Wide-ranging TV and radio spots no longer make sense for such a niche industry (and for most other industries too, I guess). But Google and Meta are serving me lots of ads for trikes and electric motorcycles and motorcycle accessories, because they know I have an interest in those.
Lane splitting is incredibly useful. It’s also safe if you’re not a jerk about it. I wish it were legal here.
Yup, they can sell a policy every year, not just when the owner wants a new bike
Also, they pretty much own the market for “insuring safe motorcycle riders”, and want to maintain their position.
details of hijacky anecdote
Because motorcycles are such a niche category, insurance companies used to just have one rating group for all bikers. Progressive was the first company to think, “you know, there are safe bikers and unsafe bikers, and if we could distinguish, we could undercut everyone else’s premium and make a ton of money”. And they had a large enough book to do that research. I think they ended up rating just based on age and how long the rider had been riding a motorcycle, and (surprise!) they found that riders over 30 who’d had a bike for more than a year without an accident (or something like that, i don’t recall the specific details) had a vastly safer record than “all bikers”. So they filled separate rates, and advertised heavily that they could get you a better deal if you were a safe biker. And in a couple of years they had a huge, profitable book and every other carrier was frantically playing catch-up, while their book, which now consisted mostly of young, inexperienced bikers, bled money.
Since the OP has been answered, I wonder if we should have a The Great Ongoing Motorcycle Thread in MPSIMS.
I think I’ve seen some ads during ‘combat’ sporting events like UFC/MMA & boxing.
I started a new thread for general motorcycle talk.
For years, there was a spring Kawasaki sale, in which at one point a rider is coming through a turn and sits up slightly and the bike bobbles a tiny bit as it finds the line. Since I gave up riding in 1986 when I moved to an urban area and got married*, that ad used to tug at my heartstrings every time I saw it.
And right, it hasn’t been on for years. A shame.
*Not just the “got married” part, but I wasn’t going to be riding it to work, and couldn’t see going on long tours on weekends, so it was going to be a lot of money to maintain something that I basically didn’t use. And I was living in a townhouse, with no garage. So even at age 25, I could see that it just made no sense.
I wish it were legal everywhere.
Same for the “Idaho stop” laws for bicycles.
I’d never heard of “Idaho stop” before today. But now I know. Thanks for that. I’m sorta surprised stats support that it actually is safer versus just much more convenient, but facts is facts. FYI for those like me who did not know:
As to lane-splitting on motorcycles, I sure enjoyed doing it in CA where it was normal.
I’ll suggest a LOT of what made it safe (enough) in CA was that the car drivers knew it was legal too. And there were / are enough motorcyclists year-round that every car driver would be reminded almost daily of the fact that motorcycles routinely lane-split.
A skilled and sensible lane-splitting cyclist doing the same thing in another state where it’s illegal and the car drivers there have no expectation of it going on around them would be doing something far more dangerous, even if making the exact same maneuvers at the exact same relative speeds.
Yes. It is safer. And, it isn’t only more convenient for cyclists, it can be more convenient for cars. If I’m riding up on a four-way stop and can safely roll through rather than stop and put my foot down before then getting back up to speed and through the intersection, I can often save cars time by my getting out of the way sooner. Same does for a red light.
When I first heard of lane splitting, I thought it sounded so dangerous! Then, when I got to CA I found that not to be true. Drivers are used to it and make room. I was hesitant to do it the first time till I saw a a mounted “CHiP” ride on by me. I’m pretty sure it was Ponch.
A common mishap is probably a bike sitting at a red light adjacent to the curb intending to go straight at the green, while a car in the right lane is intending to go right on the green or in the next gap in traffic. And the car driver mistakenly thinks they’re the rightmost vehicle, so turn right while looking left. Crunch, smoosh, oops.
The Idaho stop gets that biker out of that vice before it has a chance to close on them. Cross traffic permitting of course.
It’s been 40+ (! :ouch: !) years since I commuted by motorcycle on LA’s freeways. But I had more than one close call where drivers didn’t pay attention and lane-changed not far in front of me. Folks do get crunched that way. So I wouldn’t call it “safe” exactly, just less dangerous among drivers who might be thinking of it while lane-changing versus doing the same thing among drivers who totally aren’t thinking of it.
The safest time to lane-split is when traffic is almost or fully stopped. It’s the slow and go where drivers are commonly jockeying for lane advantage that they’ll jump lanes without an adequate check for an upcoming motorcycle. Never got knocked off or forced to lay down, but it was close a time or two.
In my years commuting to work on the freeway, I had to swerve into the shoulder twice to avoid being hit by a driver lane changing without looking, and I avoided many more by riding very defensively. For example, never ovetaking a car unless I could see that the driver was alert, not on their phone, etc.
One event that had me thinking about selling the bike was seeing someone I wanted to pass driving with an iPad pinned to the steering wheel with a movie playing.
One nice thing about the KLR650 is that you are sitting pretty high when riding - high enough to see into the cars around you and to see over normal cars at the traffic ahead.
I replied to a post in MMP, but since it’s motorcycle-related (getting a new fuel tank for my YZF R1)…
I received this email from eBay [emphasis mine]:
We are writing to inform you that your recent purchase through the Global Shipping Program from [seller’s username] cannot be completed.
The item in question has been deemed restricted. This could be due to import/shipping restrictions or eligibility requirements within the Global Shipping Program. The item will not be shipped to you nor returned to your seller.
Don’t worry! Your full refund will be processed back to the original payment method within 72 hours. You may notice two separate refunds; a refund for the item and a refund for the shipping and import costs. No further action is needed.
Maybe that’s a big part of why I hate it. I only see bikes lane splitting on rare occasions, so when it happens it always catches me off guard. If I’m changing lanes, regardless of if the traffic is moving or and a stand still, I’m watching for other cars in other lanes, I’m not watching for bikes in between lanes.
It’s a bit like someone riding their bike on the sidewalk. Cars backing out of driveways just aren’t expecting someone to be moving that fast on the sidewalk.
I had a close call like that on my first day out. I was in a right turn lane, close-ish, to the curb. Someone either didn’t see me or didn’t care and squeezed in between me and the car to my left.
Since that incident, whenever I’m riding, I remember being taught to ‘make yourself as wide as a car’, so other cars can’t do things like that. After that, I always remind myself to stop at red lights in the center of the lane.
Similarly, since learning about SMIDSY*, here I think, I started weaving back and forth a bit when passing an intersection/driveway with a car waiting to pull out onto the road. I see a lot of other bikes (motorcycles and bicycles) doing the same thing.
*Sorry, Mate, I Didn’t See You. It’s amazing how many drivers will look directly at you, then pull out in front of you clearly not aware of your existence.
I’ve just seen the first motorcycle commercial in I don’t know how long. It was for Yamaha dirt bikes, on BBC America. Can’t find it online, but it was a family dressed in Yamaha blue-and-white, riding their blue Yamahas on a forest trail.
Found it. ‘Holidays: First Ride’
My first two YZs were yellow and black (I guess those were also my only YZs). My current Suzuki dual sport is blue/white. I still associate yellow/black with Yamaha dirt bikes even though that hasn’t been the case in 40’ish years.
Same here. I’ve never had a yellow-and-black one (my dad had a '64 Yamaha 80 that someone turned into a dirt bike – I learned to ride motorcycles on it), but to me that’s still the Official Yamaha Livery.
I have a lot of fond memories of my old YZ80 and YZ125 and the ping ping ping idling noise, the thrill of cracking the throttle open and hitting that power band and trying to keep the front end down (even the YZ80 was a monster with a small 10 year old on it). I’ve mostly regressed the memories of the wrecks, broken ribs & tailbone, cuts and abrasions, and one broken helmet.