The Scene

THE SCENE

IVAN J. WAGAR

THE FIRST international conference on motorcycle safety now is history. The occasion was the Second Annual Congress on Automotive Safety, held in San Francisco in mid July, the theme being “Motorcycle and Recreational Vehicle Safety.” Hosted by the National Motor Vehicle Safety Advisory Council, the meeting was attended by more than 550 people interested in motorcycle and rec-reational vehicle safety from all over the world. The event marked the first time that riders, manufacturers, journalists, engineers, doctors, researchers and government officials, worldwide, have gotten together to cuss and discuss all aspects of motorcycle safety. There is little question that safety is a difficult product to sell. That is why we find such a low use of seat belts in automobiles. We all know that statistics prove belt usage reduces deaths and serious injury, but less than 25 percent of the driving population uses them, even when they are available.

It is a very human trait to feel that the idiot driver is going to crash, but that “it will not happen to me because I want to live and enjoy life, and I am a careful driver.” Terrific! That kind of thinking, however, does nothing to reduce accidental death and injury, even though it is a common, widespread feeling.

In his keynote address at the luncheon the first day, Rodney C. Gott, Chairman of AMF, which is world famous for many recreational products, did an excellent job of explaining the need for motorcycles and recreational vehicles. Gott told us that, for the mental and even physical well-being of millions of Americans with more leisure time, we must find a way to make the vehicles safe and the operators competent. He admitted that we could make motorcycles safer if we used four wheels and a steel envelope and then called it a capsule, but the recreatonal needs of the American people call for something more than riding around in a capsule.

No less than 33 technical papers, read by authors from four countries, were presented during the 2!/2-day meeting. One of the most interesting papers was presented by Honda’s Yoshinori Watanabe, a young engineer

from the famous R&D center outside of Tokyo. Watanabe scientifically showed the difference in accident avoidance skill between novice and expert riders, and even measured (for the first time that I know of) the amount a rider actually turns left when wanting to go to the right (forward pressure on the right handlebar turns the machine to the left).

While this phenomonen is wellknown among road racing riders, it usually is not noticed by the average street rider. And with the use of high speed cameras, Watanabe was able to observe and document the maneuver. Using riders with varying degrees of skill, from a raw novice to an expert road race rider, Watanabe also found that at very low speed the maneuver could be carried out by all riders. As speed increased, however, so did the demand for experience and eventually only the very skillful road racer could successfully complete the maneuver. Mr. Watanabe’s final conclusion is that there is no substitute for good rider training and licensing, and that we must find ways to develop pride in good riding.

Several other papers on the program pointed to rider skill development as the greatest benefit to long range safety goals, and some papers outlined what has been done in the area of rider training both in this country and abroad. The Motorcycle Industry Council Safety and Education Foundation, represented by Dr. Charles Hartman, talked about their long range five million dollar program to develop comprehensive rider training nationally.

At the other end of the scale, several papers were on the subject of changes to the vehicle to reduce injuries in the event of a crash. This approach, of course, assumes that there will be crashes, and therefore more rider protection is required than presently available. Among the more extensive papers on the subject of changes to the motorcycle were those presented by England’s Dr. Peter Bothwell, who now has conducted more than 50 motorcycle crash experiments, including his work with airbags. Even Dr. Bothwell, however, points to the need for skill improvement to avoid a crash, and that changing the structure very much in the interest of rider protection might seriously reduce the primary safety of the rider/machine combination.

Hopefully this meeting of the minds, looking at both extremes and everything in between, will result in even more development work to make motorcycling safer. The need to make automobile drivers more aware of motorcyclists in the traffic stream was very prominent during the Congress, and is an area of extreme concern to all of us who have to compete with monstrous cars for road space.

On the more pleasant side, F.X. Bulto, President of Bultaco motorcycles and founder of that company, delivered an excellent speech on the need for consideration of very specialized motorcycles. Using film clips to show the engineering differences between Bultaco’s successful road racing, motocross and trials machines, Bulto cautioned against standardization of geometry if the motorcycle is to be as safe as possible for its intended purpose.

Protective clothing was discussed, particularly by Bothwell. One suggestion for rider protection was an inflatable vest, similar to those used by navy pilots, where a triggered C02 cartridge would supply inflation. The idea is that the rider would hook an umbilical cord to the motorcycle and, in the event of a crash, the cord ■would be tugged, thus inflating the vest. Nothing was discussed about the rider that might forget to unhook while in the parking lot at the local hamburger joint.

Recipient of the Advisory Council’s prestigious Excaliber Award was Sir Arthur Rylah of Australia. Sir Arthur was the world’s first legislator to pass a law requiring auto drivers to wear seat belts. New Zealand and Puerto Rico have now followed suit, and at least 30 states in this country have mandatory belt laws pending. Legal justification for compulsory belt usage is based pretty much on the fact that the U.S. Supreme Court has, on five occasions, refused to hear helmet law repeal cases from motorcyclists on constitutional grounds. In other words, it is the opinion of the court that it is not an infringement of personal rights to be required by law to wear something to protect your own life.

Not all of the papers were friendly toward motorcycling, but that was the purpose of the Congress. At least all of the chips are on the table.