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.

24,673 shots in a year

When Nikon announced its new flagship D4 camera last week, they advertised that its carbon fiber shutter was rated to 400,000 actuations.

The web community is not clear on what exactly this means, but one does not need to worry that after 400,000 pictures the D4 breaks down. The camera however may start to show signs of age, and a speed of 1/250th second may then be 1/257th or 1/242th of a second. Does it matter? A little.

Fact is, our car breaks down after hundreds of thousands of miles, or less, every product has a life-span, light bulbs, washing machines, and SLR cameras.

The next question is: are 400,000 shutter releases a lot, or not. And if this is the number for the brand new top of the line D4, what is the expected life for a Nikon D700 shutter, my somewhat older camera model first announced in July 2008. Searching the web, the number most often mentioned is 150,000 actuations for the D700, less then half as for a D4, but then the D4 is nearly 3x the price. Should I worry?

First I have to find out how many pictures I take during the year.

My D700 is now exactly 1 year old, and with the help of a RAW file and Apple’s Preview Inspector I found out that in the last year I pressed the shutter button 24,673 times. Wow! That is about 475 pictures every week, or 65 pictures every single day. It sounds even worse when you realise that in 2011 I took about one picture every 20 minutes.

If I continue like this, the shutter of my D700 could start to deteriorite in 6 years, by then in todays fast moving digital world the D700 can be considered a antique and ripe for the museum anyway.

So my very personal conclusion is: Skrew it, lets shot the ride!

The icing on the HOG cake

A great HOG seasons ends for me on very high notes. The first one came via Royal Mail, in form of the Winter 2011 HOG magazine. There on page 15 one of my many photographs of the season was printed:

The picture was taken some time back in May, while we visited the Hawk Conservancy Trust in Andover.

Some days later, the prize arrived, not money, not coupons, but a pin. I think you need to be a keen photographer to enjoy the moment, and I enjoyed it very much.

As if this would not have been enough, I received a heart warming Thank You from my Hogsback Chapter UK during the End of Season Party, in form of a big metal badge, for the photographic work of the last season:

What a ride, I have to say Thank You, as it was great fun for me to share many miles with my fellow members.

Intrigued by the building on the front, I found out that it is the Harley-Davidson offices in Milwaukee, 3700 West Juneau Avenue, USA. Never been there, but riding on Google Street View I took the next left…, and yes, thats the same building.

Have a safe winter.