid fuel into a fine cloudy mist, that you can see in
the throat. The engine just loves this kind of a mix, and the tube delivers just
what it says it will.
They
say you never get it right the first time. I didn't either. After a year of
messing with different jetting, I finally hit upon a combination that brings the
engine alive!
All
I can say is, I shoulda listened to the Clan Mother a long time ago!
The
Ozone Ranger (Deluxe) LTD. Ride on.
Hey
Ranger,
I'm
glad that you're glad.
For
the uninformed reader, the "Yost Power tube is a high quality replacement
main fuel mixing tube for your carburetor. You can actually see with your own
eyes that this tube atomizes the fuel into a finer mist than the stock tube
does. The finer fuel mist makes it easier for the spark plug to ignite and makes
for less unburned hydrocarbons exiting the exhaust too. You get more useful
power from the same dollar's worth of gas. It's a win/win situation. The
"Master Kit" also comes with jets springs, tools, spacers, metering
needles and instructions to help you tune your carb for optimum performance.
It's not as complex as it sounds. I did it myself in one afternoon plus an hour
of resetting the next weekend.
I've
been running the Yost on The Turtle Bike for several years and loving it. I
believe it delivers better power than an S&S E type with a more seamless
power delivery and better gas mileage. Though I've never ridden it to high
elevations, I've heard that CV (vacuum sensitive diaphragm) type carbs
compensate for lower air density conditions much better than the older
technology butterfly (ala S&S or the older Keihin models) carbs do. All I
can say is you would have a hard time talking me out of my Yost modified Keihin
CV carb.
See
you on the Pocono back roads (dodging potholes).
Be
Cool, Clanmother
Clanmother...
Just a word of thanks for the work you do on the web site. I maintain some
sites for the place I do my "day job" so I have some idea what it
takes... Is there any way to add some "access information" for local
wrenches, independent mechanics, special skills persons (like I'm looking for
someone that can coax better performance from the stock CV carburetor).
stuff like that?? Just a thought.
I bought a 2001 Road King that has factory cruise control, so there is NO
replacement carburetor "allowed" according to HD literature. The SE,
Mikuni 45mm, flat side, all the available carbs. All say "not compatible
with cruise control" in the catalog. So the average counter person doesn't
think past that, there's got to be a way past this. ..... That's why I need to
locate someone that knows if this is even true... or knows how to disable /
remove the cruise control / make whatever changes necessary so I can upgrade the
carb. I've rejetted this CV so many times I'm wearing out the emulsion tube
threads... It works fine, but I KNOW there's more performance stuck in there,
that isn't going to show itself without a better carb.
Anyway, Thanks again for running the web site, I look at it all the time to
get ideas & info.
Hey Ranger, Thanx for the kudos.
Wish I could answer your question but nobody here at PBN has ever screwed around
with H-D cruise controls. We'd like to hear from our readers on this. Hey
y'all, anybody familiar enough with H-D cruise control technology to help ol'
Ranger out?
Now my uneducated first
inclination would be to (a) get the official manual and study up on the
cruise control system, especially as to which wire energizes it. Then (b)
unplug that wire. Then (c) I'd pick up a fairly fresh used CV carb at a swap
meet (there are lots of them floating around because of the popularity of Mikuni
and S&S carbs) and then (c) go nuts with it (using a Dynajet or Yost
kit) and see what that does.
I am a firm believer in the Keihin
CV for all but big inch strokers. But lets hear what some of our other, more
experienced brothers and sisters have to suggest.
Good luck Ranger,
Safety and Street Survival topics are further down on this page, keep scrolling.
Hi Biker News,
I am looking for some fender struts to install on my 98 Fatboy, I want to accommodate an 8 1/2" fender. Where are these crazy things at?
I have looked through the catalogs so much that I have wore the ink off the pages!! I know they are out there somewhere I have seen them on other bikes, can you help.
....thanks
Specialexpress99
Offhand, I don't know. I will post your letter on our tech page and hope that someone has seen them for sale somewhere. OK y'all, can you help Specialexpress99?
How much is too much? A tech dilemma.
Dear Readers,
I have a dilemma that I would like to place before you other readers for your input and suggestions. It involves repairs that were done to my wife’s 5 speed Evo Sportster. The bike had 32,000 miles on it, and has had its oil and filter changed religiously every 2,000 miles. She never allows it to overheat by sitting and idling. It is very well maintained.
Last summer her engine was making a rattling noise when you’d let off the throttle. I’ve been an automobile mechanic for over thirty years (no I don’t call myself a “technician” because I’m from the good old non-pretentious days before the plumber became a “sanitation engineer” and the garbage man became a “municipal refuse technician”) and I’ve never heard a sound exactly like that one. The closest thing to it I’ve ever heard was wrist pin rap, but this sounded deeper. Whatever it was, it sounded serious. Although the “technicians at most of the shops that fix Harleys around here suggested that she drive it the rest of the summer and bring it in at the end of the season to be checked out; this was in mid July. The various diagnoses ran from “piston slap” through “rocker shaft clatter” to “main bearing rap”
We chose a shop that had been in business for many years and had at least one “factory trained” Harley “technician” on staff. Convinced that the noise was coming from worn out rocker shafts and bushings, they tore in to the top end replacing all the rocker shaft bushings, all the rocker shafts, all the valves and all the valve guides. The bike had been converted from 883cc to 1200cc several years before with a Wiseco pistons conversion set that had dished crowns so as to require no head work to maintain proper compression. This kit had served her well for about five years. The technicians said that the pistons and cylinders were worn out so they replaced them with an identical set of Wiseco pistons and a pair of Garry Bang cylinders bought as a matched set. After many delays for various reasons (excuses?) she was told the bike was ready in October. Summer was now gone but she looked forward to a few nice days of riding in 2001. This was not to be.
No sooner had the engine gotten good and warm than she heard that same old noise again. As she had picked the bike up on a Friday evening, and I didn’t get to hear it till Saturday evening we had to wait till Monday to take it back to the shop.
No sooner had the technician gotten it up on his work stand, taken off the timing cover and pulled off the ignition unit (about fifteen minutes of work) than he announced that “there’s way too much play on this crank shaft”. “Something is wrong with this bottom end”. He said this as though experiencing an epiphany of some kind. I only wondered why he hadn’t done that before he tore the whole top of the motor apart and replaced every moving part from the cylinder base gaskets up. He explained that he was trying to save us money. HUH?
Tearing into the bottom end the technicians discovered that the main cause of the noise was a bad rod bearing that had a groove at least .040" deep worn into the main crank pin.
Having restarted to fix my wife’s engine in October It was sometime around Christmas that they told us that they discovered a piece had broken off of one of the cam lobes and that the engine would need a complete set of cams (Didn't they look at the cams when they removed them back in October?). I understand that cam gears are machined as a set, made to fit into one another. Another technician, reputed to be a highly experienced Harley mechanic, who advises these men, suggested we go with a set of Andrews N-2 cams, as "they are both cheaper and better performing than the OEM cams, and Andrews cams have a great reputation for durability". We took his advice and bought the Andrews cams. After the cams were installed and the engine assembled and reinstalled, we were told that the compression was too high, that the engine was pinging at an idle. The technicians said it was caused by the grind of the Andrews cams. I read a bit about Andrews Cams and the N-2 is supposed to be barely hotter than the stock Harley set, and is said to require no modifications. After some debate the top technician made it clear that unless we let his man “relieve” the heads “just a little” he would go no farther with the job. They’d had the bike for over six months at this point and this top guy has been working on Harleys for over twenty years, so I let them proceed.
In early February my wife was called to “come get your bike, it’s done, and one of our guys took it for a fifty mile ride to start the break in procedures and made sure everything is ok". We also learned that the engine now had new connecting rods, all new bearings and bushings, and even all new hydraulic lifters. A new oil pump was installed at my request.
I rode the bike only seven miles when it made a clicking noise and stopped dead. After trailering it back to the repair shop the technicians informed us that the camshafts had seized up tight and had turned blue from heat. One technician said that a critical measurement had not been made of the cams before final installation because the shop did not have the precision tool required. The result was a sheared key on the timing shaft, ruined (blue from friction heating) Andrews cams, a Bent exhaust valve and a dent in one new piston. The top guy apologized and said it would all be taken care of at no expense to us.
While the bike waited in limbo again one technician noticed a crack in the oil tank and suggested that we let him order a new one as it wouldn’t matter labor cost wise whether he remounted the old tank or a new one. We agreed and a new oil tank was installed. Before the shop would release the bike to my wife they insisted that their top wrench take it for a long ride to make sure everything was working perfectly.
Finally in Early March my wife picked up her bike and rode it home, with strict instructions as to how to ride it for the first 500 miles of breaking-in. She commented that, although she hadn’t tried to push it because of the break-in rules, it didn’t seem to have the power it had before she dropped it off in July of 2001. She also reported that it seemed to vibrate a lot more than it once did and that it made “weird noises, including a loud intermittent rattle”. Additionally the idle speed had been set so that when fully warmed up it idled at 1,250 rpm, which is higher than the Harley manual recommends but I assumed that the technicians wanted to prevent any low rpm lugging of the engine during break-in.
| The head guy at the shop suggested
that the power would return once it was broken-in and asked her to bring it back
in to have the rattling noise checked out. I insisted that she not take it back there.
Each time it went in they kept it for many weeks or months, and gave us another
big bill. I have rebuilt hundreds
of automobile engines in my day, four, six and eight cylinder ones. Standard
procedure is a check of crankshaft end-play and side-play. Intake to completion times vary
from a week to six weeks depending on parts availability and layover time in the
machine shop, it never takes six or seven months to rebuild any common engine! Every part that they used is readily
available within a week of ordering it from any Harley dealer or from most
generic motorcycle shops. I
don’t know what goes on in that shop, but whatever it is I don’t like it. I
don’t feel good about her bike ever going back there again. My hog definitely
won't ever go there.
She has since completed the whole break-in procedure. We discovered the source of the main rattling noise. The steel drain plug that goes into the oil drain hose was not anchored anywhere and was rattling against a bracket under the transmission. We fixed that easily enough. After draining the break-in oil she used a magnet to probe the depths of the new oil tank in case any filings from engine break-in had lodged there. She pulled out a minute amount of very fine metallic slurry, but she also pulled out over a half dozen curvy steel slivers that under a magnifying glass appear to be bristles from wire (brush) wheel used for cleaning engine parts.(See photo) è |
 |
The presence of these steel bristles is very disturbing. The only way that they could have gotten to the oil tank is by flowing through the motor, the oil lines and the oil pump. The new pump is designed to pump oil not scrap metal. If even one of those bristles gets into the roller or needle bearings of the crankshaft assembly it will wreak havoc causing catastrophic failure. Why wasn’t this motor flushed out with water or blown out with air before going to assembly? Were any more of these steel bristles left in the motor? Where are they?
The wife now reports that the vibration seems to have mellowed a bit but is still greater than before. The bike definitely lacks the power it once had, and there is still a strange soft “thunka thunka” noise just off of idle and a scraping noise that bother her which she doesn’t recall ever hearing before the work was done, all this at the cost of about $3,000.00
I'm not giving out the name of the shop or the people who worked on it or even my name, because there exists the possibility in my mind that this could all be a series of coincidences and misunderstandings. So, my friends and neighbors, what are your thoughts on this situation? What is your advice? The old noise is gone, the engine doesn’t smoke or use oil; it gets good gas mileage. Should we wait and see? Would you trust it to ride to Laconia this June? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Yours Truly,
Customer X
ROAD
SURVIVAL
Towing Cages
An experience I had the other day, I thought it might be worth while to write down.
We were in kind of a hurry, in the middle of a Club meeting we decided to change locations, 4 of us headed to my place, only 3 miles away. A lot quieter & we could spread the maps out on the table...."It'll only take 4 or 5 minutes to get there" I said:... I had 3 bikes following me, exiting from Rt. 80 west at "Marshall's Creek, 209 N" or "Old Exit # 52" where there's a quick merge with traffic from the left, and we all need to get to the left, to get to the Rt. 447 turn off.. I check the mirror, do the head check, there's a steady flow of traffic, ending with a big SUV... I check a few more times (I make this exit almost every day..) and when the SUV comes past me on the left, I start to move in behind him... suddenly I feel I'm in a big shadow.. thank God it was a hot & sunny day, cause that was my first tip, something blocked the sun, and it was a HUGE cabin cruiser that the SUV was towing.... All the angles added up just right to totally hide this boat from my view, even though I saw the front of the SUV several times...
There were a few things going on all at the same time (nothing new here..) I had 3 bikes that had to move left to follow me, I had this merge to make, and we all needed to make the first left coming up real soon. I almost became a barnacle on the side of this boat... They were all far enough behind me to watch me make this whole mistake without becoming involved.. I came "within an inch" of the trailer's fenders, AND there was some other traffic passing me on my right by this time.. I was able to quickly swerve right just enough to avoid contact with the trailer / boat, and not involve the car passing to my right (who was totally oblivious to everything) then calmly fit right in behind the boat, come to a stop waiting to make the left, with all 3 friends behind me, just like nothing happened.. But something DID happen: I got really stupid, tried to move into a space already occupied by something, and one more final head check would have (I think?) showed me the side of the boat. When it was behind me, the grade of the road and the angle of the curves involved hid the boat behind the huge front profile of this SUV...If it was not a sunny day, I would not have gotten the clue I did, and may have become an ugly stain and statistic that day. I was very lucky.
Watch for towed things.. cars can tow things, there are "low profile"
trailers that are made to be aerodynamic but this also makes them all but invisible to a mirror check, or even the head check..I'm still surprised how that HUGE (it was a tandem trailer, bigger than the average water toy) mass was so well hidden from my view while I was still ahead of it.. optics, "line of sight"...tricky stuff sometimes. OR(D).
If awareness and
quick well-practiced reaction are the keys to survival, where does booze and
dope fit in? I leave it to you to answer that question for now.
Geoffrey T Ayers,
Recently I was
digging around and found a newspaper clipping that I saved for its obvious truth
and timeliness. You too, if you have even a few years of riding under your belt
will surely agree with the following letter.
To the Editor, (In response to an anti-motorcycling letter in a previous issue)
“Those who know the least about motorcycles and motorcyclists have the most decided anti-motorcycle opinions. I would like (them) to know a few points of interest:
Most motorcyclists have as many close calls in a year as car drivers have in a lifetime. How many times has a man driving a 2,000-pound car left a man driving a 500-pound motorcycle lying in the street and said “but officer I didn’t see the motorcycle”
Charles C. Csrenko”
This letter is so
true and so timely that the eerie fact is that it was in the paper on June 17,
1976, a full 26 years ago. The author was a young biker, wise for his
years, who lived that philosophy of ALWAYS DRIVING FOR TWO. Today he is a wise
old biker, still in one piece, and VP of a prominent local bike club.
If you are a newbie /
rookie / wet-behind-the-ears-beginner, I highly suggest you take Mr. Csrenko’s
advice to heart IMMEDIATELY, IF NOT SOONER!
My own take on this
subject revolves around awareness. Since bicyclists, pedestrians, stray
pets, deer, other potential road-kill, and that ubiquitous and deadly car
driver can be counted on to be totally unaware as well as
totally
unconcerned with your very existence on the road, you must compensate by
being doubly aware yourself.
How do you know if
that approaching Buick is slowing down because he wants a better look at your
bike or because he is going to turn left across your path into a driveway?
Almost nobody has the courtesy or the common sense to use turn signals anymore.
Since you don’t know what he’s planning, what should you be doing in the
meantime? A more telling question is: Would you even notice that the
oncoming car is slowing down; would that fact even register in your brain
amid your enjoyment of the ride? This is what I mean by being DOUBLY AWARE!
The instincts that
get the average car driver home alive aren’t enough for a biker. A biker needs
to train his or her senses, and needs to develop habits that will enhance
survival. Every oncoming vehicle is a potential killer. Every kid, or pet near
the road is a potential catastrophe. Every blind curve or blind hillcrest could
conceal a stopped truck in the middle of the road. At night or in dense woods, a
deer could run out in front of you. Think on one of these scenarios and say to
yourself “what could I do to make
my odds of survival better?” then answer that question for the other
scenarios.
Think of other possibilities and ask yourself “how can I up my odds of
surviving?”.
Last summer we lost a
local biker named Brad Newell. He was one really great guy and a high-energy
biker. His problem was not planning ahead enough to compensate for potential
road hazards. Brad nailed a deer at extremely high speed. The deer was blown in
two and Brad was dead before his body came to a complete stop. He had just
crested a knoll to discover the offending animal directly in his path. Locals
claim he was riding home from an evening with friends at a local taproom. Monday
morning quarterbacks have all the answers to what Brad should have done or could
have done. None of that stuff matters for Brad anymore. It’s too late for him,
but not for you. Put yourself in the same situation, a twisty, hilly two-lane
highway near midnight. When is it safe to go really fast? How much alcohol could
you have safely consumed before going out on your bike? Where would you have
positioned yourself relative to the center of the road at any given time? When
would it have been safe to speed up, and when necessary to slow down? How fast
is “fast” and how slow is “slow”?
In contrast: Guru hit
a deer in November at night on a hilly two-lane highway and walked away from
the accident. His Harley sustained thousands of dollars in damage but flat
tire, badly bent rim, and steering damage aside Guru didn’t even drop the
bike; instead he brought it safely to a stop on the shoulder of the road. What
made the difference? Think about it for a while.
I’m not going to
give you any of our answers just yet. We want to see what you have to say on the
matter of riding defensively. Tell us how to ride safely or tell us we’re
blowing hot air. Be heard!
The only advice I
will add is that if you haven’t taken a M.S.F. safe riding course lately (within
the last 4 years) you should sign up for a refresher. We all forget stuff, and
we seldom, if ever, practice the emergency maneuvers that those classes cover.
REPLY#1:
Absolutely
good stuff-kid!!
Peripheral
vision becomes second nature after awhile. You anticipate what the other
guy is going to do before he even thinks about it.. You also study their
driving habits before you pass them or run them the hell off the road!!
“Honk-if you
have never seen a gun fired from a moving Harley!” That
should clear some minds!
Sue (via Email)
Thanks Sue, for the colorful advice.
I will add a caveat here. Before you even think of running them off the road, think about two other things:(1) the relative masses of your vehicles, and (2) The rest of your life behind bars (gray iron ones). We all know Sue's kidding, eh?............eh? Clanmother
REPLY#2:
Don't ever think you're a pussy for using your horn. It wakes the brain-dead car drivers up, sometimes. Make sure your bike has a loud one and use it. Make them look straight at you. Rapping the pipes ain't as good because most of the noise blows behind you where you don't need it.
Guru
There goes another Pocono biker. Another really fine resident biker and a
former friend of the late Brad Newell, Jason R. (Getzy) Getz just crossed
into the spirit world on March the 28th.
He tried to run a red light at high speed oblivious to the possibility
that some cage jockey might feel like getting a jump on the light from the other
road.
Getzy
used his jaw to put a 20 inch deep kink in the roof of the offending Mitsubishi,
while his Kawasaki took care of the door and sub-frame, totaling the car and the
bike, but barely injuring the driver. Even more tragic is the fact that his
grief-stricken girlfriend, Michelle Pandorf, took her life four days later by
overdosing on sleeping pills.
Most
of the self-inflicted fatalities by motorcycle around here seem to
involve young male bikers traveling at very high speed on secondary or two
lane roads who were riding bikes designed to operate best at speeds of 100
MPH or more. Alcohol isn’t always a factor, but machismo always is.
There
is a time and a place to be macho. You don’t find guys much more macho than
the 1% clubbers like the Pagans, Warlocks, Hells Angels etc. When is the last
time you saw a group of Pagans doing 100 miles per hour on a back road. Sure,
you’ll see it on an open interstate, but why only there? Ask yourself: where
do outlaw bikers do stunts? Do they stand on handlebars on the highway or in a
parking lot at one of their gatherings. Do they do wheelies on roads with
numerous business driveways or in their own parking lots or at field meets?
Actually, except for driving under the influence on a few occasions, they
tend to be really safe riders. Most of the parties they hold have provisions for
sleeping or camping over so nobody has to drive away drunk. These guys generally
live to be old bikers, unless a blade, bullet, or axe-handle puts them down
first.
Have
you ever seen a group of young guys in brightly colored leathers who just got
off their brightly colored sport-bikes walk up to a group of Hells Angels and
say “Hey, you guys are a bunch of pussies”? Well, why not?
But
you don’t have to be a one-percenter to be a grizzled road-toughened biker.
Talk to some of the riders from the Zinc City club, the Pocono Riders, the Lost
Riders, or nearly any of our other local clubs that have experienced riders as
members. You can hear their true tales of hardship, danger, desperation, and
heroism. It all comes with living life as a biker. We call it “paying
your dues”.
So don’t get stupid; control your urges so you can ride with us for a few more decades. Remember: only a fool checks out before he gets to enjoy the floor-show.
Getzy, Michelle and Brad, We miss you!
Clanmother
Dear Editor;
I am
responding to the submission that Edward S. Pearson had written in the April
2002 issue of American Motorcyclist named Siren Song in the Post Entry column
(pg: 7). Mr. Pearson wrote that he takes an opposing position to loud pipes
used as a safety device. He thinks this because he part of the Emergency
Medical Services and has ridden in many kinds of ambulances, noting how many
people ignore or simply don't hear the siren on the ambulance behind them. This
is my response to Edward S. Pearson's letter.
Wiley Moody
AMA No. 756573 Saylorsburg, PA.
1. Skeiber SC,
Mason RL, Potter RC: Effectiveness of audible warning devices on emergency
vehicles. Sound Vibration 1978;12:14-17,20-22.
2. Jones FE,
Quindry TL, Rinkinen WJ: Summary Report on Emergency Vehicle Sirens. Washington,
DC, US Department of Transportation, National Institute of Law Enforcement and
Criminal Justice, publication No. LESP RPT-0502.00, 1974.
3. Skeiber SC,
Mason RL, Potter RC: Effectiveness of Audible Devices on Emergency Vehicles.
Washington, DC, US Department of Transportation, National Highway Traffic Safety
Administration, publication No. DOT-TSC OST-77-38, 1977.
4. Corliss ELR,
Jones FE: Method for estimating the audibility and effective loudness of sirens
and speech in automobiles. J Acoust
Soc Am 1979; 60:1126-1131
5. Exploring
the intersection illusion. Mechanical Eng 1986; Feb:37-39.
Thank you
"Professor"; WOW references too!
Just as You seldom see a
rider hurt by a car he's following, you seldom see an exhaust system that
projects its noise in the direction that the motorcycle is moving (causes
excessive back-pressure among other reasons). When I blast down a street with
straight pipes rapping, it's the guy in the house I just passed, who has to get
up at 5:am for work, who hears me the best. The punk in the Civic ahead with his
windows up and sound system rattling his windows and his molars as he prepares
to turn left without signaling wouldn't hear my bike if M-80s were exploding in
the tail pipes.
I'll agree that under certain circumstances loud noises could save a life, but those opportunities grow fewer by the day as more cars become rolling concert halls. I installed a set of dual horns on my Harley for that rare occasion, but I do not kid myself. The best survival tactics are (a.) Make yourself stand out with lights, movement, and bright or contrasting colors, and (b.) be VERY alert and aware of all potential problems, so you can react immediately as necessary.
Clanmother
PS: White, Black, or Pink;
noise is still noise!
MORE SAFETY STUFF
!!!!!! LOOSE GRAVEL !!!!!
Loose gravel provides close to zero traction. All winter our beloved Penn-DOT and other contractors' trucks have been spreading stuff on the roads. Did you know that that stuff is not all salt? The mixture is called anti-skid. Besides the salt the trucks have also spread tons of finely crushed stone mostly limestone. When first quarried these tiny stones help tires to bite on icy roads because they have many sharp corners per stone that actually grip both tires and ice. Those sharp corners tend to get rounded off each time the tiny stone is rolled under pressure, i.e.: driven on, braked on, tires spun on, or truck bounced on. Those grippy little stones gradually turn into slippery little ball bearings.
Have you ever stopped at an intersection and put down your left foot and had it tend to slip away from under you? That is the ball bearing effect of old anti-skid. Regular traffic tends to blow the old anti-skid off the traveled portion of most roadways onto the outer edges where we bikers may discover it when trying to straighten out a curve in the road. After it rains that pesky stuff may be found almost anywhere because rushing water plays havoc with gravel and slick mud as well.
We live at an intersection at the bottom of a long hill and have learned from many years of experience that Penn-0DOT doesn't give a damn about bikers' safety. Guru and I have to go out in the street and sweep the gravel up ourselves after every heavy storm, if we don't want to keep picking pieces of sport bike plastic out of our lawn. Yes, it's usually the rookie riders that fall for the sand traps the most.
So all I can say is be careful, especially at intersections, curves and at the bottoms of hills. If there's a sand trap near your home, do your civic duty; don't wait for the politicians or Penn-DOT to do it for you.
Be Cool, Be Safe!