Craig Vetter up to his old tricks

[beatr911]

I was just thinking of this myself last night. This could evolve into an opportunity for seatbelts, side impact protection with airbags and possibly roll over protection.

Back in the '70s someone developed a seatbelt restraint system (I think a Volvo engineer) for motorcycles. It was ugly and cumbersome but functional in head-on impacts. Can't find a photo but I saw it on the net a while back. Especially then, few motorcycles had fairings, much less aerodynamic enclosures.

Also being "trapped" is not necessarily a bad thing in a crash. In the early days of racing into the 50's race cars didn't even have seat belts. Racers were told to duck down if they thought they were going to crash. Being "thrown clear" of the crash often resulted in additional broken (human) body parts as there was absolutely no human protection whatsoever from other vehicles, posts, curbs, rocks and tumbling and sliding on asphalt at speed. These days they are confined to very limited movement which really helps in a crash. We've come a long way with cars, but there is much left to do with motorcycle crash protection.

For safety, motorcycles need to be designed to at least modestly protect the rider in a variety of crash modes. An aerodynamic body could make at least a moderately functional system much more publicly accepable from a styling perspective.

[Cd]

I think it would be a great idea to invite Craig onto this forum !
He has been ecomodding longer than just about anyone.

It would have been nice if Craig modded one of these instead 70 MPH electric cycle $8,000

Id like to see what kind of range / top speed he could reach with it.

As far as safety and enclosing youself into something like that, I would hate to think what would happen if Craig had to suddenly brake. I would think he would be sliced up by the cross bracing that he has installed.
What about making the inside of the frront smooth and able to swing forward in a crash ? That way when you get thrown you wouldn't get shredded.

[Frank Lee]

Having crashed bikes, I'd say if you're REALLY concerned about safety, don't get on 'em.

[beatr911]

Right!

That being said, with the growing popularity of bikes with the tank much higher than the seat there has been a rapid increase in pelvic fractures as one impacts the 'target'. (Source: Motorcycle Consumer News, like 2006 or so.) I'm sure the family jewels are long gone by that point.

Makes 'em hurt just thinking about it.

[EXPIOWA]

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