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A motorcycle's threat to a car. The damage your bike can do.

Momentum = Mass x Velocity One simple, basic formula to remember.

+1 on the smaller impact surface on bike than on a car - more concentrated impact force. Think of putting a nail to the wall compared to hitting a hammer to the wall.

The way I see it, yes, the car have a better likelihood to survive an accident vs. a bike, but no matter what it'll be damaged and it will cost money to fix, not to mention time.

No matter what an accident is a costly unfortunate event.

I'd say even post the minor accidents you can find and try to elaborate the cost involved in it.
 
Ya know, thanks, because I really had zero idea what a 400 pound missile would do. I did get a clue when one of the other posters showed a moto tearing a small dear into pieces, and the moto just shook a little.

The above photos give me a major reality check. Thanks again.
 
some yrs ago from another forum:

...a female riding a friends R1 had the rear step out on her due gravel and then highsided into the path of an oncoming 4WD. The 4WD managed to avoid her but had the bike go underneath and then explode. She went off the edge of the hill and rolled down the gully.

Speaking with the rider last night she's gotten off really well with just a broken collarbone. Here are a few pics of the aftermath (taken by the people in the 4WD)...
Click to expand...


pic1

pic2

pic3

pic4

pic5

pic6

pic7

pic8

pic9

pic20
 
I wouldn't want to be in one of the two cars that got t-boned.

That has to be seriously excessive speed.
 
Last year I handled a SM that literally drove OVER a little Mercedes. Just about decapitated the passenger and totaled a 55K car.
The rider escaped death but with only state limits in place $5000 property/$15000 Bodily Injury he doesn't even start to mitigate the damage to the other property and life he destroyed.
Cause of accident: Crossing double yellow to pass another car.
The pictures aren't my property to post so I wion't but yes bikes can cause severe damage.
 
zimi... said:
some yrs ago from another forum:
Click to expand...


I don't see anything in there that couldn't be directly linked. No injured people or gore, just a burning car.
Does look bad though. The people were lucky to get out of the car before it went up, and the motorcyclist was lucky to be thrown clear.
 
^

just mindful of the 56k users out there:teeth

another:

...A witness said the man was racing a second motorcycle on Buford Highway near North Druid Hills Road when he slammed into a car. Investigators said the motorcycles may have been traveling as fast as 100 miles per hour at the time.
Click to expand...

The witness added that the other cyclist circled back to look at the scene before riding away...

0761482636_mccrash2-061407.jpg
 
scout said:
The above photos give me a major reality check. Thanks again.
Click to expand...

yes that's "reality" at it's finest. Don't be the guy doing 140mph on city streets and you'll be fine.
 
I read somewhere, that the honda inside the red car, was going somewhere around 220fps, which I will roughly translate into im guessing 180mph.
 
caponerd said:
That has to be seriously excessive speed.
Click to expand...

+1

Yeah motorcycles can act like missiles on impact...

when you go as fast as a missile.

Under normal conditions, if you're doing 45 in the city and you t-bone a car, it seems incredibly unlikely that you'd cause the kind of carnage these images show.
 
About a year ago, I was driving up Balboa street on one of my ratbikes when a guy in an older Camry pulled out of a parking spot into a left/U turn right in front of me. He didn't signal, obviously didn't look behind him. I was wearing all my gear and I guess I didn't think I could stop in time, maybe I was right, but my first instinct was to ditch. I jumped off the bike and it ghost-rode right into the driver's side door. I've gotten pretty good at falling off a skateboard so I didn't get hurt, tumbled a little bit but didn't scuff my helmet. I destroyed his door, shattered the glass in the window which was rolled down, knocked his seat off the tracks. My forks, oddly, seem to be straight. This was at about 30 mph.

When I told him I wasn't hurt, and my bike was always such a p.o.s., he didn't want to exchange insurance info and neither did I. My gauge cluster got smashed, but I've never had a speedo on there, and I only ever used it as a place to put my CC Rider Tow sticker with phone number. My right clip-on was bent back about 45 degrees and my right mirror totally disappeared. I'm guessing it went through his open window. I rode it home, but I haven't ridden it since. Anyone want a fixer-upper GPZ550?

And I know, I know, pics or it didn't happen...:twofinger shutup.
 
Here's a picture I took a few years ago. Fortunately, nobody was seriously hurt.
 

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iehawk said:
Momentum = Mass x Velocity One simple, basic formula to remember.

+1 on the smaller impact surface on bike than on a car - more concentrated impact force. Think of putting a nail to the wall compared to hitting a hammer to the wall.

The way I see it, yes, the car have a better likelihood to survive an accident vs. a bike, but no matter what it'll be damaged and it will cost money to fix, not to mention time.

No matter what an accident is a costly unfortunate event.

I'd say even post the minor accidents you can find and try to elaborate the cost involved in it.
Click to expand...
A more important equation is:

Energy = Mass X Velocity Squared

In other words, the energy (kinetic) of a motorcycle going 100 mph is 4 times the energy of a motorcycle going 50 mph, and the energy of a motorcycle going 150 mph is 9 times the energy of a motorcycle going 50 mph!

So, getting hit by a 400 lb motorcycle motorcycle going 150 mph will carry the same amount of energy as getting hit by 3600 lb car going 50 mph, and the motorcycle will do more damage because the force will be located in a smaller cross-section and we aren't even talking about the energy of the rider.
 
Climber said:
A more important equation is:

Energy = Mass X Velocity Squared

In other words, the energy (kinetic) of a motorcycle going 100 mph is 4 times the energy of a motorcycle going 50 mph, and the energy of a motorcycle going 150 mph is 9 times the energy of a motorcycle going 50 mph!

So, getting hit by a 400 lb motorcycle motorcycle going 150 mph will carry the same amount of energy as getting hit by 3600 lb car going 50 mph, and the motorcycle will do more damage because the force will be located in a smaller cross-section and we aren't even talking about the energy of the rider.
Click to expand...

that's good info right there. I'm sure i'll manipulate it later on to serve my own purpose. :D
 
Some of these pictures, also shatter the delusion of what so many cagers have said to me. "I'd never ride a motorcycle, at least in a car, you have all this protection around you". Yeah right, like a can of creamed corn has protection till the can opener arrives.
 
iehawk said:
Momentum = Mass x Velocity One simple, basic formula to remember.
Click to expand...

High School Physics Police...

Momentum is all well and good, but what you're seeing in these pictures is the result of kinetic energy, which is 0.5 x Mass x Velocity**2. Crashing into something going 100mph dissipates 4x as much energy as crashing into something going 50mph.

At 100mph your 500lb motorcycle/rider combination is going to pack the whallop of a small car going 50, concentrated on a much smaller area. At 200mph you'll enjoy the (brief) satisfaction of stopping a Suburban in its tracks...

-Scott
 
Ah yes, but what about at 205 ?

I can remember my own dad expressing amazement that the cost of insuring my motorcycles wasn't even lower than in was back in '81 because " you aren't likely to cause anybody ELSE much harm with that thing..." - and while that IS mostly true, it hardly matters to the innocent bystander that gets a Hayabusa to the forehead - didn't you see the first part of Biker Boys ?
 
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