Decent Whinge

[AllanB]

One whinge I have being a short fellah is why the hell are the manufacturers continuing to make adventure bikes with seat heights that would require me to carry a step to climb up on and if they don't, like some of the BMWs that actually have a low seat, they weigh like a quarter of a tonne?

I think the Triumph 800 dual thingy has a low seat or kit for the shorter inner leg. Do they still do the V-Strom 650?
The saving grace on my Ducati is how narrow it is - so the 840mm seat height still allows me to toe it around. Any taller in the seat and I'd probably not purchased it. And I reckon it is just a styling thing - from a technical and mechanical point the subframe and thus seat could have been dropped 20mm easily - but then you'd not get that beautiful line from tank to tail, thus I believe the designer won.

The dude doing the WOF yesterday was my height (5'8) but didn't have the art of the right leg swing perfected! Despite my general physical inflexibility I swear I could do a great ballet half pierrot followed by a high kick after three years of Ducati ownership. I'm sure it is quite beautiful to watch be mount up.

[FJRider]

I'm pissed off that we're about to get hundreds of km of new wire rope barriers to make our roads safer for everyone except motorcyclists.

Although that's not completely fair as it should stop motorists on their bloody phones from crossing the centre line. Speaking of which:

https://www.facebook.com/BIKEZWTF/vi...wMjQ2NzkyNTQy/

You'd get into all sorts of shit no doubt, but it would feel good!

I have noticed through Otago rural areas ... the Armco barriers already installed are progressively getting fitted with a continuous plate the entire length of the barrier ... almost to ground level.

[AllanB]

I don't give a shit about the rope barriers - in fact I kind of welcome them as a road user as it's the dumb-F on the other side of the road talking on their cell phone who misses the car in front braking then panic swerves into the on-coming lane that the wire rope catches. Thus saving the poor motorcyclists riding along on the opposite side, or Joe Blogs on his annual family holiday.

Now if you are riding at crazy speed on your M-cycle and crash, and hit a rope barrier are you really in the position to complain about them?
Do you want power poles banned? They hurt like shit when you hit one.
Trains? Plenty of cars manage to hit trains (WTF).
Show me the statistic that proves wire barriers kill motorcyclists that are riding legally.

Whinge away, I have broad shoulders

[caseye]

Hahaha have to agree, Im stuck with ether a cruiser or a sport style bike, they the only bikes I can get a foot on the ground without falling over. Im not a cruiser person, not that there is anything wrong with them, its not what I'm into, I'm only young. just maybe manufacturers will make a low seat height Adv bike, but I wont hold my breath.

Um, Bull Shit!, yer no spring chookin, but yer bloody lovely. Got the reverse problem, love to have a cruiser, but won't give up the Bandys general ability to do every bloody thing so damned well despite being 1/2 an inch too darned tall.

[skippa1]

I'm pissed off that we're about to get hundreds of km of new wire rope barriers to make our roads safer for everyone except motorcyclists.

Although that's not completely fair as it should stop motorists on their bloody phones from crossing the centre line. Speaking of which:

https://www.facebook.com/BIKEZWTF/vi...wMjQ2NzkyNTQy/

You'd get into all sorts of shit no doubt, but it would feel good!

Urban myth....where is the proof that all these motorcyclists get cut in half?

[jim.cox]

Urban myth....where is the proof that all these motorcyclists get cut in half?

I note also the wire ropes used for the barriers are significantly thicker than the wires on the farm fences alongside our rural roads...

[GazzaH]

Sorry, no decent whinges from me.

Only indecent ones, mostly whines in fact.

And I'm too polite (timid, repressed) to inflict them on yous

[SaferRides]

I have noticed through Otago rural areas ... the Armco barriers already installed are progressively getting fitted with a continuous plate the entire length of the barrier ... almost to ground level.

First seen in Coromandel a few years ago.

I was riding with a group last summer north of Whangamata when someone low sided into one of those barriers. The plate stopped the bike going under the Armco, and he was able to carry on with us. Wire rope barriers would have wrecked the bike, and possibly him as well.

[FJRider]

First seen in Coromandel a few years ago.

I was riding with a group last summer north of Whangamata when someone low sided into one of those barriers. The plate stopped the bike going under the Armco, and he was able to carry on with us. Wire rope barriers would have wrecked the bike, and possibly him as well.

WRB's aren't exactly kind to cars either ... and why did the rider lowside ... ???

[pritch]

Only indecent ones, mostly whines in fact.

Yeah me too. Tonight was an Argentinian tannat. Oh - sorry.

[buggerit]

One whinge I have being a short fellah is why the hell are the manufacturers continuing to make adventure bikes with seat heights that would require me to carry a step to climb up on and if they don't, like some of the BMWs that actually have a low seat, they weigh like a quarter of a tonne?

Why can't I have something that was the size of my 1973 Honda XL175 but with say about as much power as a 500cc or better and still weigh say less than 130kg? Maybe electric bikes will finally do it if they sort the range issue without batteries being too heavy.

And why do they put the willie driers so high up the wall? Cant the do duel hieght like the urinals?

[buggerit]

I'm pissed off that we're about to get hundreds of km of new wire rope barriers to make our roads safer for everyone except motorcyclists.

Although that's not completely fair as it should stop motorists on their bloody phones from crossing the centre line. Speaking of which:

https://www.facebook.com/BIKEZWTF/vi...wMjQ2NzkyNTQy/

You'd get into all sorts of shit no doubt, but it would feel good!

If someone installed a safety system in the workplace that made it safer for 95% of the workforce but maimed or killed the other 5%, OSH
prosecute the hell out of them, but somehow the NZTA are free to do as they please

[Berries]

I have noticed through Otago rural areas ... the Armco barriers already installed are progressively getting fitted with a continuous plate the entire length of the barrier ... almost to ground level.

Pretty much all of the barrier on the side of the state highways in Southland and Otago in the future will be this type. Because there is no approved post protection system for wire rope barriers you won't see much more of that going in. You can't have a continuous plate with wire rope because it works in a different way to armco.

You will start seeing more median barrier as well and I'm afraid for all the ravers on here most of that will be wire rope.

I wish I could find the link to the video of a car hitting a wire rope median barrier and being pulled back just before it hit a motorbike head on.

I was riding with a group last summer north of Whangamata when someone low sided into one of those barriers. The plate stopped the bike going under the Armco, and he was able to carry on with us. Wire rope barriers would have wrecked the bike, and possibly him as well.

Must have been a pretty low speed impact to be rideable. Obviously if he hit the plate he would have gone under the armco so he would have gone under the wire rope as well, perhaps hitting a post at low speed. Hardly life threatening.

Worth doing a bit of reading up on these things. Apart from a few high speed and high profile crashes where the type of barrier really wouldn't have changed the outcome they are not as bad as some motorcyclists make out. Sure, I wouldn't want to hit one at any speed, but the same goes for armco. Those 6" square wooden posts that hold it up make for horrific injuries by the way.

I commute every day on the the Dunedin southern 'motorway' which is just a dual carriageway with a wire rope down the middle for most of its length and a bit of concrete barrier at the end. It has been a few years since a rider hit and went over the concrete part but I have not seen or heard of any riders hitting the wire rope. Every couple of weeks though you see a big length with the posts missing where some twat on four wheels has drifted off to sleep or not been concentrating and gone in to them. With over 20,000 vehicles per day a lot of these would have been head on crashes with innocent people getting seriously fucked up if it were not for the barrier.

I'd rather have the wire rope barrier there to prevent these idiots taking me or my family out. I rate my chances to avoid hitting the barrier myself, it's not hard.

[FJRider]

I wish I could find the link to the video of a car hitting a wire rope median barrier and being pulled back just before it hit a motorbike head on.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0iGcwATYH4I

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9NYanW4ypEY

[Berries]

Yeah, the second one could well have been a rider saved but the one I saw was local, could have been Australia but fairly sure it was the coast road out of Wellington.

Anyway, what time is the rugby on?