Saw A Guy In Cebu Get Killed

[Taco]

I was on the side of the highway in Cebu a few days ago when a passing motorcycle hit a stray dog 30 meters from me. The driver walked away from the accident but the passenger on the Honda 125 hit his head on the road and was DOA. I would estimate safe driving speed in Cebu to be 50 km/hour (30mph) and this guy was doing 70 km/hour with no helmet. Just be careful when driving in the Philippines or better yet take a bus.

My view of the accident looked something like this...

[droid]

That's crazy Taco. Do you ride a motorcycle yourself?

People don't realize but 70kh carries TWICE the energy as 50kh. And twice the stopping distance too.

[Kradmelder]

That's crazy Taco. Do you ride a motorcycle yourself?

People don't realize but 70kh carries TWICE the energy as 50kh. And twice the stopping distance too.

I generally ride at 160 kmh on open road, up to 80 kmh on dirt and over 80 in town...

[droid]

I'm a four wheel guy. I respect bikes and their f*d up dynamics, especially how they can catapult you 3 meters high or enter into crazy oscillations.
maximum I've done is about 110, but i guess a bigger bike should make it easier to really push it.

As an aside, I'm still trying to understand how the steering works backwards after 20kh, bizarre. Most people aren't even conscious of that either.

[Kradmelder]

I'm a four wheel guy. I respect bikes and their f*d up dynamics, especially how they can catapult you 3 meters high or enter into crazy oscillations.
maximum I've done is about 110, but i guess a bigger bike should make it easier to really push it.

As an aside, I'm still trying to understand how the steering works backwards after 20kh, bizarre. Most people aren't even conscious of that either.

Above 20 kmh you generally dont steer, you lean, or push down on the handlebar in the direction you want to go. It is called counter steering. Just push down a with a few fingers and you can turn a bike at speed. If you try and brake your bike wont corner and a good chance of washing out from underneath you, If you try and move handlebars you will go into a headshake and likely high side over the bike. The only way out of a head shake is more throttle.

There are things you can practice to avoid such crashes as people, cage, obstacles s or animals in front of you all of a sudden. Sudden animals or a cracked drain pipe or a rock are common in off road riding. You never try and brake. Put one hand on your head and practice swerves just shifting your body until it is second nature. To make it more real have a mate suddenly put his hand up or throw something safe on the road and that is when you must swerve. Ive had dogs and small buck and dassies pop out. Once even a springbok it kept pace with me at 65 kmh.

Of course having someone on the back really limits your ability to swerve quick.

[MrMan]

I read a newspaper article about a Japanese study that showed that older men who rode bikes had a much higher chance of both impotence and incontinence. It was somewhere around the 30%+ plus range if I recall. The theory was that the vibrations of a motorcycle, which are many times more than a car, shake the bladder and reproductive parts and cause problems.

I lost interest in riding motorcycles as a hobby when I read that. I made sure and told my dad about it. He was in a motorcycle accident. He had a Harley. He stopped at a stop sign, and someone behind him rear-ended him and sent him flying through the air.

I went to the store with him and a Harley pulled up next to him as we got out of his vehicle. He was looking at it. The man would take a low price for it. My dad's eyes lit up. I tried to talk him out of buying it. I don't want him getting into another accident. I'm sure he had a lot of fun. The side effects are a good deterent though.

Having fun with my wife and not unwilfilly urinating in my pants are worth a whole lot more to me than the potential fun of riding a motorcycle, not counting the wrecks. No matter how skilled you are, all it takes is one unskilled driver with a larger vehicle.

[Zambales]

In Manila, during 2015, an average of five motorcyclists died every week. This was probably more to do with other traffic, but even so, it's a very common sight to see stray dogs wandering aimlessly on the road in the Philippines. Combine this with the lack of use of helmets by riders and the inevitable is going to happen unfortunately.

Even crossing the roads with the multiple lanes in the cities is a hazardous experience. Ever played that video game, Frogger? Well, it's like that! It's twice as bad at night because some of the chumps don't even switch their lights on.

[Taco]

That's crazy Taco. Do you ride a motorcycle yourself?

People don't realize but 70kh carries TWICE the energy as 50kh. And twice the stopping distance too.

I have 175 Kawasaki Barako with a sidecar on it to move my family and things around. I only go about 50 km/hour with it because driving in the Philippines is very hazardous. An hour before this accident I saw another accident where a woman was crossing the same road and got hit by a 14 year old kid driving a motorcycle that was not licensed or registered.

[droid]

Above 20 kmh you generally dont steer, you lean, or push down on the handlebar in the direction you want to go. It is called counter steering. Just push down a with a few fingers and you can turn a bike at speed.

Yeah exactly. But I don't think there's consensus as to what's really going on. Wikipedia et al say that's just done to initiate the turn, but I've tested on big turnabouts and you have to keep applying it.
My only theory is that the turn lean together with the steering caster (that has another name for bikes though) make the contact patch have a slip-angle that points into the turn.

Once even a springbok it kept pace with me at 65 kmh

Very nice experience.