marauder@fluke.UUCP (Bill Landsborough) (01/10/86)
Back in the late seventies, Joan Clayworth of the National Highway and Transportation Safety Department felt that too many young people were riding their motorcycles very fast just so they could tell their friends that they went "120 mph!!" So she was the initiator of the law which required all motorcycles and probably as a result, most automobiles, to have 85 mph speedometers. Well everything was going along as planned for several years until 1982 a man traveling at a high rate of speed (over 85) went into a turn and went too wide and crashed off of the outside of the turn. He subsequently sued and won the suit agains the NHTSD for removing his ability to properly judge his approach speed to the turn and therefore cause him to crash. That is why most motorcycles and high performance autos now have real speedometers. Bill Landsborough
animal@ihlpa.UUCP (D. Starr) (01/14/86)
> Back in the late seventies, Joan Clayworth of the National Highway and > Transportation Safety Department felt that too many young people were > riding their motorcycles very fast just so they could tell their > friends that they went "120 mph!!" So she was the initiator of the > law which required all motorcycles and probably as a result, most > automobiles, to have 85 mph speedometers. An interesting story, which I'd not previously heard. Sounds true, though. Two nit-picks: It's Joan ClayBROOK (aka Saint Joan of the Clay Feet), and NHTSA is an administration, not a department. > Well everything was going along as planned for several years until > 1982 a man traveling at a high rate of speed (over 85) went into a > turn and went too wide and crashed off of the outside of the turn. He > subsequently sued and won the suit agains the NHTSD for removing his > ability to properly judge his approach speed to the turn and therefore > cause him to crash. That's got to be the ultimate Bozo Legal Argument (though, considering lawyers, it will undoubtedly be topped). Seems to me that, regardless of how high the instrument goes, some squid could still pin it, crash and sue the manufacturer using the same argument (yep, I was going at least 165, coulda made the turn if I knew I was going 175 instead of 185...). > That is why most motorcycles and high performance autos now have real > speedometers. > > Bill Landsborough I don't know, I kinda liked the 85 mph speedos. Two of my (mid-70's) Jap bikes featured 150 and 160-mph units, which meant that the needle was about 5 mph wide. This was a bit annoying when one is traveling through some little hick town in Kansas with the local cop glued to one's tail. In my experience, I've had no trouble figuring out my speed within about 10% by using the tach when going over 85. I do agree that Saint Joan's reasoning is silly and that the government has no business regulating how high a speedo should read, but it's also nice to have an instrument where the legal speed limit is more than a third of the way up the dial. Maybe what we really need is a 100-mph clock-type speedo (like an airplane altimeter). One of those would be clear and readable up to 1000 mph... Dan Starr
grego@athena.UUCP (Grego Sanguinetti) (01/14/86)
> Back in the late seventies, Joan Clayworth of the National Highway and > Transportation Safety Department felt that too many young people were > riding their motorcycles very fast just so they could tell their > friends that they went "120 mph!!" So she was the initiator of the > law which required all motorcycles and probably as a result, most > automobiles, to have 85 mph speedometers. > Let me think, isn't Joan Clayworth the person that brought us the backwards motorcycle?! (true story!) You see the NHTSD, in their unusual brand of wisdom, properly deduced that motorcycles were inherently unstable since the same (single) wheel that steered the bike also supplied most of it's braking. They then deduced that a better plan would be to steer with the rear (!!) wheel, like a boat. They finally gave up after observing that ALL of their test riders crashed after about 20 feet! I hear that she is now proposing roll bars and seatbelts!!:-) Anybody for airbags!!???!!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?! Kind of makes me wonder what kind of job qualifications are required for placement in the NHTSD, maybe a AA in Library Sciences:-) grego@tektronix These opinions have no bearing on the subject at hand and should therefore be quoted out-of-context.
animal@ihlpa.UUCP (D. Starr) (01/17/86)
> Let me think, isn't Joan Clayworth the person that brought us the > backwards motorcycle?! (true story!) You see the NHTSD, in their > unusual brand of wisdom, properly deduced that motorcycles were > inherently unstable since the same (single) wheel that steered the > bike also supplied most of it's braking. They then deduced that a > better plan would be to steer with the rear (!!) wheel, like a boat. > They finally gave up after observing that ALL of their test riders > crashed after about 20 feet! There is more to this story. After spending over $50,000 of the taxpayers' money on this thing, the NHTSA theorized that the reason nobody could ride it was that they already knew how to ride the "wrong" type of bike (i. e., the one that steered with the front wheel), and if they could only find a test subject who'd never learned to ride a motorcycle (or bicycle!), that person would be safer on the backwards bike. > I hear that she is now proposing roll bars and seatbelts!!:-) > Anybody for airbags!!???!!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?! As a matter of fact, I remember reading something about airbags for bikes, back around '79 or '80. A safety expert in England seriously proposed an airbag to be built into the front of a motorcycle jacket. The thing was supposed to go off when you flew off the bike in a crash, and cushion your impact with the ground. Unfortunately, they couldn't find anyone willing to test it. *** REPLACE THIS LINE WITH YOUR MESSAGE ***
dob@ihmax.UUCP (dan o'brien) (01/18/86)
> > Let me think, isn't Joan Clayworth the person that ... > > ... > > I hear that she is now proposing roll bars and seatbelts!!:-) > > Anybody for airbags!!???!!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?! > > As a matter of fact, I remember reading something about airbags for bikes, > back around '79 or '80. A safety expert in England seriously proposed > an airbag to be built into the front of a motorcycle jacket. The thing ^^^^^ > was supposed to go off when you flew off the bike in a crash, and cushion > your impact with the ground... But sometimes you fall a** over ears and end up on your back :-! -- --- Daniel M. O'Brien (ihnp4!ihmax!dob) AT&T Bell Laboratories IH 4A-257, x 4782 Naperville-Wheaton Road Naperville, IL 60566