Is it me only or does this happens to every biker?

I know that I'm not crazy when I mention this. I remember even to when I first rode my junkie Yamaha 450 Maxim too. So....here is my puzzled question.

Have you guys ever stop at a red light on a motorcyle and the light will not turn green for a long long time? I mean, you just sat at the red light and traffic on the other lane goes already, and their light turns red...and they stop....while you are still stop at red. And then, their light turn green again....and you still wait and wait and wait....like the twilight zone.

Yep, this happens to me a few times and it happens today again. I sat their for more then 5 minute and it would not turn green and there was a truck behind me. I know that if I don't go, I and that truck will be sitting at that stop light for a long long time. I was tire of waiting...so I just throttle and ran that damn light.

Problem is you don't have enough metal surface area to disrupt the magnetic field from the sensor in the roadway. I don't have that problem as long as the sidecar is attached. If I can't trip, it I normally pull forward and try to get the person behind me to pull up far enough to trip it. State police said they would ticket me if they caught me going thru the light. Recommended I turn right, and then turn around in someone's drive, go back to the light and then turn right again. Yea that's what I'm going to do, yea right.
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Prepare ship for Ludicrous speed-------- Dark Helmit

Harvey
Tripple dark side

Easy Fix.

http://www.directlineparts.com/product.asp?pid=7215&str=1

Try this...one of a couple on the market.




...................bobby

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Dang Moon you beat me to it! Mine wouldn't post for a second because you had just as I was. Good show my man!


..........................bobby

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Dang Twin.
great minds think alike.

Hey! In NC, we have the three minute law. If the light doesn't change we can proceed as if it is a red caution sign. In other words, after the three minutes, wait till it is clear and then proceed. I just wait until it is clear. TJ

I usually bounce the front tire up and down. This will get the frame low enough for the magnets to trip.

Jerry

Whew!!! As long as I know that it is just not me. Thanks guys.

The VTX is ususally a big enough bike to trip the magnets, but there are a few in town that dont see the bike. I know them and avoid them when I can. If i get stuck at one of them I will wait my turn and when I am passed up I will wait until it is clear and go.

Moon

I have that same problem!!! Didn't know about the easy 20 dollar solution. Awesome news! I'm also going to try bouncing the front to see if it helps. Thanks y'all!

I've heard different things on these redlight changers. Does anyone have it installed on their bike and feel it works? I have one pesky light by where I work that absolutely will not change for me. I try to avoid it, but that means going alot out of my way.

Here, we can call the city to report lights not changing.

You can put your kickstand down, sometimes that works.

Roll up closer and let the car behind you trip it.

Just ease through after several minutes.... I've heard mixed reviews about the light changers.

I've heard of mixed reviews with the light changers as well. something that's cheaper then getting it would be to rev a little at the light. That would create a stronger magnetic field from the bike then it idleing.

On my 81 Honda CB750K there was TWO of these magnetic light changers that I put on , and still they did NOTHING!!! I tried moving them around to different places other than what the instructions said and no change. Tried two different manufactures just to make sure, I even got a rare earth magnet that had 150# pulling force and it also did not work. I have come to two different trains of thought, one being that this bike was too high for the magnets to work and the other is I was just screwed from the get go!! My VTX1800 has always tripped the light for me so far. As mentioned earlier you can put your kickstand down but you better be in neutral or the stand safety will kill the motor, and that would be kinda embarrasing, almost like stopping at an intersection then thanking admirers for giving you the thumbs up and then you STALL IT!!!

The "light changer" magnets do virtually nothing. These do not actually work on magnetic principles as they actually detect the presence of metal, but not via magnetic ways. It's kinda hard to explain it, but I attended a class on these at a national motorcycle safety conference. I tried the magnets in the past, did nothing, and my sport bike had no worse issues than the VTX, even though it (sport bike) had almost no ferrous (magnetic) metal on it. it's like it can detect thigns that conduct electricity, which is any kind of metal.

The nice thing is that it is legally defined as a traffic sensor. By law if a traffic signal is malfunctioning, you are to treat it as a 4 way stop. Now, you may get a ticket, but it will be throw out in court every time as my defense will always be that it was malfunctioning. I am traffic, it did not detect me, therefore it is not working properly. I then treat it as a stop and go right no through. FWIW, I have verified this with several senior officers and am in Law enforcement myself and looked this up to see how it would play out.

Of course, you do this at your own risk and be prepared to defend yourself with a solid argument if some rookie cop pulls you over for it.

When I find the info on how the signals actually work I will be ahppy to post it up, it makes more sense when you read the full article.

George

good info!

Wait for no traffic and head out. Be careful! Cars don't see us anyways..... and they certainly don't slow down for green lights.

OK, more explanations for you guys. I pulled this from the team oregon website, but there is a better version out there, I just gotta find it again.

A vehicle sensor, typically referred to as a "loop", is simply a coil of
wire embedded into the road surface. An electronic module in the traffic signal control cabinet sends a signal to the loop, which causes it to behave as a metal detector. Any mass of metal that passes over the loop causes a shift in the electrical signal. When the shift is great enough, the module tells the computer that a vehicle is present. The key point here is that the mass of metal must be large enough to overcome a threshold, or minimum metal mass. All metal objects greater than the threshold will be detected.

if you want more info, just search for inductive loops, but basically it works as a metal detector, which will detect any type of metal.

George