Brand new and already smacked up!

[Fred W]

I'm having a hard time believing that the color of the FJR has much at all to do with its front or rear visibility, or that one color (gray/silver) is more dangerous than another. The amount of cowling visible to a car's driver from the front and rear is small, and the noticeability of the colored plastic is far less than even the stock headlights and running lights. What the driver sees are the headlights, the rider's jacket and the helmet, and a small amount of colored plastic. Looking at the FJR color choices, only the Cobalt Blue seems to be a "bright" color--the various grays/silvers, the Raven Black, the Galaxy Blue and the Black Cherry are all rather subdued, not bright at all. Certainly nothing like that God-awful Harley orange color.
Try this: Put your Feej on its centerstand, ignition and headlights on (not on bright), modulate if you have it, and turn on any ancillary lights. Then walk 40-50 yards away and notice what catches your attention. Lights or cowling color? Try the same from the rear, using a rubber band to apply the front brake if needed. Again, how much of the plastic do you notice? In either situation, if a rider on the bike was wearing bright colors or any jacket with reflective surfaces, would the bike color be even noticeable? Perhaps in the side aspect it would, but even then reflective tape would be even more noticeable at night, and the rider's apparel would be more important at any time of day. If you think your bike's color scheme is an important part of visibility then we should try to get a group buy together for Highway Road Worker Fluorescent Green plastic paint.

I would be very interested to see some data about this if any has been published. At this point, I would say to buy the color of bike that you like or get a great price on, then farkle up with extra lights, modulated lights front and back, reflective plastic tape on the sides, and wear brightly colored jackets and helmets. And then stay alert and expect a deadly move at any time by the cars on the road with you.

Disclaimer: Yeah, I've a gray FJR, it has so many swell shades of gray and black, but I don't think this is wishful thinking on my part.

It's just my 1.7 yen's worth...

Although I'm the perpetrator of that concept, I agree with you. From head on, or directly behind you, the lights are far more eye catching than the bike's color. Or the rider's jacket or helmet, or... you get the idea.

Now repeat your experiment above, but viewing your gray bike directly from the side. Them lights don't help hardly 't all. In the daylight you'd be hard pressed to tell if they are even on. Therefore, without any sort of semi-scientific data, one could boldly assume that the color of the bike, rider, helmet, etc. being in contrast to the background will have a radical effect on conspicuousness. And a car making a left turn in front of you would have a somewhat oblique view where those headlights aren't shining directly towards them.

You can look "cool", or you can be visible. We all make our bets, spin the wheel and take our chances.

 

[capttwb]

Good to hear you are not hurt. I would imagine a left hand turn in front of a motorcyclist is one of the leading causes of motorcycle accidents. I like the idea of the modulator to prevent left turns in front of you. Anyone that has been riding awhile has experienced the dreaded left turn with no signal or warning. Some drivers even make eye contact and pull right out in front of you. I chased down a couple of women who nearly took me out, caught up with them at a redlight. I asked the driver why she pulled out in front of me, she said she DID NOT see me. She was extremely sorry and upset, I truly believe in her mind she not see me, even though we made eye contact, she was in a conversation with the other girl. We must never assume a motorist "see's us". Hope you get the bike fixed.

 

[Wee Willy]

...Why on earth did she not get a ticket? She was clearly in violation of your right of way.

Yeah...this is a big deal to me. Remorse or not, she deserves to have that on her record...and for assistance when you are dealing with the damage to your bike.

She didn't get a ticket because it was only one of those damn annoying bikers that she almost killed. No harm done. :angry2:

Damn but that Guinness is looking pretty good.

W2

 

[FargoFeej]

I found something on this subject in a Bing search for hi-vis clothing. A study of several hundred bike crashes from New Zealand. Emphasis mine.

Objective: To investigate whether the risk of motorcycle crash related injuries is associated with the conspicuity of the driver or vehicle.

Design: Population based case-control study.

Setting: Auckland region of New Zealand from February 1993 to February 1996.

Participants: 463 motorcycle drivers (cases) involved in crashes leading to hospital treatment or death; 1233 motorcycle drivers (controls) recruited from randomly selected roadside survey sites.

Main outcome measures: Estimates of relative risk of motorcycle crash related injury and population attributable risk associated with conspicuity measures, including the use of reflective or fluorescent clothing, headlight operation, and colour of helmet, clothing, and motorcycle.

Results: Crash related injuries occurred mainly in urban zones with 50 km/h speed limit (66%), during the day (63%), and in fine weather (72%). After adjustment for potential confounders, drivers wearing any reflective or fluorescent clothing had a 37% lower risk (multivariate odds ratio 0.63, 95% confidence interval 0.42 to 0.94) than other drivers. Compared with wearing a black helmet, use of a white helmet was associated with a 24% lower risk (multivariate odds ratio 0.76, 0.57 to 0.99). Self reported light coloured helmet versus dark coloured helmet was associated with a 19% lower risk. Three quarters of motorcycle riders had their headlight turned on during the day, and this was associated with a 27% lower risk (multivariate odds ratio 0.73, 0.53 to 1.00). No association occurred between risk and the frontal colour of drivers' clothing or motorcycle. If these odds ratios are unconfounded, the population attributable risks are 33% for wearing no reflective or fluorescent clothing, 18% for a non-white helmet, 11% for a dark coloured helmet, and 7% for no daytime headlight operation.

Conclusions: Low conspicuity may increase the risk of motorcycle crash related injury. Increasing the use of reflective or fluorescent clothing, white or light coloured helmets, and daytime headlights are simple, cheap interventions that could considerably reduce motorcycle crash related injury and death.