"Dead Man" switch ?

[trikester]

On both of the trikes I built from Yamaha TW200's (see profile photo) I put in a dead man switch which I clip to my belt every time I ride. It has a coiled cord that would pull a clip out of the switch if pulled tight. I'm surprised that the Spyder doesn't have this, at least as an option. With a trike it is possible to be thrown off and the trike would continue on without a driver, becoming a potentially deadly machine to someone else. Not a problem with two wheels because it wouldn't stay upright very long.

The dead man switches I used are sold for racing ATV's where they are required by the racing organizations, in order to race. I wired them in parallel with the kill switches on those trikes. The Spyder is a much more complicated machine so I don't know if that could be done without affecting something else.

What do others think about this? :chat:

Frank

 

[VIspyderman]

Oh yeah, so now instead of just waiting the couple of seconds for the scrolling message... you want to plug yourself in too? Actually, as crazy as it sounds... your argument of the rolling three wheel running into someone... well, it could happen! Of course, it would have to be something weird to have happened for someone to just fall off.

 

[NancysToy]

Never thought about this, but you are right. My race bikes have always had them, of course. I would wire in series with the handlebar kill switch. Need a Spyder wiring diagram, though.
-Scotty

 

[Twodog185]

If I'm about to fall off Miss Muffet (pulling multiple G's in a turn and coming face to face with a moose), my personal medical bills will likely dwarf any resulting damage my Miss Muffet is likely to cause.

 

[trikester]

I didn't mention it in my original post but my motivation for putting the switch on my first dual sport trike was bouncing over very rough terrain and thinking that if I got bounced off, my trike could keep going and I could watch it either leave without me or worse yet go over the side and into a canyon.

However, once I had the switches I found it to be a good idea to use them when road riding also. Unlike the post about "one more thing to do when starting the trike", I don't find it to be nearly as much of a bother as the message crawling across the screen. BTW - I always cut that short by hitting the mode switch, as soon as the gauges return to zero.

When I'm about to get on one of my other "TWTrikes" I just pick up the end of the small coiled cord and using the clip on the end, I clip it to a ring on my belt - it's no big deal. The coiled cord is long enough, when stretched out, to allow me to move around the trike without pulling the pin out of the switch.

Frank