Its Now Legal For Motorcycles To Run Red Lights In Illinois. Sometimes, sensors installed in many intersections to trigger light changes are not sensitive enough to detect the weight of motorcycles. So, the Illinois legislature passed bill HB S860 which allows motorcycles stopped at a red light to go through the light if it doesn’t turn green after a “reasonable” amount of time. But how long is reasonable? The bill doesn’t say…
Nash Motorcycle Company To Open Nash Sickle Garage In Los Angeles. The garage will be located in the back of the PERRI INK. Cartel on the historic Melrose Ave. The NASH Sickle Garage will include custom motorcycle builds, repairs, service and fabrication. Some parts manufacturing and additional motorcycle builds will remain at the NASH current location in Vancouver, WA. Taver Nash said “Through building a relationship with Nick and the Cartel, things just kind of fell into place. We also wanted to extend our reach to our customer base in the SoCal area, and my wife would like a tan…”
Harley-Davidson, Inc. To Report Fourth Quarter Earnings Tuesday, January 24, 2012. Results will be announced before market hours on Tuesday, January 24, 2012 (8:00 AM to 9:00 AM Central Time). The public is invited to attend a webcast conference call and downloadable slide presentation with Keith Wandell, President and Chief Executive Officer, and John Olin, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Webcast participants log on and register at least ten minutes prior to the start time at Harley-Davidson Investor Calendar. A replay of the audio webcast will be available approximately two hours after the call concludes.
Shell Motorcycle-Only Gas station. In Indonesia Shell just opened its first ever motorcycle-only gas station named Shell Motor Express. The idea is double: to accelerate fuel filling time for the millions using daily moped and motorcycles. To allow small businesses to buy a fuel franchise. In Indonesia fuel is subsidized by the government.
Harley Davidson To Once Again Team-Up With Marvel Studios For “The Avengers.” Why should you care? Well, not only did they give away some great prizes for the “Captain America” movie, but there will be a new “The Avengers” sweepstakes. Expect promotion to start kicking off very soon. Movie release dates: April 27, 2012 (UK), May 4th, 2012 (USA)
I live in the chicago area. I have waited many light changes, with the heat of my Harley engine setting my legs on fire unit a car comes by to trigger the sensor. This is great news !!!
In case anyone was wondering “Don’t they make something nowadays to solve this dilema?”
here it is:
http://www.thelightknight.com/
The Light Knight is a small, inconspicuous, completely self-contained traffic light changer
designed specifically for your motorcycle, moped or scooter. Install a Light Knight traffic
light changer in minutes and stop getting stuck at those pesky traffic lights that just will
not give you your turn.
Hopefully, this will help someone. I’ve had this problem until I installed one. No more waiting!!
Hoping everyone is well.
Come on Spring!!!
I believe in Chicago proper, most of the signals are not traffic actuated but are on recall (pretimed) so everyone is going to have to wait but I could be wrong. If you are waiting at a light, and know it uses inductive loop detection, the best thing to do is to stop on the edge of one of the loops, not in the center. The edges are the most sensitive area, not the corners or the center. It works even better if you touch your kickstand down right on the loop and then kick it back up. Of course none of this works for video detection, radar, or some other method although most agencys still use inductive loops as they are less problematic. Most inductive loop amplifiers are not turned up to 100% as that causes other problems but unless something is wrong such as a bad splice, they should pick up a motorcycle.
Depends what your bike is made of. My HD sets them off. My sportbike which is mostly aluminum doesnt.
We’ve had this law in Minnesota for awhile. I have used it numerous times. It’s great. Our law reads something to the effect that “you may proceed after a lengthly wait and when it is perfectly safe to do so”. So one must use some discretion before proceeding through a red light.
I have customers that are cops and lawyers. One complete light cycle is the accepted practice. If you miss a green, don’t get a green on the next cycle, go thru intersection when safe to do so. Try putting kickstand down as that may get wire loop sensor in roadway to find your bike. They work by magnetism and not weight.
Many traffic lights use inductive coils; it works kind of like a metal detector:
http://tinyurl.com/yzyuhum
The advice regarding the edges of the coils is pretty good:
http://www.wikihow.com/Trigger-Green-Traffic-Lights
Oklahoma now has a law allowing motorcycles to proceed on red:
http://tinyurl.com/89ksdvb
Anybody else notice that “Fast Motorcycle Industry New” rarely has anything to say about fast motorcycles?
Bobs. You think you are funny?
The inductive loops detect a mass of metal. It doesn’t need to be magnetic. And putting magnets on the bottom of your bike only works because most magnets are metal and therfore your adding metal closer to the pavement. The magnetism has little to do with it, if anything at all.
we have one by the wal mart here that wont detect a Volkswagen… let alone a motorcycle
@ Lyle, sorry but not true. In-ground detection of metal is triggered by changes to the EMF of the loop, which is like a giant Hall-effect sensor. Magnetism has a higher influence on EMF than ferrous metals of same mass, and a much higher influence than non-ferrous. A good example is common air cylinders used in robotics & automation. To detect stroke position in aluminum cylinder ones, sensors are strapped to the cylinder and detect the stainless steel piston through the aluminum. To increase reliabiltiy in detection, a magnetic ring is set in the piston along with the usual O-ring. I don’t know if the magnets sold for bikes actually work or not because I’ve never tried one, but the theory is sound.
Correction: Weight is not the issue. The issue is that the aluminum content of most motorcycles is too high to be detected by the magnetic sensors Magnetic sensors (induction loops) can only detect ferrous metals like iron and steel.. If you’d ever driven tractor-trailers you would know that sometimes these same lights will not detect 80,000 lb rigs because the iron and steel in the truck is too far off the ground.
I tried the magnets: didn’t work on my motorcycle.
North Carolina also allows motorcyclists to run these red lights. IT’S A STUPID FIX!. Now, every time I travel more than 1/4 mile from my home I am forced to cross 8 lanes of traffic speeding by at 50, 60 and 70 miles per hour with poor visibility due to hills in both directions because cities and states where this law has been passed now see it as an excuse not to repair their induction loops.
Why are bikers around the country happy with this fix? It’s stupid. What should have been done was to require the manufacturers of these defective inductive loop systems to fix their crap:
http://billysmotorcycles.blogspot.com/2011/08/its-got-nothing-to-do-with-weight.html
Billy, you’re wrong. Any electrically conductive material will be detected by the inductive loop’s field. They work as metal detectors and will detect any non-ferrous metal such as aluminum if properly adjusted. In a typical cabinet the detector amplifiers have a series of dip switches on them. They range from 1 to 15. Typically they are adjusted at 12 which is 85%. This will usually allow the loop to detect an aluminum sign laid flat across the loop. Will it detect ALL motorcycles that are typically 6” or so above the pavement? I can’t say for 100% certainty but I do know if the amplifiers are turned up to 100% they can detect vehicles in adjacent lanes and signal left turn indications needlessly and hold up traffic. The biggest problem seem to occur after several years if the loop gets broken (from shifting pavement) or the splice goes bad from the loop to the cabinet in the pullbox. We try to test our loops every year and usually when they go bad, the controller will generate a false call into the controller so the signal always turns green regardless of vehicle presence or not. Having said that, more and more agencies are going to video detection which is an entirely different animal and has different concerns…
HB S860 had been amended to state 2 minutes as the length of time one has to wait. Also, for the gentleman from Chicago, S860 also states the red light exception does not apply in municipalities with 2 million+ residents; so no light running in the Cook County area I’m afraid.
My sources tell me this morning that V-Twin is losing it’s Missouri warehouse and moving all operations back to the east coast.
“Returns” can no longer be returned to the St Joseph warehouse, and now re-directing all x-parts to Dover, Delaware. Truth or rumor?
Take note all manufacturer’s in the motorcycle industry. This is how a V-Twin dealer communicates with the owner(s).
Can you feature any other group of people (dealer’s) that receive “past-returned parts” that are re-stocked by the manufacturer/distributor and Re-Sent to V-Twins dealers:
•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
Hello Ted,
Why is “bin-tenders” allowed to put a “used”, 2004 issue, dusty, open-package, of an obvious used (and malfunctioning) Battery Tender® in with my order # 2012-356976 ?
That’s a predatory and cowardly thing to do. I’ve helped V-Twin and myself along over the years, isn’t that right? Why turn a Beserk-Clerk on to me? Every order I’ve received since November 2011, has had at least one part that wasn’t pre-checked by the “bin tender” and had to be returned as an incorrectly made part. Teach your “bin tenders” what the correct part looks like, and as suggested earlier, tape an example of a correct small part above the bin the part resides in. This way a bin clerk can match the part in his hand, with the part affixed above the bin. We all thought that Bin-Twin made sense.
How would you like it if I sent you “prior-returned or damaged” books? You would have to pay to send them back to me (2 lbs. 15 oz. each), and then what if I re-sent the same books to you again. Would you say, “Darn!”?
A devious person spoiled my order, at the bin, in Missouri. He/she made the choice to pick up a dirty, sitting-in-the-bin, Prior-Returned!, Battery Tender®r that could have damaged my new HD 6V battery. I needed the battery charger yesterday and the “parts order clerk” stuck a stick in my spokes because he could.
Please send me a (16-1793) 6V new, un-opened box, Battery Tender today, so I can continue with my business-as-usual. The clerk who committed this waste of time and money is not to be trusted. That person has problems at the job he’s assigned, or trouble at home, that’s being brought to the job site, and meted-out on your dealerships, as payback. Does this make any sense at all?
Re-assign the “clerk” to another job, as a “clerk” determines the outcome of a sometimes, painstakingly prepared order, especially one with those Linkert carburetor parts. – Kirk Perry, Vintage Twin
In the Motorcycle Part’s delivery Business…the “Picker” is God
Make no mistake. It’s the parts picker that makes or breaks a successful order.
All of everyone’s entire effort; the office, the picker, the packer (around 5 people handle one (1) order), shipper, dealer, and customer, are all set in motion by who?…. yes, the Picker.
The Picker is God and should be treated like a prince. Today’s “picker” should have a transpo upgrade within the warehouse, whether it’s a motorized skateboard w/ a basket, or an air-tire utility cart, we need to keep the Picker’s heads “cool and thinking”. Make it funner for them. Ask the “picker’s” what they want (besides a pay raise) in order to prepare our parts orders correct the first time. A monthly blanket-bonus for breaking a “no returns record”?
If a bad part gets sent to the dealer, it’s a hardship to start over with: dealer, packer, shipper, and un-packer.