Does anyone else have a problem with bikes on high beam?

[BonzoDog]

In Belgium on Friday we nearly got taken out by an airborne Golf estate which left it even later and tried to cut across the grass at about 80 mph . Unfortunately for them there was a ditch or something in the middle and the car took off. My OH watched the whole thing in horror (it was on her side - RHD car) ... I just saw it land in front of us, upright and spinning, in a cloud of water/steam/grass/etc.

We looked at the grass after subsequent junctions and quite often saw tyre tracks going across!

At risk of offending my many Belgian colleagues, the collective view among non-Belgies is that their driving could improve but it is maybe a Gallic/Latin thing, a spirit of Joie de vivre or maybe more joie de mort.
Belgies make the best Moules frites though and Moules season is only a few days off.

A few years ago I wrote an article for a local newspaper: Note that the local speed limit is 130 kph when dry and 110kph when wet.
Apologies if it is a bit long.


After 4 years of living in Luxembourg and driving in the slow lane, tucked in behind trucks, might I ask if I have worked out the local traffic rules correctly?


Roundabouts
The aim is to eventually have this anglo import banned.
Therefore it is important that no matter what would appear to be the sensible route through a roundabout, you should always drive around the outside, ignore any inner lane and at no time must you signal your intention, especially when exiting.

Entering the Autoroute.
When entering the autoroute you must completely ignore traffic conditions. On the slip road accelerate as hard as you can and put on the left hand indicator. As you reach the end of the slip road – marked by chevrons and a continuous line – cross the chevrons and immediately enter the left hand lane. It is best to conduct this manouevre without looking, as sometimes the volume, density and speed of surrounding traffic could be unnerving.
A special condition of this exists at Bertrange where the entry path is quite short. If you lose your nerve, stop at the end of this lane with your left indicator on and your car positioned partly in the autoroute.

Exiting the Autoroute.
Maintain your speed and position in the left hand lane and when you are parallel with the chevrons that indicate the end of the exit lane, move quickly right into the exit lane. If you lose your nerve, stop in the left hand lane until a suitable gap appears.
On entering the curve maintain the foot on the throttle and rely on your stability control system to get you out of trouble. These exits (and sometimes entry lanes) become tighter once you have entered them and are a real test for these electronic controls on your cars. The best ones are at Kirchberg and Senningerberg

Speed Limits
Speed limits are for guidance and on main roads and autoroutes you should add at least 20 kph to the limit. An advised speed on the autoroute is 150 to 160 kph. driving at 110kph in the wet is for wimps.


Driving on the Autoroute
Use the car in front as a guide and attempt to maintain a distance of no less than 2 metres


Use of Indicators
The indicator is only to be used on the autoroute and must be left on, indicating left, at all times.



Use of throttle and brakes.
The right foot is to be placed hard down on either the throttle or brake. For example, if you see that the traffic ahead of you has halted, either at a traffic light or a traffic jam, keep your right foot hard on the accelerator until the last possible split second when it should be applied as hard as possible to the brake. The aim is to stop suddenly within one metre of the car in front.

Trucks,
Trucks are slow and driven by professionals. They will rarely lose their patience even under the worst provocation and therefore you can treat them with contempt. Even though the mathematics of trying to stop 38 tonnes is frightening when viewed against a lightweight 3 Series or Megane.

 

[uumode]

Interesting thread as we all fit our super dooper ultra bright xenons etc to our cars

So do bikes
http://www.hids4u.co.uk/product_details.asp?id=234

"These are the brightest lights you can buy, brighter than other HID kits including the Pilot and Hella ballasts. The HIDS4U Pro ballast produces more light than other HID conversion kits and are even brighter than the factory fit Xenon headlights."

 

[uumode]

Green strobes/flashing lights are for doctors not bikers.

ah OK.. some other colour then reserved for bikers... so people know it's a bike and can anticipate the rate of acceleration.

After deeper thought, other cars probably get subjected to the same 'treatment' as most bikes? i.e. other cars suddenly pull out of junctions and roundabouts in front of me, other cars suddenly change lane without indicating. I've seen recently a lot of cars jump red lights (at very high speed) etc. So the problem of not being seen is not exclusively inherent to bikes, the big difference is with a bike you don't have any airbags, vehicle stability control, to my (limited) knowledge of bikes, or crumple zone.

It would help (but not solve the problem) if bikes only occupy road spaces which cars occupy, so car drivers aren't surprised as easily. i.e. bikes to occupy the same space as a car.

I notice that some riders of high power bikes generally do this and occupy the middle space and stop behind cars, which I think is good practice. Bikes that travel outside the space of a car and invent another imaginary line (for example a 'fourth' lane on the motorway travelling 70mph when the other cars are doing a slower 50mph) are harder to spot, and it's unexpected there should be an additional 'imaginery' lane. Same situation for multi lane traffic light junctions, there may be two lanes for cars, and a bike might travel in a 'third' lane on the white line to the front of the car queue... and predictably car drivers are only expecting traffic from the two lanes and not the gap in the middle. But ultimately at the end of the day should a new Highway code rule apply or should bikes follow rules for pushbikes (where they can at least to my knowlege, travel adjacent to other cars without observing strict lane discipline)

After more deeper thought, it's probably not the bikes on 'standard' halogen high beam that are hurting my eyes, it's the one's with high power xenons on high beam. Halogen high beam tolerable, high power xenon on high beam too intense

 

[Howard]

ah OK.. some other colour then reserved for bikers... so people know it's a bike and can anticipate the rate of acceleration.

Pink ?

 

[Doodle]

After more deeper thought, it's probably not the bikes on 'standard' halogen high beam that are hurting my eyes, it's the one's with high power xenons on high beam. Halogen high beam tolerable, high power xenon on high beam too intense

Xenon's on a motorbike? Not many of those about. Can't think of any currently that have discharge lights fitted as standard, meaning the few that do will be with those slightly questionable HID kits...

 

[Shude]

Interesting thread as we all fit our super dooper ultra bright xenons etc to our cars

Unless you have bi-x or HID driving lamps the beam will always be pointing at the ground at a point a few metres in the distance. In order to be "blinded" by my car's headlamps then you'd have to be kneeling in front of the car, and then stooping a bit. If anyone finds that uncomfortable for their eyes then they get everything they deserve!

 

[Birdman]

In my experience, even when riding on dipped beam you can unintentionally annoy drivers, especially at night. A large heavy cruiser (like my old VTX1800) rears up on acceleration and bounces fore-and-aft over poor surfaces like a boat in a storm. That causes intermittant glare to oncoming traffic even when on dipped headlights. A superbike (like my CBR1000RR) has similar problems with pitch-up on a full throttle as the front wheel lifts, but adds to that a tendency to throw a beam across at oncoming cars when leaning hard into fast left handers. It's unavoidable - a matter of geometry. Conversely - and this affects only the rider - on right handers the beam disappears into the hedgerow when the bike leans over and if you're not careful you follow it into the foliage.

You need bright lights on a bike. A while back, taking a fast straight along the A12 on an moonless night I saw the distant lights of a vehicle vanish as if switched off. Uncertainty caused me to slow down until I picked out an unlight high-sided trailor apparently travelling sidewards towards me, straddling the road.

It turned out that a farm tractor-trailer had slowed down, pulled across to the right side of the road, swung back into a concealed entrance on the nearside and presented a mass of slowly moving metal travelling at right angles. So you need good brakes and an instinct for survival.
But no-one likes madmen on two wheels. They don't last long, however.

 

[prprandall51]

I think there is a correlation not yet picked up on in this thread:

Specifically, from my observations, I think the bikers who most often employ main beam are those who also believe that all traffic should move out of their way regardless of the current traffic situation. I usually notice main beam on bikes dangerously threading their way through two lanes of cars on a motorway or dual carriageway, or simply riding like an idiot. You never see a BMW or a VFR750 (etc.) with main beam on

The use of full, dipped headlights is an excellent idea for bikers - and, indeed, on some new bikes it is not possible to turn the headlights off, they are simply on whenever the ignition is on.

But I think the use of main beam is self defeating. Firstly, it hacks off all of us car drivers and thus reduces the general level of consideration shown by car drivers to all bikers; and secondly, tests have shown that main beam significantly reduces the car driver's ability to judge speed and distance of an approaching bike. Thus a fatal miscalculation of a bike's proximity could be made simply becasue the driver could not correctly gauge the bike's position.

I think bikers who use main beam see themselves as some sort of new-wave Moses parting the red sea, or in this case, all the traffic before them. Descriptive expletive deleted...

Philip

 

[Birdman]

Bikers and anyone else who drives around on full beam really pi*s me off!
Bikers wear gloves.They're there to save their hands when sledging down the tarmac alongside their flipped-over bikes.
Even riding like a lady vicar and a grabbed throttle or brake can put you on high beam and there's no-one will tap you on the shoulder to say so. Tell-tales are hard to see through road-dirt in daylight even supposing you're looking which you mostly aren't because you're busy already.
To be fair, once on a bike I treat all drivers the same: as a close-knit bunch of dopeheads, dreamers and company madmen with a sprinkling of elderly dim-wits, all sharing a mutual deathwish just for me. With that in mind, I stand a chance of growing old enough to find romance.
When on four wheels I regard all motorbikes with a great respect. They are the guardians of our road freedoms. When the local golf club and other mindless agents of suburban repression gain the upper hand we are all doomed. After the hunters, the shooters. After the shooters, the anglers. After the anglers, the pet owners. And after the bikers, the drivers: the writing's on the wall.

But being dazzled by a biker still pi**es me off.

 

[uumode]

Another slight annoyance are (now and again) old cars with either wired up wrong headlamps? or grossly misaligned ones? and one side emits a Xenon eye watering beam and the other looks dim as a side light with half a cyclops effect.

What's more annoying is how the clapped out banger (with bashed up doors and different colour panels) can generate this retina burning light without special bulbs or Xenon gear???

Even more annoying, unlike the bike riders who know they are on main beam, and use it as an element of safety to maintain high visibility, these drivers appear to drive around unawares they are dazzling everyone in their path!

 

[Pietre]

The problem is that from 2003 the headlights are unable to be turned off (nanny state) and when accellerating and the front rising it looks like the high beam is on, so it isnt intentional, but nanny stopping them being turned off doesnt help matters.

 

[imadoofus]

At risk of offending my many Belgian colleagues, the collective view among non-Belgies is that their driving could improve

There's a Dutch joke that goes:

In Begium, if you fail your driving test more than three times, as a warning to other road users, you have to fit your car with red and white number plates.

PJ

Incidentally, push bike or no, strobing lights are illegal.