Im sorry if this has been gone over, but i want to ask what people in here do about stop lights. Do you find that the bike with the motor is enough to trip the switch or is something else needed? The inductive loop sensors are not usually sensitive enough here to trip for a bike, ive use standard bikes, electric and gas bikes and none of them seem to have enough metallic mass to trip the sensors. Ive heard a magnet on the bottom of your pedal works but have not tried it and have heard it does not work. Any tricks or solutionsl?
Stop lights
- Thread starter Greenbiker
- Start date
There are a few solutions:
First, check your traffic laws! In SC, a motorcyclist is allowed to go through a red light if there are no cars and he has waited 120 seconds.
Place a strong rare earth magnet under the bottom bracket. Also, don't stop IN the loop. Stop on the loop. Position your frame such that the frame is directly over the cut in the asphalt. Use this combination of magnets and frame placement, and it works well.
Your other option is to turn off the engine, get off the bike, and walk over to the sidewalk and push the crosswalk button, if so equipped.
(Or... just do like the spandex crowd does and blow through it and flip off people as they almost hit you. I don't recommend this method)
First, check your traffic laws! In SC, a motorcyclist is allowed to go through a red light if there are no cars and he has waited 120 seconds.
Place a strong rare earth magnet under the bottom bracket. Also, don't stop IN the loop. Stop on the loop. Position your frame such that the frame is directly over the cut in the asphalt. Use this combination of magnets and frame placement, and it works well.
Your other option is to turn off the engine, get off the bike, and walk over to the sidewalk and push the crosswalk button, if so equipped.
(Or... just do like the spandex crowd does and blow through it and flip off people as they almost hit you. I don't recommend this method)
Getting out of my neighborhood in a car takes 120 seconds. You could almost listen to the Beatles do 'Hey Jude' in that time. Many of us end up running the red light because we get tired of sitting and waiting when there is no traffic. I've seen cops, school buses and residents run the light.
My bikes will not trip the loop so unless there is a car there I come to a complete stop then run the light but I make sure there is no conflict with traffic.
Let common sense prevail.
Tom
My bikes will not trip the loop so unless there is a car there I come to a complete stop then run the light but I make sure there is no conflict with traffic.
Let common sense prevail.
Tom
Yeah my state is to my knowledge a run if safe state, i will have to vheck but i read you dont have to stop at all if there are no other cars present, that seems hinky to me though, may have gotten bad interpretation on that one. Its mot so much for low traffic situations, but for normal traffic situations. I have been at the head of the line to make a left turn at an intersection several times, scooting up into the cross walk trying to get the idiot in the car behind me to inch up onto the sensor so the traffic control computer will register a car and let that lane go. Its no big deal if there is a car in the corresponding lane for the other direction because then we both get to to, but when no one is coming from the other direction, ive seen my lane get skipped at least once. Plus, id just like to be able to use the light like everyone else, that way no jerkface cop tries to hassle me for blowing the light. One less worry.
I know that the semsors are inductive loops and someone was doing am article about them saying that a bicycle wheel sideways (laying down flat) across the semsor would trip it. Ive seen a kick starter for a batrery powered device on the chainstay that is a loop of wire that emmits an em field capable of tripping the sensors, i wondering of a wire or thin foil impregnated tire liner would have enough of a signature to do it. I think that by the time i get the motor, motor mount plate, heavy steel rims, and drum brakes on there, and the steel frame, it will be enough to trip it. We will see.
If you don't have a Maxwell Smart shoe phone then I would suggest you carve a little circle in the heel of your shoe and epoxy in a rare earth magnet. Then just put your feet down in or on the loop.
Haven't tried this but am planning to.
good luck and let us know if it works.
Haven't tried this but am planning to.
good luck and let us know if it works.
Some will trip and others won't. You learn which are which pretty fast.
If 500 pounds of Triumph Bonneville with steel rims won't trip them a motorized bicycle won't either.
If 500 pounds of Triumph Bonneville with steel rims won't trip them a motorized bicycle won't either.
its 50/50 in my area.
and its totally illegal to run a red here... period.
i run the bicycle lanes, so im usually close to a crosswalk button.. i just lean over and hit it if im at one that doesnt trip for me.
there is some around here that are noise activated, i just rev the engine a few times.
and its totally illegal to run a red here... period.
i run the bicycle lanes, so im usually close to a crosswalk button.. i just lean over and hit it if im at one that doesnt trip for me.
there is some around here that are noise activated, i just rev the engine a few times.
I think there must be something to do with the way the induction loops are installed and maybe even how deep in the pavement they are. And I wonder if they have to be calibrated some way.
There are five or six intersections in town (Southwest and Kentucky, 10th and something - out past 465, those come to mind) where any vehicle which has more ground clearance than an average car, like my minivan or a truck or SUV, does not trip the light. I've waited over 5 minutes at the Kentucky light just to test the theory. But as soon as a car comes *boom* yellow for cross-traffic then green for me. Unfortunately, Indiana is not one of those "run it if safe" states. If there's a cop getting coffee at the corner gas station and he sees you make anything but a right turn, you are just screwed.
But it seems rare earth magnets placed as-low-as-possible on the bike frame really do trip the light. I got some out of a bunch of old hard drives. They're kinda half-circle shaped. If you poke around inside a hard drive with a steel screwdriver, you'll locate the magnets pretty quick. They have oooomph! So if you got some old hard drives that you're done with then, before you take them to the tox drop, harvest the magnets. Just don't let your fingers come between them and steel. You'll regret that.
There are five or six intersections in town (Southwest and Kentucky, 10th and something - out past 465, those come to mind) where any vehicle which has more ground clearance than an average car, like my minivan or a truck or SUV, does not trip the light. I've waited over 5 minutes at the Kentucky light just to test the theory. But as soon as a car comes *boom* yellow for cross-traffic then green for me. Unfortunately, Indiana is not one of those "run it if safe" states. If there's a cop getting coffee at the corner gas station and he sees you make anything but a right turn, you are just screwed.
But it seems rare earth magnets placed as-low-as-possible on the bike frame really do trip the light. I got some out of a bunch of old hard drives. They're kinda half-circle shaped. If you poke around inside a hard drive with a steel screwdriver, you'll locate the magnets pretty quick. They have oooomph! So if you got some old hard drives that you're done with then, before you take them to the tox drop, harvest the magnets. Just don't let your fingers come between them and steel. You'll regret that.
