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Did you ever have this happen to you?
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October 1, 2008 at 4:55 am #2180NoobacycleParticipant
I’ve had my Versys for about 4 days and 3 of them were actually riding days. I’ve only put on 180 miles so far and loving it.
This happened to me twice so far. I was at a red light at an intersection and I was at the white line and I kept waiting and waiting for the light to turn green. I was there over 5 – 10 minutes and nothing happened. Luckily there was no traffic so I looked both ways and just turned. I know I can get a ticket for that should some cop see what I did. But I know for sure that if I was driving my car, the light would have changed.
What would you have done in that same situation? Is there a way around that? I know that there is a sensor of some sort around and some you can see, some you can’t.
October 1, 2008 at 5:38 am #13092megaspazParticipantYup. Most lights are triggered by induction loops. You can see grooves in the lane to where they are. The thing you need to do is to break the current in the loops. Cars have a lot of metal in them, so they have no problems breaking the electrical field. Bikes have less metal so it’s harder. There’s 4 kind of loops I’ve seen – the 2 below and a variation of each of the 2 below.
1. the stop sign shape.
2. the stop sign shape with line breaks. The same as #1 except with 2 lines crossing from the top right to the bottom left.
3. the figure 8 shape
4. the figure 8 shape with line breaks. The same as #3 with 2 lines crossing from the top right to the bottom left of each half of the figure 8.
The order of hardest to easiest to trigger: #1, #3, #2, #4.
Triggering #1 is almost impossible to do. Ideally, you put the front of the frame of the bike over any of the induction lines.
Triggering #2 Just stop the bike inside the shape.
Triggering #3 Try to get the front of the frame of the bike over the top of the figure right where the 2 halves meet.
Triggering #4 Just stop the bike anywhere in the figure 8 shape.#2, #3, #4 should just trigger. #3 is harder only that you have to get the bike perfectly stopped in the right spot. If the light isn’t triggering, a few things you can try with reported mixed results:
1. Put the bike in neutral and lower the kickstand.
2. Flip the bike’s electrical switch off and restart the bike.
3. Roll the bike back and forth over the induction line.
4. put a rare earth magnet on the frame/subframe. This has been the best solution for triggering #1. It’s still hit and miss, like the duc on the gate with the magnet still doesn’t open my apartment complex’s gate. The SV does though. Both magnets were double sided adhesived to the front of the bottom of the lower fairings. The magnet placement should be as close to the ground as possible. I have found though that most lights that didn’t trigger, now trigger with the magnets.Some lights have no indication of induction loops. These could still be triggered by induction, or light (headlights), or motion detection. There’s a left turn to the street of my apartment that doesn’t have any indication of induction anywhere in the lane. But there’s a sweet spot nonetheless that triggers the light. I just stop the bike where the front wheel just breaks the bottom of the crosswalk line. If the light’s motion detection triggered, try waving your arms about. If it’s light triggered, flash the high beams. If the light doesn’t trigger in a couple of cycles, make sure it’s safe and run it. Call your city as well and tell them to adjust the sensitivity of the triggers.
http://auto.howstuffworks.com/question234.htm
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around, I want it caught and shot now…October 1, 2008 at 12:09 pm #13096bob250ParticipantIf there is no traffic I would go after a couple of minutes. Usually I just turn around and go a different way cause no way in hell is my ninja 250 gonna trigger the light to change. The safe bet is to just take a detour and enjoy the couple of extra minutes of drive time. Very informative post megaspaz, definatly gonna try the magnet.
October 1, 2008 at 1:27 pm #13100BuddParticipantIn TN you can run a red light on a motorcycle in that situation legally. Check your state law. You may be able to do it there too.
“I am the best there is at what I do, and what I do ain’t nice.”-Wolverine
October 1, 2008 at 2:32 pm #13103MattNGuestThe law in “most” states is if a traffic light is malfunctioning, which in this case that would be considered malfunctioning, that you treat a stop light as a four way stop.
Usually the procedure is you stop at the light, wait a “fair amount of time”, 5 minutes is more than fair…. and if it doesn’t change and you are able to go safely, proceed on your course.
October 1, 2008 at 3:42 pm #13110JimParticipantGreat info Megaspaz…thanks for posting this.
October 1, 2008 at 3:47 pm #13111dcJohnParticipantThanks megaspaz, this was really helpful info.
October 2, 2008 at 5:31 am #13159AnonymousGuest -
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