Photonicinduction's New video.. Please look

[lewis]

embiggened.

Bugger, you beat me!

[Noize]

Nutter can be a term of endearment in South London.  With his idiosyncratic personality it was charming seeing his wife with her own youtube channel, I did think they were chalk and cheese, but he's a bit of a diamond, but alas it was'nt meant to be. Least she just come out with it rather than saying I just need some space etc... Photon will live on. I think he will still have good memories of that relationship. He's a right character that knows himself very well in someways, that's what I think anyway.

[mrflibble]

I don't have a dog in this fight but my only wish is for there to be a ban on the use of the word "init".

Oh My God! They Killed init! You Bastards!

[TerraHertz]

Well I for one am very grateful for this video right now.

My son graduated university recently with 2 honors degrees, has a beautiful girlfriend, great very high pay job, brilliant future... and just bought a big bike. For thrills.

I don't seem to be getting through to him regarding why doctors call bikers 'mobile organ donors'.
He's going to watch this whether he likes it or not.

[mrflibble]

Don't tell me its been added to the dictionary.

If we get breezerslet in the dictionary, I think it's only fair you get innit init innit in it.

[SeanB]

Well I for one am very grateful for this video right now.

My son graduated university recently with 2 honors degrees, has a beautiful girlfriend, great very high pay job, brilliant future... and just bought a big bike. For thrills.

I don't seem to be getting through to him regarding why doctors call bikers 'mobile organ donors'.
He's going to watch this whether he likes it or not.

I was cured of that want at 16. Had a guy in class come to school the Thursday of his birthday on his new 50cc bike. Came to school Friday, Monday no show. 2 weeks later back at school, on crutches, wearing half a pair of shorts, and with a 20kg collection of surgical stainless on his leg from crotch to toes, in plaster with steel spikes out of the flesh, and 2 spanners. He had to adjust the length 1/6 turn every 2 hours on the 4 supports as he had to grow the bones about 5cm to get the leg back to the same length as the other. Took him 15 minutes to go from class to class, and he was the only pupil allowed to use the school lift while we carried his bags for him.

Saw one biker that did not leave enough to even donate anything, seeing as he went most of the way lengthwise through a car. They picked up his helmet 500m down the road, still had the head inside.

[NiHaoMike]

They should require motorcycles to have safety enclosures or cages and subject them to the same crash tests as cars. One company (Aptera?) did that but never got anywhere. I guess most motorcycle riders think "this will never happen to me"...

On second thought, they should require drunk/distracted drivers to be restricted to only driving motorcycles (in addition to existing penalties) for 10 years or so. Then they'll be less likely to harm others (and more likely to harm themselves) if they choose to continue driving drunk or distracted.

[tom66]

I disagree. Allow people to do what they want. If someone wants to ride a motorcycle and they injure/kill themselves, it's their problem. Should we also ban skydiving, and deep sea swimming, because they're dangerous, too...

[dexters_lab]

I disagree. Allow people to do what they want. If someone wants to ride a motorcycle and they injure/kill themselves, it's their problem. Should we also ban skydiving, and deep sea swimming, because they're dangerous, too...

completely agree, so long as they understand and accept the risk they undertake there should be no meddling by laws and legislation, the more we bubble-wrap society the more things get blamed on someone or something else rather than their own judgement

[NiHaoMike]

Then my second suggestion would probably be a better idea. It directly deals with a common safety problem (drunk and distracted drivers) and indirectly might discourage motorcycle riding by associating it with bad driving.

[Bored@Work]

I disagree. Allow people to do what they want. If someone wants to ride a motorcycle and they injure/kill themselves, it's their problem.

No, they become the society's problem. At least when there is public health insurance, disability support, etc. Everyone pays for them.

[Zero999]

I've had a motorcycle for 10 years and never had a serious accident. I can drive a car but choose not to. In fact because I'm more used to the bike I feel safer. When I drive a car I find myself having more near misses and I've had a few scrapes too.

Of course it's true, you have less protection on a bike so there's a greater risk of death and injury, if you do have an accident but if you're sensible you'll be fine.

[tom66]

No, they become the society's problem. At least when there is public health insurance, disability support, etc. Everyone pays for them.

In the UK your insurance company is required to pay the NHS for some of your car as the result of any motor vehicle accident, around £350 for the accident plus £450/day up to £10,000. Logic would suggest that motorcycle insurers would pay out more in such cases compared to car insurance.

I hate this idea that everyone should somehow be the same and avoid risk. The point of public health insurance is to avoid discriminating against those who need care. It's like an insurance policy but everyone pays and "payout" is certain. I don't mind taxing people for their choices (increase the cost of tax for motorcycles, cigarettes, for example), but banning it altogether, or neutering it with a cage? No thanks.

[Zero999]

I don't think taxing motorcycles more than cars will go down very well. They don't wear out the roads like cars do and use less fuel than cars when things such as performance are taken into account (a 125cc bike can do over 100mpg and even a sports bike can get over 50mpg if ridden sensibly) and less time is spent in queues so there's less congestion.

[icon]

Well I for one am very grateful for this video right now.

My son graduated university recently with 2 honors degrees, has a beautiful girlfriend, great very high pay job, brilliant future... and just bought a big bike. For thrills.

I don't seem to be getting through to him regarding why doctors call bikers 'mobile organ donors'.
He's going to watch this whether he likes it or not.

Doctors call bikers 'mobile organ donors' for the same reason that you fear your son riding a motorbike - availability bias. Neither group considers the countless thousands of miles travelled in perfect safety by thousands of motorcyclists. Motorcycling is undoubtedly more dangerous per passenger mile than driving in a car, but then it fulfils a different need, mostly.

If I could respectfully suggest that you would be better off persuading your son to undertake training, develop his observational skills, and above all; ride at a speed that will allow him to stop in the distance he can see to be clear, on his side of the road.

Not sure how we drifted here?

John

[Marco]

Of course it's true, you have less protection on a bike so there's a greater risk of death and injury, if you do have an accident but if you're sensible you'll be fine.

You're on the road with people who are not sensible and no matter the magic of self deception your reaction speed won't get short enough to outsmart their stupidity.

PS. I have no intent to dictate what acceptable risks are to others though, it's just that I think turning the illusion of control into a faith is a bit dangerous ... as people who drive fast are want to do (and consequently motorcyclists).

[TerraHertz]

Doctors call bikers 'mobile organ donors' for the same reason that you fear your son riding a motorbike - availability bias.

I'm quite aware of the large number of cognitive biases.
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cognitive_biases
However I am pretty sure that the statistics of degree of injury per accident will be higher for bikers. Oh, and there's the detail that in my 20s when I was riding a bike I had two close calls that would have killed me if I'd been just slightly less lucky. One was my fault, the other 'random unforeseen event'.

I rode a bike because I couldn't afford any other means of transport. My son bought a bike for purely 'thrills' related reasons, since he could afford to buy pretty much any kind of sensible vehicle he wanted. That's what makes it stupid.
Also I've seen plenty of severe car accidents (including one of mine) where everyone involved just stood around looking sheepish after.  As opposed to the several bike accidents I've seen, in which the biker was dead or close to it.
Oh, and both of the people I know who used to do dirt/trail bike riding, have permanent disability due to major joint injury.
Human body and getting stopped by immovable objects - do not mix well.

Oh, and then there's the inherent risks associated with any hospital stay. One guy I worked with had a minor bike accident, broke his leg, then in hospital got a golden staph infection in the break. Result: over a year of pain and horror. Don't know if he ever fully recovered.

If I could respectfully suggest that you would be better off persuading your son to undertake training, develop his observational skills, and above all; ride at a speed that will allow him to stop in the distance he can see to be clear, on his side of the road.

Of course I have been trying this too. In NSW there's a good motorcycle safety/survival courses run by the police. He's supposedly looking into that, and will probably do it. But still.

The 'clear stopping distance ahead' is a very basic safety rule. But there are plenty of situations where unexpected events and/or stupidity of other drivers makes that irrelevant. It's humanly impossible to predict all eventualities, so survivability when an accident does occur is still a factor. And for bikes, survivability is poor.

He's at that young age, when everything is going brilliantly, and he's maybe getting a feeling that he's invincible.
For instance while on a canyoning trip with him recently, he wanted to jump off a waterfall into a deep but narrow rock pool. Without having much idea of what the walls did out of sight under the water. Probably would have been OK. But a bad idea, that I managed to talk him out of.
Worrying though - that attitude is NOT good, in a motorcyclist.

[G7PSK]

Motor bikes should be banned on the road or at least big ones. I saw a bike hit a car on the drivers door, the bike pushed the door as far as the passengers side seat, the bike rider went over the car and into the top deck of a bus that was stopped at a bus stop. This took place in a 30 mph zone in town at a T junction the bike just came down the road did not stop or brake just went into the side of the car killed the driver seriously injured the front seat passenger and then the rider went through the bus lengthwise and injured a number of passengers. This all happened opposite where I worked at the time in the mid 80's I did not see the bike hit but heard the bang and went out to see straight away so arrived just seconds after the impact. The bike rider was taken away in a black van other than that which would have to hosed out of the bus. Motor bikes are bad news and now they are made so quite they are a menace to any one on foot as well coming around corners as they do at high speed and not being heard until only a few meters away.

[dexters_lab]

Motor bikes should be banned on the road or at least big ones. I saw a bike hit a car on the drivers door, the bike pushed the door as far as the passengers side seat, the bike rider went over the car and into the top deck of a bus that was stopped at a bus stop. This took place in a 30 mph zone in town at a T junction the bike just came down the road did not stop or brake just went into the side of the car killed the driver seriously injured the front seat passenger and then the rider went through the bus lengthwise and injured a number of passengers. This all happened opposite where I worked at the time in the mid 80's I did not see the bike hit but heard the bang and went out to see straight away so arrived just seconds after the impact. The bike rider was taken away in a black van other than that which would have to hosed out of the bus. Motor bikes are bad news and now they are made so quite they are a menace to any one on foot as well coming around corners as they do at high speed and not being heard until only a few meters away.

ridiculous statement. accidents happen, people die, thats life... people can trip, fall and die while walking... ban that too?

[Zero999]

Indeed.

Generally if a motorcyclist has an accident with a car, the biker comes off much worse than the driver. The larger the vehicle the greater the kinetic energy thus there's more of a risk to other road users.

The statement about quiet motorcycles is also nonsense, what about electric cars? Perhaps we should ban them? They don't make any noise at all so are more of a hazard to other road users than a motorbike or a car with a noisy combustion engine.

[JoannaK]

Hi, there's an update video for this out now.