Would you want a vibrator in your helmet?

[MartDude]

Don't know that I like this idea. There's already enough to take in on a bike, without the added distractions of vibrators under the saddle and in your hemet

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-12266406

[Samray]

I suppose it's an alternative to learning to ride safely.

[BikerGran]

I was reading that article earlier - with complete horror!

Who are these people? Do they not ask motorcyclists what they think?

Silly question!

[D-Rider]

I know some people who were involved in the tests and would have taken part too had I not been away at the time. The trials are all performed by motorcycle riders - so they are asking us.

Saferider is investigating a lot of technologies some good some I really hope we never see. This report only looks at some of them.

The things trialled by my friends will not have got good reviews as their verdicts (included in the test data) were that they were very poor and distracting.

Having chatted with them about this, I think that a lot of this was down to very poor implementation - a better implementation may have not been as bad - though I think that there are a number of fundamental flaws to the concepts.

[HowardQ]

Would you like a Vibrator in your helmet?

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Er??
Sorry no!
There must be somewhere better to put it!

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Thought they were normally kept in the handlebars of Jap IL4s anyway.

[herbacious]

collision detectors -

what for - parallel parking??

[D-Rider]

Don't know that I like this idea. There's already enough to take in on a bike, without the added distractions of vibrators under the saddle and in your hemet

Oh and it was actually vibrators in the seat and buzzers in the helmet.

[Willopotomas]

I suppose it's an alternative to learning to ride safely.

My thoughts exactly Sam. Another means of taking the driving/riding away from the operator. Not good. Only a matter of time before insurance companies catch wind of this and bump the premiums up for those that choose not to use them.

I'll leave it there.. Can feel my bile rising already..

[HowardQ]

P.S.
I made the joke about it as I could not take it seriously!

[BikerGran]

Vibrator in the seat sounds interesting - but only if it's under my control!

Might be distracting in ways they obviously haven't thought of - they do know females ride?

[MartDude]

Don't know that I like this idea. There's already enough to take in on a bike, without the added distractions of vibrators under the saddle and in your hemet

Oh and it was actually vibrators in the seat and buzzers in the helmet.

[D-Rider]

Don't know that I like this idea. There's already enough to take in on a bike, without the added distractions of vibrators under the saddle and in your hemet

Oh and it was actually vibrators in the seat and buzzers in the helmet.

Well those I spoke with who actually took part in the trials had a buzzer in their helmets - maybe a vibrator was used to test another of the technologies in the trial.

The comment I got from them was that when they entered a corner too fast (according to the system) the buzzer went off at quite a volume which was:
a) a bit of a shock
b) very distracting and therefore more difficult to deal with the situation
c) impossible to listen to the sound of your engine which doesn't help especially if you may need to change gear.

I personally think a lot of the curve warning stuff is flawed anyway:
a) It's a bit late if you've really entered the corner too fast to have a system telling you that
b) Current systems will know vehicle speed and curve radius - what they won't know is road camber, your line through the corner, road surface/tyre type/contamination etc that affect grip and 101 other subtleties that affect safe cornering. So, what will they do, err on the side of caution and set a threshold based on average or worst-case factors .... so for many of us the system will be going off all the time just because we've decent tyres, the conditions are good we've taken the bend many times before and our lines are sorted (with a safety margin).

Nevertheless it would be stupid to write off all of this research - they are looking at a lot of different things and testing them out with real bikers to find out what are useful and what are not. Some of the things are potentially beneficial.
So let's be glad they are doing this - far better than just having things imposed because some bureaucrat thinks they are a good idea.