The Honda PCX / Forza / ADV150 / SH Forums

I always pull ahead of the stop line when I am in front. I usually sit in front of the stop line, but behind the crosswalk. I never thought this was a problem til yesterday when a passenger in a work truck sitting in the left-hand turn lane next to me, pointed an angry finger to the ground and indicated to me where I should be sitting. He was a young guy in his 20s in a nondescript work truck. He was the passenger. I doubt very seriously he would do this to a guy riding a Harley. But he felt comfortable doing it to a scooter rider. He was in for a rude awakening. I'm a 56 year old Army veteran, infantry, in fact. I told him what he ought to do with his mother, and it involved incestual activity. Lucky for me the timing of it was perfect. No sooner had I unleashed my grave insult upon him, the driver of the truck in which he was a passenger got the green arrow, and took off. The passenger was hanging out of the window mouthing at me with a red, angry face. I gave him a big smile.

i always stop b4 line

pattomike wrote:I always pull ahead of the stop line when I am in front. I usually sit in front of the stop line, but behind the crosswalk. I never thought this was a problem til yesterday when a passenger in a work truck sitting in the left-hand turn lane next to me, pointed an angry finger to the ground and indicated to me where I should be sitting. He was a young guy in his 20s in a nondescript work truck. He was the passenger. I doubt very seriously he would do this to a guy riding a Harley. But he felt comfortable doing it to a scooter rider. He was in for a rude awakening. I'm a 56 year old Army veteran, infantry, in fact. I told him what he ought to do with his mother, and it involved incestual activity. Lucky for me the timing of it was perfect. No sooner had I unleashed my grave insult upon him, the driver of the truck in which he was a passenger got the green arrow, and took off. The passenger was hanging out of the window mouthing at me with a red, angry face. I gave him a big smile.

LOL....that's more or less the same response he would have received from me, with likely a slight variation of colourful language.

BTW. I do the same thing on my PCX (but not in my car)..... my front wheel is typically a foot or so beyond the actual stop line

I try to look at where the sensor may be under the asphalt. . .sometimes there's indications in the pavement that look like rectangularish or squarish lines at those intersections having traffic lights. If you do a lot of traveling around your region you start to learn after a while where the intersections are that don't seem to be sensitive enough to motorcycles or scooters and one needs to adjust and adapt.

Things I've done (and still do) are to pull ahead of the white line (but not in the cross walk) to allow the vehicle behind me to pull up and trip the sensor. Sometimes they won't move and just sit there (even after you signal them. . .of which some may think you are trying to tell them to kiss your a _ _ which is obviously not true).

Also in certain cases I will enter and use a parking lot before the intersection to traverse across and enter the flow of traffic again when it's safe from an access/egress point where there is no traffic light. I don't mean to try to short cut an intersection by cheating or trying to get out of a line by using some business parking lot to beat the light. Only to be able to safely continue in traffic and only when it's necessary. I've learned the intersections (locally) that I could sit forever and never see the light change. . .and no other vehicles are likely to come up behind me any time soon. . .and had to eventually go right and then do a U-Turn a little further down.

On scooters or motorcycles that don't have a "side stand kill switch" sometimes you can put the side stand down and the metal may get picked up by the sensor that way. I've also pumped on the front brake while pushing forward to compress the front forks and after a while wondered what was I thinking. . .like that that was going to work.

So yes. . .it is a frustrating situation. Best case senerio. . .the road sensors are motorcycle, motor scooter friendly.

In the turn lane only I will pull up far enough so the vehicle behind me can trip the light. Otherwise half the time I get no green arrow at all and the traffic is released leaving me to wait for a yellow to turn hoping no one is planning on running it. Very frustrating for me and any drivers behind me who miss the turn light because of my scooter. Traffic cams might get you if you don't know where they are so scooter life is always interesting

The way signal loops work is basically the same way metal detectors work.When the magnetic field is interrupted for about 2 seconds the timer is tripped.So if one pulls up past the loops or white line the signal loops may not be triggered.You should try to land on the loop and stay there for a few seconds.If you pass it you will have to wait for a car to come and trigger it.

pattomike wrote:I never thought this was a problem til yesterday when a passenger in a work truck sitting in the left-hand turn lane next to me, pointed an angry finger to the ground and indicated to me where I should be sitting.

I think I'd have recommended that he takes an anger management course. Bigger problems in the world to worry about than stopping a foot or two over a painted line in on the road.

Having said that, I generally park over the sensor though.

Recently I decided to take my bike out for a run. We have a light at our entrance. When I reached the light there was a car in front of me. The way the light works is that it is part of a 4 way intersection, so the light rotates through each of the sides after a certain time, but if no one is in the turn lane it will bypass them. The problem with scooters is that they don't trip that light switch.
Well, that car in front of me kept moving forward until he was completely clear of the bars. We sat through 3 light changes before he decided to turn right and make a u-turn down the street. Meanwhile I had to sit through one more light until someone pulled up behind me, which tripped the light.
I recognized that driver in front of me from a previous time that he did the same thing. Some people are just too dumb to help.

I used to pull up and wave the car behind to move up and trip the sensor but decided that could be misinterpreted as... HIT ME BITCH!

Remember that these traffic loops are programmed to detect a metal object that is in the loop for 2-3 seconds . If you pass by it and don't stop on it then it will not start the timer. Some other intersections use microwave sensors . I guess what I am trying to say is if you pass by the loops you probably will not trigger the timer. Try to stop before the white line for a few seconds then pull forward if you like to start your turn . If you still cannot get the signal you should contact the local highway dept and tell them that they need a sensitivity adjustment just like on a metal detector at the intersection.I was at a traffic control meeting one day and the cops were talking about ticketing people for being past the white line when the light turns red.Not many will , but technically they can because you are passed the stop bar so therefore making a turn on red?? Hope that makes sense .

There are a lot of intersections and turn lanes around here that do not work for our scooters, but they do work for the big Harleys. I am guessing that the signal plate is not sensitive enough for little bikes like ours.

Why stop, slow down look and go if you can.

Another problem is when they overlay/ repave the road the depth of the wire is now lowered.Typically the wire loop is only a few inches deep.When they repave they often add height to the road increasing the depth of the wire.This affects sensitivity as well and sometimes they need to add amplifiers to the system.Cities and towns rarely want to pay for those upgrades or forget about it.Scooters can be then affected.Municipalities don't always do things right.

I always stop in the appropriate LZ at the intersections but when I sit there for a llllloooootttttaaaaaa longer than a minute and nothing happens or it skips me and the other side(s) get to go again then I move up just forward of that white line to allow the kind person with the grimace behind me to move. . .or hope that the kind person with the light on but nobody's home expression on their face comes out of their daze and "gets it" to move up, or last but not least the "texter" hits send.

My Illinois drivers license manual says I have to wait 3 full minutes before I can blow the light on a motorbike. Then of course if there is a traffic camera you get to go debate that with the court which they know you aren't going to do... so just never turn left in illinois and it's all good!

My Illinois drivers license manual says I have to wait 3 full minutes before I can blow the light on a motorbike. Then of course if there is a traffic camera you get to go debate that with the court which they know you aren't going to do... so just never turn left in illinois and it's all good!

Thanks for the info. . ..

My daughter and her husband want to show me the "Windy City" by boat. I hear it's quite a place. That being said I've got the "Old Town Ale House" and "Lincoln Park Zoo" on my list of places to see as well. Must do the "Tilt" at the old Sears Tower for sure.

Guess I won't be doing any driving out there but I'll make sure I walk according to the rules.

PCX150Rider wrote: My daughter and her husband want to show me the "Windy City" by boat.

Hopefully they have something bigger than my tub. You need winds less than 10 out of the southwest to launch Lake Michigan from Chicago if you have less than a 25ft boot. I've taken my Jet boat out there a few times and bother it can be a ride with Lieutenant Dan. I finally gave it up for a much safer hobby

One thing I have "heard" is that a decent sized magnet attached to the bottom of the bike/scooter will activate the sensor.
I haven't tried it myself, but it does make sense.
I didn't have any problems with my last scoot, but I have had a couple of times the light didn't change.
When I do have that problem, I drive over to the crosswalk button and press it.
The light will then change.

homie wrote:

PCX150Rider wrote: My daughter and her husband want to show me the "Windy City" by boat.

Hopefully they have something bigger than my tub. You need winds less than 10 out of the southwest to launch Lake Michigan from Chicago if you have less than a 25ft boot. I've taken my Jet boat out there a few times and bother it can be a ride with Lieutenant Dan. I finally gave it up for a much safer hobby

Had that same boat..everytime I went out in it I came home black and blue. Had to get rid of that bad boy..and its bad to the bone !!

Hopefully they have something bigger than my tub. You need winds less than 10 out of the southwest to launch Lake Michigan from Chicago if you have less than a 25ft boot. I've taken my Jet boat out there a few times and bother it can be a ride with Lieutenant Dan. I finally gave it up for a much safer hobby

I think they were planning on an "Architecture River Tour".

Into inflatables now. Cheap to have, move, and stow.

This was my last boat. A nice boat. . .but not as nice as yours.