Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

N by J o hn D. Ulric h Everyone who is a regu lar reader of Cy cle Ne ws is fam iliar with th e men at th e Depa rtment of T ran sp ortation . You kn ow w ho they are , th e pe ople wh o have neve r ridden a bike in th eir lives, and want every th ing o n the ro ad to sp o rt air b ags, e xt ended fr ont forks, roll cages, and thirty seven sealed beams. If they all go t th eir way , mo to rcycl es in 1984 would b e to m o to rcy cles in 19 73 what Mack trucks are to H2 Rs, Wit h th at in min d, wh at better way co uld there be to get a laugh filled sp ring vaca tio n than to jump o n a borrowed mot orcycle and cruise to Washin gt on D.C. for the straig h t scoop? Mounted o n a Hond a CB500 an d a Su zuki GT55 0 for fou r da ys (an d m ost of fou r n igh ts), Kevin Geary an d I arrived twenty minutes late at DOT headquarters in Washington fo r a co n ference - with the men in ch arge of the government's activities in the mo torcycling field . Waitin g fo r our arrival were Lew Buchanan, Coordinator of mot or cycl e activ ities in th e DOT's National Highway Traffic Safety Ad min istration , and severa l o f hi s associa tes. Congressman Chet Holifield , the ma n who founded the DOT with legis lation some forty years ago, had arranged ou r appointment. Just about everyone co ncern ed with rnotorcv cles in the DOT was there . tests, when they cras hed a chopper into the side of a vehicle at 30 MPH , t he rear axle experien ced perfec tl y survivable time his to ry in te rms of G force . A t least th ere is so me part o f the veh icle at 30 MPH that co uld h ave su rvive d. T h at 's wh ere th is idea ca me fro m. T he man h as a lo wer CG , there is so me material in fro n t of him , an d I think we co uld save some lives at below 30 MPH whe re a lot o f the crashes are o ccurring. Buchanan again pointed out that "extending front ends and changing the geometry of the fron t. end can subst antia ll y degra de h a n d li n g characteristics of a motorcycle . I asked why the test crash es are all d on e at 3 0 MP H, wh en fe w mo torcy clists spend muc h time at tha t speed. Buchanan sta ted that "Most of the m o torcycle crashes we have had reports o n o ccurred between 2 1 and 30 MPH . We feel that makin g motorcycle crashes suvivable at even 30 MPH is going to be a rather substantial task." U U Helmets . The first questi on asked the asse mbled multit ud es co nc ern ed the effect co nsumer feedback had upon th eir ac tivities. I was thi nki ng of the furor raise d by the abso lute lies Ge ne ral Electric h ad fo r so long adv ertise d abou t Lexan helme ts. While the Federal T rade Co m mission is the place to go with complain ts abo ut false advertising, I was curious how the ran do m safety helme t tests , which p roved t he falsity of the G E ads , came to be . Buchanan answered , "W e starte d th e investigation because of repo rts fro m co ns umers...T hey did men tion that p oly ca rbonate helme ts were sha tte ring, an d th e ad vertising cam pai gns were men tio ned... wit h all of thi s in mind, o ur office did start the in vesti gation and the random helrne t sample test was part of it ." The Office of Crashworthiness One of the experts in attendance was Clyde Roquemore , a Safety Standards E n gineer with the Offi ce of C rashworthiness. He explained h is Office's functi on . "The Office of Crashwo rt hiness is co ncerned wi th writing fede ral standards t hat h ave to do with decr easin g the extent of inju ries an d nu mber of fatalities o nc e an acciden t has o ccurred, in the post crash or regress ' asp ect of the crash ." That includes helmet standards, and his office is on the verge of publishing standards that will put the plastic ch eap o man ufacturers ou t of the b usiness of seIling worthless he lmets. On e area of con t ro versy in the stan dard, the perip herial field of vision req uir e me n t , is st ill not defin it e. It h ad originally been suggested that a 105 degree field was ad eq u ate, bu t agita tio n fo r a 120 degree field of vision has ca use d re-study of the ar ea. Du e to regulations of the Administrative Procedures A ct c o nc e rn i n g advance release of information on forthcoming federal standards, Ro quemore co uld n ot tell me whic h school of tho ugh t will p revail. Kevin Geary (left) looks exha usted after rid ing for several days and night s. Con gressman Chet Ho lifield :founder of the D.C .T., loo ks at th e ea mera. John Ulrieh checks ou t D.C. AIR BAGS,CHOPPERS, ANTI-LOCK BRAKES AND HONDA ELSINORES Bein g a Chronicle Of a Day A t The Department of Transportation diagrams o n a ch alkboard (see Diagram A). " Theo ret ically y o u have a man riding a bar between two wheels, with a high cen ter of gravity, ty pic ally riding in a kind of a crouch , a nd h e imp ac ts so mething . T he m an is s till rid in g so ma ny mil liseco nds la te r. He rips the gas cap off, it in tum rips some things crEf of him. He impacts the vehicle he is hitting with his knees , and t hen co mmence s to go airborne, with petro l being sprayed over his body. The idea o f usin g an extended sp ringer c ame about as fo llows. You put th e fellow do wn in some kind of a recess, so the re is so me tangib le ma terial up in fro n t of him . I don 't call these peanut tanks th ey ha ve on these choppers ta ngi ble materi al. If there we re some way you could lower the man 's CG and get something up in fron t of him that would absorb some of this crash injury, then he would probabl y get closer . to survival. In crash Extended Fr ont Ends T he n ext area of con cern was the m uch read abo u t, little understood idea of using extended fron t ends as energy absorbing mediums in motorcycle crashes. The idea originated a t the UCLA Institute of Traffic and Safety Engineering, and the people at the DOT are well aware of the handling co nsidera tio ns involved. Don Bischoff of the Office of Experimen tal Safety V ehi cl e s , w ho m an a ge s th e Expe r i me n ta l S afe t y M o to rcy cle P r o g r am a n d is Coordi nator of Motorcycle Resea rch , states tha t "We're . certainly goi ng to consider the handling aspects of this." Bu chanan explained that the UCLA resear chers "found a great deal of force from a crash could he abso rbed by t he fron t wheel and fork. We are researchin g to better under stan d wh at h appens in m o to rcycle crash es and wa y s to manage crash forces ." Dr . W illi am Kin g , a n E ng i neeri ng Psyc ho logist wi th th e Office of Ope rating Systems and o ne of the men invo lved in writing the localized co n tr o l standard going into effect in 19 74, is th e chief (an d only) proponent of the extended fork theory that we me t at the DOT. He explained the theory behind t he c o n c e p t , d rawin g su pportin g ,. Bischoff took i t from the re, wi th the information th at the fa tal level of a motorcycle im pa ct, assu ming no slide un der o r fly over, into the side of a car is 30 MPH . " We feel t hat is where the st ate of th e art is. If we we re to jump up to 6 0 or 70 MPH we would be biting o ff a horrendous chun k , since the kinetic energy at 60 MPH is four times as great as at 3 0 MPH . When I say fatalit y, I'm talking ab out head injury du e to brain d am age . Even wearin g a helrne t at 30 MPH in to th e side of a car you canno t su rvive . The only thing we kn ow th at will give en ough protection (to ins ure survivability) is the air bag." The results of a DOT stud y of crash suvival in two states, Michigan wi th a mandatory helmet law, an d Illin ois wi thout, indicates a survival rate inc rease of o ver 50'70 when a hel me t is worn. Along the same line, Roquem ore poin ted ou t t he tre me ndous success helmets h ave in allowing surv ival in accidents requiring abrasio n resistance, su ch as a 10 0 MPH slide out. The st ate of th e art he lme t building allows survival at a linear im pact ' of 13-15 MPH.In a slidi ng get off, th e linear impact ma y o nl y be 9 o r 10 MPH, whic h would be perfectl y survivable with a good helmet. He went on to point out that " some of the (helme t ) co mp an ies have d one some go od development work o n helmets sin ce general publica tio n of inform at ion conce rning helm ets. A lo t of wo rk has been do ne by so me co mp an ies. On the ot her ha nd, t he re are some companies who are trying to floo d the m ar ke t with lower cost hel mets before th e federal standard become s effe ctive. It would behoove the con sume r to try to seek out the better type of helmet, and n o t b e taken advantage of jus t to b uy a helme t because it co sts less at th is time ." : Afte r th e s tan da rd is in fo rce, th e Office of Stan dards Enfo rcemen t will be b uying helmets off the she lf to test for co mp liance. Ro quemore mo ved on to po int out ways in whi ch the Office of Crashworthiness ma y affect the co n d uc t .o f a manufacturer of motorcycles o r accesso rie s. "If our Office of Defects Investigatio n investigates an ite m on a motor vehicle of any kind . perhaps a Ho n da gas ca p, th ey will be awa re an inves tiga tion is go ing o n. On the basis of n o thin g but th at investiga tion they probab ly will change any item that they know of that may be subject to a valid investigation . If the governme nt is looking at so me th in g be cause it has got a good n umber of reports that it is dangerous, o r no t functioning properl y , then the manufacturer often takes that as a fee dback an d starts to ta ke co rrect ive action." The Safety -Cycle D on Bischoff, Manager of the Experimental Safety Motorcycle Program , Coor di nator of M ot orcy cle Research , arid number two E xpert plate holder in D istrict 7 2 50cc motoc ross. - , The same ty pe of occu rrence goes alo ng with the Experime ntal Safe ty Motorcycl e Program. Beca use the go ve rnmen t has de monstrated the feasibility of several project areas on the ESM , major m a n u facturers have undertaken their o wn ESM studies, notably in Japan. A third way the go ve rn me n t affec ts man ufac turers is th e direct regula tory m eth od to be e mployed in th e up comin g helmet standa rd case. Just the n o tice of the co ming standard resulted in so me defect correction in hel me ts . It seems that the though t of t he federal bureaucracy breathing down their neck will spur on even the big co rp o ra tio ns to working o n the ills in their products. One thing we noticed d uring these dis cussions was that all the participants '" & M rCl ~ '" > '" ::; ~ w Z w -' U ~ U

• Cover