The Hi-Vis day-glow Tohuwabohu in France

I am sick and tired of the endless discussion on Hi-Vis vests, and on who orders me to wear what, when and where. This is a free world, and each individual should be responsible for his own actions. End of rant.

A lot has been written about the new biking laws in France, even more has been hotly discussed, but the final solution is not to flood the Eurotunnel and only cross with ferries to Belgium. It helps sometimes to read the law in its small print (and in its original language) and then, staying very relaxed, analyse what is actually required. (I am reading the French text as published by Reims Chapter on their website under the tab “La Loi”)

Now, regarding visibility and clothing, there are 2 (two, deux) relevant laws, one for hi-vis vests, and one for reflective material on biker clothing.

Hi-Vis vest (Gilet jaune)

This is a old law from 29 September 2008, soon 4 old, that requires drivers to carry a hi-vis vests with them, and to be worn when outside the stationary vehicle. 2 and 3 wheel vehicles are exempt from this. In a nutshell: the french law does not force you to ride around like Ronald MacDonald. You can stay in full black leathers.

I personally carry a orange Hi-Vis HD vest with me, for very bad weather conditions and at nights. But I do not wear it while riding with the Chapter, as this day-glow Hi-Vis orange or yellow should be reserved to the ride leader and their backmarkers, as they need to be clearly and easily identified.

So again: not wearing a Hi-Vis day glow vest or jacket does not break any french law !!

Reflective clothing

But a new law from January 2012 requires a motorcycle rider to wear reflective material on his clothing, either attached or integrated. This is mandatory from January 2013. The law has 2 criteria to be fulfilled:

a) the reflective material has to be visible between shoulders and waist
b) its total surface has to be 150 cm2, in one piece or many.

Now, 150 square centimeter is what I would call peanuts, it is for example a 3M Scotchlite reflective sticker 15cm wide and 10 cm high that you can placed barely visibly somewhere on your jacket.

I have a rain light jacket from Harley, that I would not label Hi-Vis, its not bright orange or yellow, but dark in general tone, however, with some reflective letters and stripes.

I took the time to measured all reflective (silver) material, and to my surprise the total area of reflective material on this jacket is about 600 cm2, this is 4 times the legal requirement.

See these details:

Harley-Davidson are 76 cm2, the word Motorcycles contributes 30 cm2. The bar shield logo is nearly the required size by law.

More surprising are the ams, specially the 3M™ Scotchlite™ Reflective Material piping:

Conclusion: just the fine lines of reflective stripes provide 260 cm2 of reflective surface, and you do not need more to be legal. These lines are about 5mm wide (0.5cm), and in total 5.2 meter long. To be legal, you only need 3 meter of these reflective pipes, and you do not need the letters or the logo at all. PEANUTS, and easily done.

Looking at the present clothes in the official Harley range, this jacket, worn by our very own Katie from Guildford Harley-Davidson, in my view will fulfil all legal french requirements easily with respect to reflective clothing.

… and here is Katie, same day, same jacket, standing next to a day-glow orange Hi-Vis man, clearly showing that reflective in the french legal sense does not need to mean colourful.

And you have lots of space to add rockers, patches and pins to this truly black jacket.

I would like to see from Harley or any other producer a vest (black leather cut) with just the 3 meter of Scotchlite pipelines, and it would be helpful if Harley-Davidson would indicate in its clothing the total area of reflective material. Alternatively, the Chapter and HOG rockers could be made of or with Scotchlite silver piping instead of all gold stitching.  This, with a certificate of reflective area, should convince any french gendarme.

Remember: as everything you read here, this is my very own and personal view and action, and it may be wrong. All you do or don’t do is as usual at your own risk.

Make your GPS legal for France

The big difference between the French and Germans is that the French will pass ridiculous laws and its up to your personal judgement to follo them, or not, while in Germany the law is abide by, no exceptions, full point.

However, law enforcement officers of both countries under strict EU dictatorship react pretty similar, you should not expect the french policeman to allow a casual laissez faire attitude once you are on his radar screen. And he will surely not share a glass of white wine with you before he lets you continue your journey. These times are over!

Riding a motorcycle these days seems to be a very anti-social activity, and politicians of all colours, who never even sat on a motorcycle in their whole life, love to invent legislation to kill any sense of freedom to ride. But fighting laws once they are passed is less productive then fighting them while they are debated in Westminster, Paris or worse, Brussels. So stay informed on all the idiocies our elected politicians come up with and say loudly NO before they hit any parliament’s floor.

But this article is not a rant about what could come, but what unfortunately already is. Here in the UK a lot of Club Night time is spend on trying to understand what the French are up to, with ugly Hi-Vis vest, reflective clothing and mandatory breathalyser at the centre of attention and heated debates.

Here a MAG statement published on my Chapters website:

http://www.hogsbackchapteruk.org/downloads/2012riding_in_france.pdf

On one point I researched a bit more, as one statement is not exactly accurate:

Speed: French police take speeding seriously, apparently a lot of speed camera warning signs have been removed, devices to detect radar are illegal (GPS with speed camera sites loaded on them are okay). Fines are payable on the spot, expect to be arrested and possibly have the vehicle impounded if you can’t pay or the speed was high.

Thanks to our twinned Reims Chapter website, I found that the statement: “GPS with speed camera sites loaded on them are okay” is not exactly accurate. Key is:

The speed camera proximity warning needs to be switched off.

There are even official statements by Garmin and TomTom on this and how to perform the switch off or what to do to be legal. Details (sorry, in French) can be found here:

http://www.garmin.com/fr/100pourcentlegal/
http://fr.support.tomtom.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/5565/?locale=fr_FR

While Garmin advises to disable the proximity warning to be 100% legal, TomTom explains at length how to avoid LIVE updates.

Having myself a Garmin Zumo 660, I did switch off the proximity warning, and as not all of ou may speak or read french, here a short description on How To:

Switch on you ZUMO, and press TOOLS

You want to change the SETTINGS

Note that some screens are longer then the display, press the arrow down to get to more options, and then select Proximity Points

You want to CHANGE proximity alerts

you are nearly done, now uncheck the tickbox for proximity alerts for Safety Cameras

Bon yoyage!

Remember: as everything you read here, this is my very own and personal view and action, and it may be wrong. All you do or don’t do is as usual at your own risk.

Riding in strong wind gusts

I was a keen sailor, navigating a 32 foot yacht in diverse weather conditions, and all nautical aspects as navigation, weather and wind were of great interest, and sometimes concern.

Since riding my more naked Harley-Davidosn Road King the feeling of navigating the wide oceans is back, at least when not in the middle of a bloody congestion. Recently, on a ride back from the Eurotunnel to London, this feeling was again very pronounced. Very heavy rain dispensed from the skies with gale force winds made riding on the M20 a challenge, as strong wind gusts hit the bike. If sailor or bike rider, the rain gear should be similar, and the way the bike or yacht suddenly leans over is as scary as exciting. The feeling of still being able to stay on course, is intoxicating. You do not fight nature, you find a way to allow survival, as nature is always stronger.

The knowledge of true and apparent wind came very helpful. Unfortunately, when discussing the weather, most riders just ask: will it rain or not, though this is the least important factor. Wind strength on the other hand is important, and here even more: the wind direction.

Some thoughts on wind strength. There are numerous scales and units: Beaufort scale, knots (nautical) and mph. We all can feel strong winds, and usually stay home when the umbrella gets blown into pieces. But its about perception. Take Beaufort 8, a fresh gale where most holiday sailors will stay in harbour if they can. It has constant winds up to 40 knots, and thats 46mph. Now every Fatboy rider will know the wind blowing into his face at speeds of 46mph, and he will surely say: sustainable for hours. But between the sailor and bike rider there are 2 big differences: a) on a bike the front wind created by speed is pretty constant, but more importantly b) the road does not form high wave that make many of us sick.

But ask the Fatboy guy how he feels at 115 mph? He may say: never go that fast, but actually, last Saturday he “apparently” did just that. If you stand still, you feel the true wind, but if you move, you feel the apparent wind, and it is coming out of a different direction. If the true wind comes straight from where you go, you can just add the two speeds to calculate the apparent wind force. If the wind comes from behind, you just deduct it. But these 2 cases are rare occasion, as wind turns as do the roads. So you are riding in a constant changing environment. and not only does the wind direction change, but also its strength, and these are called gusts of wind. Even in a strong breeze (Beaufort 5-6) peaks can reach 50 mph, doubling in the fraction of a second. It hist you unannounced and unprepared, and the struggle to keep the bike on course starts as quickly as it is over again.

Remember one thing: wind strength and direction are critical, and adding these parameters to your own bike speed will determine what you feel, how strong you get pushed sideways and have to deal with.

In the above drawing I looked at 3 scenarios, as they all happened last Saturday. Bike speed 75 mph, wind gusts of 50 mph (thats a lot!) result in apparent wind ranging from 55 mph to 115 mph. The scary part, the one you can prepare yourself for, is that you feel like accelerating in the fraction of a second from 75mph to 115 mph, while being pushed to the side. Not even a Ferrari offers you this kind of sudden acceleration, its torque at its finest.

If you look at the ride last Saturday, the theory confirms what happened on the road: conditions were nasty between Ashford and Maidstone, and became better later on the M26/M25. Nothing actually changed, except the riding direction, and it made a big difference in handling the bike. The true wind turned back, coming more from behind, reducing the apparent wind strength and angle of attack, as it moved forward.

For those of you who want to do the exact math, please find the formulas below. For me its easier to visualise the little black, blue and red arrows, and you can judge what potentially to expect. With the understanding of where I go nautically, and the knowledge of direction and expected strength of the true wind, I can not avoid the nasty gust of winds, but am the little fraction of a second prepared earlier, the surprise factor is reduced, and my chances to stay on course increase.

I hope you sail the roads safely.

Loosing the good looks of your Harley

We all want our Harley-Davidson to look best, and use the web to distribute pictures taken with our digital camera.

But suddenly, the initially bright and sharp picture turns blurry and pixelated. How come? Well, you need to know and respect that jpeg, the format most often used in digital cameras, is a lossy format. This means that each time you resample and save your picture, the file size gets further compressed, and the quality suffers.

Take a look at these 3 “generations” of the same original:

1: first generation, resized and cropped from original (filesize: 61kb)

4th generation: saving the picture without changes (filesize: 20kb)

8th generation: further resampling (filesize: 15kb)

One can clearly see how the versions deteriorate, helmet and fuel tank are not shiny anymore, details start to look pixelated. This is due to repeated compression of the file while saving as jpeg over and over again in a photo editing software.

If you simply save a copy from a USB stick, you do not resample, the file size does not change, but as soon as you open the picture in a editor, and resave, resampling takes place, and the file size reduces, with it the picture quality.

You may want to use different crops or aspect ratios of a picture, creating different versions, or adding text, that is fine, but remember: always try to use the original jpeg to start a new version, a new generation 1. Then you will have a chance to achieve the highest quality in a lossy environment. Never open and edit a lower generation, as brilliance and sharpness will quickly fade away. And re-save jpegs in high quality settings, the file size may increase, but you keep the quality high.

You may see that sometimes the picture quality deteriorates in Facebook, or your blog. The reason for this is that the hosting software resamples your picture in the background, it tries to reduce its size to save storage and speed up future downloads. The Facebook profile pics are sometimes strongly affected, and there is little you can do, except providing the highest quality initially. So always upload a optimised generation 1 picture, as the original is too large in size, un-cropped and often not properly aligned. But that is another subject.

What in the word “buslane” do cyclists not understand?

When you are invited to a party, do you ask the host not to invite certain guests? If a guest I invite would suggest such exclusions to me, I would show him the door and remove him from my Xmas card list.

 

Cyclists seem to have trouble to understand certain concepts of modern road traffic. Red lights for example. They think they are not for stopping. I do not like all red lights, some make sense to jump, but trust me, some red lights make real sense. Even more dangerous is that some cyclists do not understand the meaning of a blinking amber left indicator light, and are taken by complete surprise if the vehicle showing this brightly blinking light actually turns left.

 

Unfortunately these misconceptions sometimes end tragically.

In a latest twist of clear misunderstanding, cyclists seem to consider the buslane their own and even want to regulate its use. What in the word “buslane” do cyclists not understand? The three letters “BUS” stand for these big, often red and large vehicles, that transport many people of the public at the same time. And these buses own the buslane, that’s why its named after them – BUSLANE. Its not a taxi lane, nor a motorcycle lane, and surely not a bicycle lane, as they have their own. Sometimes part of the bus lane is now painted in blue, nice artistic touch, but not more then a really slippery guideline. Its a bit like being invited to a party and wear too much cheap perfume.

So please lets agree on a simple truth: we are all guests to the party in the buslane, invited by the bus drivers. Recently, the busdrivers extended the invitation to motorcycles, and this makes a lot of sense. Motorcycles do not disturb bus traffic, they do not slow down buses, and motorcylces do not force the bus to leave his lane as bicycles do. In fact, bicycle traffic in the buslane is the primary factor for congestion and bus delays. And motorcycles are very happy to be invited y the bus drivers, as it gives the space to breeze, space away from stationary cars, motorcyclist now have a greater chance to survive. But sometime I wonder why the buslane is not opend for pedestrians, not much would change, except maybe the cyclists would now also start complaining down the vulnerability food chain, and not just up. What do I mean by vulnerability food chain? Its pedestrian > bicycle > motorcyle > car > bus > lorry > army tank, in order of vulnerability.

 

But enough ranting, lets try to be friends!

 

Why cant we all share the roads. Yes, there are mad motorcycle riders, as there are mad bicycle riders, but they are not the majority, they are the bad exceptions, on both sides. Motorcycles are not the real threat to cyclists, they may be noise and smelly, but in a inner city accident between a cycle and motorcycle, the physical damage will be pretty much equal. So we could easily coexists if we start to respect the other a bit more and understand his strengths and weaknesses.

We can even join forces and help each other. When I ride my my motorcycle in London, I feel like I protect the cyclist, as I introduce faster moving traffic into the buslane, discouraging car drivers to move into it. I position myself between cyclists and cars, being a bit more noisy and faster I have a fighting chance against a car, something a cyclist does not have. I fully respect the priority cyclists have in the bicycle lane, I never push or harass them, but if this narrow piece of real estate is clearly empty, I move into it. And again, I think this helps to protect the cyclist, as car and lorry drivers realise that the cycle lane is a busy lane, even without cyclists, and they better stay out of it.

 

In return, I would wish that cyclists understand motorcycles better. First, it is technically difficult for many of us to drive for longer period at walking speed. And the same way we do not block the bicycle lane for cyclists, I would hope that cyclists do not block the full buslane width for us. It would be a start if the cyclists would see the motorcycle dude as his stronger brother, and I am sure he will see the protection that can be provided by sharing the same lanes. And I promise: we may come close, but never touch.

First Ride: the Harley-Davidson Softail Slim

Now this was trully the very first ride of Guildford Harley-Davidson new Softail Slim. As German I had not missed to put my towel in time on the seat to reserve my demo, and it was to some surprise of the crew that I showed up on time, on my Sportster 883R, in -6 degree C temperatures and icy roads.

Though I could no convince the boss to waive the 1,000 GBP excess one has to sign when taking a demo-bike on a spin, I decided it was worth the risk for taking this new addition out, specially as it had only 4 miles (four!) on its ODO. Just the mechanics taking the bike out of its box from Milwaukee did a short check run, so I was surely the first client to ride the new Softail Slim in the Guildford area, maybe the whole of UK, as Feb 11/12 was the introductory weekend nationwide.

If you expect a in-depth technical analysis of strength and weaknesses, based on the comparison and experience from many years of riding Harley models, stop reading now. For one the roads were really icy, and 1,000 GBP is real money, and a bike with just 4 mile on the ODO is really not run in. I did not push it, though this is a demo bike, it will one day find its way to a proud owner, and I wanted to give it at least the distant chance for a decent run-in.

For the record: I ride a Road King Classic for longer distances (about 15k miles a year) and a Sportster 883R for my daily 40 mile commute (about 5k miles a year).

First impression: the Softail Slim is more suitable to replace my Sportster then my Road King. I like touring, but the Slim did not provide enough space for even my own butt. The seat is clearly too short for my big bum, and the sales rep Michael had already $ signs in his eyes expecting to sell me a wider single seat.

The Slim was surprisingly agile, appeared small and not heavy at all. Not wanting to describe cosmetics, I leave that Harley-Davidson marketing guru’s, the handlebar felt right and very similar positioned then on the 883R, narrow enough for city commuting and filing through lines of cars, wide enough for longer distance runs. The major difference was the low seating position and the big fuel tank between my legs, something I welcomed, as I can not understand how a commuting bike that needs refuelling twice a day makes any sense, as beautiful as the 48er peanut tank may look. On my the 883R I at least get 3 roundtrips to the office.

The back of the Softail Slim is… very slim, never feels present, very nice, but not for touring, as I like to feel the presence of my saddle bags and its valuable cargo, and yes, my windscreen.

The 883R is the only Sportster with the “luxury” of double front disks, something I really appreciate for its fine controls and dose in stop and go city traffic. The slim has just one, and as this one wasn’t even properly run in as it still must have had Milwaukee dust on it, so this was the most disappointing aspect of the ride. With the icy roads I did not grab hard, avoiding surprises and the ABS, but it was very weak in comparison to what I am used.

The engine delivered what I expected, not run in, but deep and powerful, the 103ci on it will clearly improve over the next 500 miles and even put my 2010 Road King with 96ci engine into the shadows.

Did I take the cheque book out? No, luckily not for any 1,000 GBP excess, and not to own the slim. It would fit into my “collection” as a third bike, in between the Road King and Sportster, just for day trips on sunny warm days without luggage.

For 3 bikes in the garage, one even without a pillion seat, I will need a different “Board of Directors” in my household, and a new house. So the Slim will be considered again when its time to replace the Sportster for something more powerful, but nearly as agile. It is clearly not a replacement for a Touring Bike, with or without a bigger seats.

Thank you to Guildford Harley-Davidson to have let me ride this bike in these weather conditions, I can only recomend others to do it, as we all have different reasons and requirements for owning a Harley-Davidson. I have reasons to own 2 very different ones, but for a third there is no present need.

Rake and Trail – your Harley is not a shopping cart

The look of a Harley-Davidson may be a decisive factor in deciding a purchase, but most of us take the candidate of our dreams for a test ride. Chrome and colour suddenly becomes secondary, the right ride feeling is important. The handling of a bike is depending on dozens of factors, the colour clearly not being one of them.

If you are interested in technical details, it is important to understand the basics of front suspension geometry, as these are the major factor in how your bike will handle on a straight line, under braking and in corners, under speed or very slowly. This geometry is primarily defined by six variables, which I want to analyse more closely. At the end, it boils down to 2 headline numbers: rake and trail. Other secondary factors which I will not analyse here in detail are hight adjustments and, sorry to point it out, your very own weight.

First lets look at the primary 6 variables on a bike:

1) The Offset – This is from the centreline of top of steering neck to the centreline of top of fork tubes pic offset

2) Rake – This is the angle in degrees of the steering neck from the vertical

3) Fork Length – This is the distance between the top of the fork tubes to the centreline of the axle.

4) Diameter of the front (and back) tire – this is… the Diameter of the front and back  tire

5) Trail – the most important number, a result of other factos, its the distance defined by vertical line from axle to ground and intersect of centreline of steering neck and ground

6) Raked Triple Trees (not shown above) – Making things complex, and in order to bring trail figures back into line, triple trees with raked steering stems can be used. Expressed in degrees, usually adjustable in 3, 5, and 7 degrees of rake, this number should be added to the Steering Head rake.

Uhh, new technical term, and no, its not Xmas, this is what is called a Triple Tree:

You could consider the Triple Tree as 2 plates, to which the steering neck and the front fork are attached. As shown above, the Offset is defined for the upper plate. If the lover plate has the same offset, both steering neck lne and fork line are parralel. If however the offset is increased on the lower plate of the triple tree, additional rake is introduced, increasing the total rake.

Now lets look at some Harley-Davidson data, collected from the official website (*) and other internet sources (**), not sure they are all correct, as sometimes marketing managers tweak data for a more pleasant look,  and not everything published on the internet is certified to be correct.

Lots of remaining question marks, lots of other influencing factors, but the trail is clearly the number to watch. For example the big difference in trail for the 883R and 883L (low rider) comes mainly from different wheel diameter. The Road King however gets its long trail primarily from a negative offset.

From experience, I ride a Road King and a 883R regularly, above numbers are butt tested and prove to me that a bike with lots of trail will be directionally more stable. It will tend to go straight and be easy to ride hands-off (never do that!!), it will not have its direction changed by every tiny bump in the road. But such a bike will take more physical effort to steer than a bike with less trail, that is also why bikes with long trail have wider handlebars. A bike with lesser trail like sport bikes will be livelier, it will take little effort to change its direction, whether that effort comes from your hands on the bars or (bad!) from a bump in the road. However, too much or too little trail will make your bike undrivable, and chopper builders go to great length to control rake and trail, check out this front special axle, designed not just to please the eye, but also to reduce the trail.

Trail causes the front wheel to act like a caster, and the greater the trail, the more forcefully the wheel tries to align itself with the direction of travel. But only few wants a bike so stable it can not be turned but prefer a bike that can be ridden no-handed for at least a few seconds without going out of control at the tiniest bump. Twisted City Roads vs a straight highway to the horizon, these extremes define your trail needs.

The above numbers however also show one thing very clearly: there is no golden solution, the mix is important, as well as drivers preference. Other external factors also play a role, as the weight of the driver influences the trail (heavy dude lowers the bike and reduces the trail), and the trail actually changes constantly, because under breaking the fork length reduces. Thus entering a corner under breaking (or not) changes the behaviour of the bike, and for a 20-stone dude its again different then for the slim lady on the same bike.

We do not need a PhD in geometry to evaluate a bike, our butt will do that, but to understand the influencing factors will help to formulate preferences. Harley-Davidson website only provides some geometrical data, but rake and trail is disclosed, giving a first hint on how the bike could handle. Then you can more consciously test ride different bikes and customise your own with more then just chrome covers for the back footrests, but maybe a new Raked Triple Tree for Xmas. And you may understand that using raked triple trees on a stock Harley front may not be the best idea, as it may shorten the trail too much and lead at instability at higher speeds. You do not want your bike to handle like a TESCO shopping cart.

Disclaimer: above are my personal research and thoughts. This is just to explain the principles, not to serve as instructions or recommendation, and worse of all, it could be wrong. Happy to receive your comments and corrections.