Bike colours? | GTAMotorcycle.com

Bike colours?

bengali548

bengali548

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so a lot of bikers are scared of "cagers" but in my first season of driving i've been in a lot of near crash incidences but 90% of the time i was behind or beside the car in question. but even when im in front cars stop RIGHT behind my tail which is why i usually tuck myself beside the car infront of me

i have a bit of a theory i would like to share. my 08 ninja 250 is black but my outfit is white therefore causing a contrast. something people will remember or notice. however, i believe that if i had a purely black outfit with a black bike that people would not notice me in the sense that i would be forgotten quite easily. in the mundane task of daily driving we see a plethora of cars where the colours are mostly silver, black , or metallic colours (even colours such as red, royal blue, and garbage green are seen quite often).

what im trying to say is that we'll forget about the black DB9 (aston martin if you dont watch top gear :p) but the thought of the pink honda civic with graphics and hello kitty seat belts will stay in our heads.

so would i be wrong to assume that a bike thats flashy(colours like white, yellow, pink, purple), loud, and with graphics all over the place has a less likely chance of getting into an accident than the generic bike colours (black, red, blue, grey, green)

oppinions? thoughts?
 
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My bike is black/blue, my gear is all black and I haven't had any close calls as of yet. (knock on wood)
I'm constantly scanning the roads, not staying in cagers' blind spot, not following dumb drivers, constantly doing shoulder checks, etc... and so far it's working well.
It doesn't matter if your bike is fluorescent green with matching gear, if you're in a cager's blind spot, the worst could happen.
I personally feel that it all comes down to how well aware you are of your surroundings.

PS: Not disputing that bright gear doesn't make you more noticeable.
 
In moderate to heavy traffic, the bike would be in and out of other drivers' sight, as cars block their vision. The human eye catches movement first, then disparities in shape (a square in a sea of circles, e.g.), then colour contrasts. And colour contrast is of little use at night.
Better to have a brightly coloured helmet, as your head will be higher than most cars, and move your head as you ride. Not like a bobble-head doll but just as you normally would to drive.
 
^ 1.

I have to dig up the source, but I remember hearing somewhere that riders with white helmets are more visible and therefore less likely to be hit.
 
I've been side swiped off the road before by a cager who said they didn't see me next to them or in their mirrors. This was when I had my dark blue gs500f, written off and replaced by a bright yellow CBR.

I won't consider dark coloured bikes anymore, not in the GTA at least. I'm saving up for a white mesh jacket and a light coloured helmet.

Will it all help? Maybe, only better driving education can improve collision statistics long term I think but the more visibility the better in my books.
 
+1
I remember some study showed that a plain white or yellow, or very light coloured helmet is the most noticeable. White covered in graphics might as well be camo.
 
CanadianBiker said:
In moderate to heavy traffic, the bike would be in and out of other drivers' sight, as cars block their vision. The human eye catches movement first, then disparities in shape (a square in a sea of circles, e.g.), then colour contrasts. And colour contrast is of little use at night.
Better to have a brightly coloured helmet, as your head will be higher than most cars, and move your head as you ride. Not like a bobble-head doll but just as you normally would to drive.
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see i was under the impression that light would bounce off of brightly coloured gear/clothes therefore causing a bit of a noticeable aura. this thought started when i was out at a club, i was pretty drunk at the time also, and i saw a group of bikers (i was close to hard rock go figure) out of the 6 bikers i only remembered and noticed the canary yellow gixxer the bike had purple graphics and the rider had purple gear.

so lets say i was in a car hammered out of my mind wobbling everywhere and what not. the yellow gixxer would be something that i would stare at and focus on therefore in my drunken state i wouldnt crash into it because my focus is on it

now if it was a black bike or even the generic cbr red (no offense) i wouldn't pay much attention to either (but this may also be because i know my 2 cents about motorcycles so to the average "cager" just seeing a motorcycle, regardless of the colour, may be fascinating)

oh and btw i dont condole drunk driving im just saying this hypothetically.. just putting that out there :)
 
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bengali548 said:
so lets say i was in a car hammered out of my mind wobbling everywhere and what not. the yellow gixxer would be something that i would stare at and focus on therefore in my drunken state i wouldnt crash into it because my focus is on it
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One of the most basic tenets of motorcycle riding is that you go where you look, so if your drunken *** is staring at a particular bike, chances are excellent that you'll drive right into it.
 
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The key to being noticed is silhouettes/contrasting forms.

If you're wearing a ton of terrific bright colours but it's some tribal trash design, your human/motorcycle silhouette is hard to distinguish from the background.

Never the less, people won't see what they're not looking for.
 
CanadianBiker said:
One of the most basic tenets of motorcycle riding is that you go where you look, so if your drunken *** is staring at a particular bike, chances are excellent that you'll drive right into it.
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No no I meant If you were in a car staring at a biker not a drunk biker staring at another biker
 
bengali548 said:
No no I meant If you were in a car staring at a biker not a drunk biker staring at another biker
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Still applies; riding, driving, walking, unicycle. We go where we look. I only put it in motorcycle context because I thought they would have taught that in the courses.
 
bengali548 said:
No no I meant If you were in a car staring at a biker not a drunk biker staring at another biker
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Just like CanadianBiker said, doesn't matter what mode of transportation you're using, we target fixate no matter what. It's a natural behavior that we learn to suppress or force ourselves to look somewhere else instead, but if you're intoxicated then you most likely will not look away as you've been trained to do (hopefully you've been taught about target fixation if you took a course).
 
bengali548 said:
so a lot of bikers are scared of "cagers" but in my first season of driving i've been in a lot of near crash incidences but 90% of the time i was behind or beside the car in question. but even when im in front cars stop RIGHT behind my tail which is why i usually tuck myself beside the car infront of me

i have a bit of a theory i would like to share. my 08 ninja 250 is black but my outfit is white therefore causing a contrast. something people will remember or notice. however, i believe that if i had a purely black outfit with a black bike that people would not notice me in the sense that i would be forgotten quite easily. in the mundane task of daily driving we see a plethora of cars where the colours are mostly silver, black , or metallic colours (even colours such as red, royal blue, and garbage green are seen quite often).

what im trying to say is that we'll forget about the black DB9 (aston martin if you dont watch top gear :p) but the thought of the pink honda civic with graphics and hello kitty seat belts will stay in our heads.

so would i be wrong to assume that a bike thats flashy(colours like white, yellow, pink, purple), loud, and with graphics all over the place has a less likely chance of getting into an accident than the generic bike colours (black, red, blue, grey, green)

oppinions? thoughts?
Click to expand...

i am a living example of your theory not working. lol

of the bikes i had.
all had an aftermarket exhaust = loud
1 was yellow and 2 were white.

the truth is, if cagers (and other riders) dont want to look..... no colour in the world will stop them from hitting a motorcycle.

someone riding a yellow bike is just as likely to be hit as someone riding a black bike.
drivers just dont look...dont check blind spots...dont care about motorcycles.

having said that, if you ride like an idiot and sit in peoples blind spots all day long then your bike colour wont matter much either.

everything i owned was bright..... they still dont "see" you.

proper riding principles are much better to rely on that the colour of your bike.

i just happen to like bright colours too. :)
 
Paint it pink with sparkles, and rims neon green that glows
 
A light coloured helmet sticks out bigtime.
 
quote_icon.png
Originally Posted by djbordie
Green Kawi's save lives...





wedginator said:
+1.
Click to expand...

+1 -1 Kawi green with no black Monster stickers saves lives
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