Being seen

[RickWB]

Hello:

I went for a demo test on a Ryker. I wear a hi-vis jacket; my helmet is white/red/black. I was heading down the road, slowly, toward a stop sign. On my right, entering the road from a fuel station, was a large dump truck. As I do with my two-wheeler, I am always looking for hazards. The dump truck did finally stop. I asked the dealer about increasing visibility, and he put on an after market exhaust system. I think that would work at higher engine speeds, but not so at slow speeds.

What are you folks doing for increasing your visibility to other motorists?

Thanks,
Rick

[RICZ]

Colored gear and white modular helmet. Bike has 8 lights on the front, flashing brake lites in rear and a pair loud horns. Sorry for the upside down photo.
HORN PROJECT 11.jpg
ROWAN & LIGHTS 5.jpg

[Copperman]

Hello:

I went for a demo test on a Ryker. I wear a hi-vis jacket; my helmet is white/red/black. I was heading down the road, slowly, toward a stop sign. On my right, entering the road from a fuel station, was a large dump truck. As I do with my two-wheeler, I am always looking for hazards. The dump truck did finally stop. I asked the dealer about increasing visibility, and he put on an after market exhaust system. I think that would work at higher engine speeds, but not so at slow speeds.

What are you folks doing for increasing your visibility to other motorists?

Thanks,
Rick

Don't waste your money on a loud muffler. That only benefits the dealer. Upgrading your horn is far more beneficial.

[Peteoz]

A louder muffler on a CanAm will increase your “visibility” when you are slowly approaching an intersection? I think your dealer just made a few bucks at your expense, Rick.

If a driver approaching an intersection didn’t see you, on a three wheeler, with dual lights, wearing hi vis and a bright helmet, it is highly likely he wouldn’t see a car either. More and higher lighting like Ricz mentioned helps, but it probably wouldn’t have in this particular case. He was just an inattentive driver. Keep constantly looking for hazards as you already do, whether you are on one, two, three or four or thirty-six wheels. That’s when a loud horn really helps.

Pete

[canamryder]

Brighter Led head lights would help out. And possibly more lights mounted on the front. Eye contact is important but with all the dark tinted windows on drivers side windows that's impossible.

[ARtraveler]

Awareness is your best friend. Drive like they don't see you or are out to get you. Sometimes they don't see you or worse.

Dressing for visibility is good...if they see you. We even have yellow and orange colored Spyders...but always in the back of my mind is the statement..."I never saw them."

RE: Loud mufflers...they mostly make people mad IMO, and are not helpful in your case.

I like the suggestion of a horn upgrade though.

[Markubis]

I replaced my horn with a better one. The default horn is a joke.

I also replaced the curved reflectors on the two front wheels with the led lights from slingmods. These alone are worth every penny. Not only do they increase visibility when turning, they are also lit up while the bike is running....giving a huge advantage for being seen from the front side a nd back.

https://www.slingmods.com/canam-ryke...nals?vehicle=4

[SpyderAnn01]

It is a matter of being seen, not being heard. Invest in high biz gear and added lighting. Also take a safety class if you haven’t already. Sign up here https://can-am.brp.com/on-road/us/en...istration.html

[nightcruiser]

Headlight modulator. I use Kissen. Been using them on many different bikes They do make a difference. You will notice it the first day

[BLUEKNIGHT911]

Hello:

I went for a demo test on a Ryker. I wear a hi-vis jacket; my helmet is white/red/black. I was heading down the road, slowly, toward a stop sign. On my right, entering the road from a fuel station, was a large dump truck. As I do with my two-wheeler, I am always looking for hazards. The dump truck did finally stop. I asked the dealer about increasing visibility, and he put on an after market exhaust system. I think that would work at higher engine speeds, but not so at slow speeds.

What are you folks doing for increasing your visibility to other motorists?

Thanks,
Rick

Dumb A** dealer ..... what would they suggest for Fire Trucks ???? .... I was an LEO and those trucks got hit too ..... there is no cure for stupid drivers ..... Even when I'm in a cage veh.... I'm always looking for the idiot driver ......JMHO .... Mike

[Marr]

Flashing brake lights

[Bottomline2000]

Don't waste your money on a loud muffler. That only benefits the dealer. Upgrading your horn is far more beneficial.

If you ride in the big city sometimes its hard to get proper spacing traffic. It's easy to be missed and be in someone's blind spot. No amount of high viz gear is going to let the person in a cage know you are there. I will downshift sometimes when i see someone seems like they are not aware of me being next to them and that helps them hear me, but does nothing for someone I'm approaching. As a ryder I assume no one sees me so i don't take anyone for granted and assume they will do the right thing. Keep your head on a swivel.. Now if just recently brightened up my gear some as i went with a brighter helmet, white with black accents but definitely more visible than my black pearl one and a light grey jacket with more high viz piping. I also have an LED light kit on my spyder. I can change the colors i run and it's linked to my brakes so when i hit the brakes the entire underside of the spyder glows red. As far as forward visibility a lot of guys run their high beams regardless of time of day.

[jaherbst]

Headlight modulator. I use Kissen. Been using them on many different bikes They do make a difference. You will notice it the first day

Those things annoy the hell out of me and many others. Get brighter lights and a flashing stop light to keep from getting rear ended which happen more often than getting hit head on.

Jack

[Peter Aawen]

Have you ever noticed that you often don't hear a Police car with its siren on approaching from behind until it's pretty much right there looming large in your rear vision mirrors?? Even when the sound is bloody loud & being projected forward & ahead of the approaching vehicle, chances are that if the speed difference is enough or you aren't actively listening for it, you won't hear it soon enough to notice & react to those sirens until they're almost right on top of you, so why would the average inattentive driver hear a 'waaay quieter' loud pipe when you're approaching from behind/the side - they just don't, and except in a few specific and very close circumstances, the 'loud pipes save lives' thing is largely just an excuse for pissing some people off!

Besides, lights & sirens & loud pipes & horns etc don't really help you be seen/noticed by many of the 'thumb in bum, mind in neutral' drivers out there, and that's not even taking into account the 'distracted' drivers or the 'sensorarily distorted, drugged, or just plain ignorant' drivers that're out there too!! Besides, more &/or brighter lights tend to work best at improving your 'noticeability' when you are 200 yards or so away than they do when you're close up & within 20 yards or so! Once you get within that 'critical distance' where being seen or not avoids or makes a collision more likely, added lights, especially any of those below the 'normal vehicle headlight' height, just don't really do much for you, except maybe increase the number of sharp & shattered bits that can end up being driven forcibly into your body!!

There's this thing called 'situational blindness' that many vehicle drivers suffer from (and even some motorcyclists &/or Spyder/Ryker riders too! ) - basically & briefly, people tend not to see anything they don't EXPECT to see in that situation UNLESS it's really different to what they'd normally expect; moving in a way they wouldn't normally expect; &/or doing something well outside of what they'd normally expect!!

So while carrying a Blue Whale or an African Elephant around as your pillion might make you more noticeable, and maybe bright FLASHING strobe type lights might make a little bit of a difference too, generally, the number & brightness of any extra lights fitted to your Spyder/Ryker is unlikely to do the same!! Similarly, loud exhausts really don't do much for you re being noticed by other drivers/road users; and loud horns rely on you being able to sound them long enough & early enough for that 'thumb in bum, mind in neutral' driver to (slowly) become aware that there's a different noise out there somewhere, then (slowly) react & (slowly) look around to (slowly) work out where the noise is coming from, before (slowly) becoming aware that they've just pulled into the space you are less than 30 feet away from and heading for at 50mph and then finally (but STILL slowly) reacting and starting to do something about it!! Do you really think you'll always get enough time/warning for your loud horn to make that much of a difference??

All of which means it doesn't really matter all that much in the overall scheme of things what you do in the way of lights or loud exhausts or hi-vis gear, altho every little bit might help, but only a LITTLE!! In the end, it all comes back to YOU driving/ryding like they're all out to get you, and believe me, they ARE, even if for most, it's not knowingly or maliciously (but there are also some of them out there who fall into both of those categories too! ) YOU hafta take personal responsibility for ryding your machine safely and avoiding being hit &/or run off the road by any other road user because the reality of it all is that in any collision &/or 'coming together', no matter how gently or benign it may be, YOU & your machine are going to come off second best!! (Well, maybe not if it's a toddler in a pedal car! )

So at the risk of repeating something many of you already know & do, it's down to you to be aware of all the other idiots out there, and to ride in such a way that they are more likely to see/notice you BEFORE you are too close for either of you to avoid that impending collision, and you can't rely on them to do so anyway!! Things like moving from side to side in your lane instead of remaining steady & potentially hidden (they'll see something moving across their vision before noticing something steady!), putting your turn signals on well before initiating a turn, keeping out of other vehicles blind spots, flashing your headlights to make sure oncoming/turning vehicles have seen you, maybe dabbing your brakes so the brake light flashes a couple of times before you really start slowing down, and if you can, extending your awareness out further so that you are effectively riding with a larger 'safety buffer' around you than anyone else on the road!! Look waay ahead at where you want to go, be alert for potential trouble spots & maybe even consider what you might need to do to avoid being hit by the idiot who ignores everyone else and all the road rules besides - be alert, ride aware, and always assume that they ARE out to get you!

This doesn't mean you can't enjoy your ride, it only means that you need to concentrate on it and be aware of what's going on ALL AROUND you ALL THE TIME so that you can react in time to Stay Safe & Ryde Well!

[bhern]

What are you folks doing for increasing your visibility to other motorists?

Agree with the others on replacing the horn -- just haven't gotten around to it yet.

So people ahead of me can see me:
- SpyderPops LED Bumpskid
- SpyderPops Spyclops II LED

So people behind me can see me:
- Brake Free Helmet Light

So people anywhere can see me:
- SpyderPops Full View Turn Signals
- Hi-Vis Jersey/Jacket (depending upon weather and temp)

And of course, so I can Google their license plate after they DON'T see me:
- Lamonster RAM mount/Techmount TechGripper

What Peter said is really the most important part: always assume the worst of the other drivers -- they'll rarely disappoint you...

[Gwolf]

Ride like you are invisible. No matter what you do, some of them are not going to see you. They are not looking for you.

[ARtraveler]

with jaherbst about the modulators. Just like loud mufflers they are annoying to me. An annoyed cage driver might want to make an issue about it.

I had HID lights on my 2008 and even on low beam they were very bright. A driver tried to run me off the road to "teach me a lesson."

[UtahPete]

Ride like you are invisible. No matter what you do, some of them are not going to see you. They are not looking for you.

. Fortunately braking and swerving are much easier and safer than on 2 wheels.

[stmike 1800]

The main reason they can not see us is they are looking at there PHONE.

[bikerbillone]

It is a matter of being seen, not being heard. Invest in high biz gear and added lighting. Also take a safety class if you haven’t already. Sign up here https://can-am.brp.com/on-road/us/en...istration.html

So Ann, do you plan to get the BRP plug and play LED for the front of your 2020? I've given it some thought, but not sure it is worth the expense, what say you?

[WisconsinDavid]

I put extra bright led's in my fog lamps on my older spyder. Friends I ride with noticed the difference immediately. They said, "This year I can see you when you are behind me." But the best advice is what you are doing. Never assume anyone sees you. Ride like you are invisible. There are so many distracted drivers with their attention elsewhere. There are so many with heads down looking at phones or fiddling with new car electronics. Distractions like that can create drivers even more unsafe to share the road with than drunks. If ever there was a day for defensive riding, today is it. Enjoy the wind and ride safe.

[ThreeWheels]

I just got the 2020 RTL. The headlights are already bright LEDs, and the factory included a High Mount Brake Light on the rear trunk.
I just bought Spyderpops vision package to light up the red side markers on the rear bags and the amber side markers on the front fenders. The package also adds strip lights for the mirrors. The stock RTL only has low mount turn signals on the front of the fenders.
Since all the rallies have been canceled here, I'll be doing the install myself.

[bikerbillone]

ThreeWheels, I was thinking that SpyderPops will be in Deland come September, I hope, I can them to do my 2020 RTL since I am not very good at these installs. I visualize that this lighting upgrade will work very nicely for safety.

[ThreeWheels]

ThreeWheels, I was thinking that SpyderPops will be in Deland come September, I hope, I can them to do my 2020 RTL since I am not very good at these installs. I visualize that this lighting upgrade will work very nicely for safety.

Thanks for the heads up !
My daughter lives in Ormand Beach. I'll be heading down there in the next few months, but I'll have the lights installed before then.

[Nico75]

Hi. Peteoz. Many years ago we hade a Gold Wing with as many lights on it as a xmas tree and a car pulled out of a junction l braked and he said sorry I didn’t see you So no matter what you do , as in life it’s all down to LUCK regards nico 75