[geddy]

These three-wheeled vehicles always make me think the same thing, "all the risk of a motorcycle, with none of the fun." They don't exactly have good cargo space, so storage isn't the focus - is the whole point space savings and fuel efficiency?

A novel idea, I guess it comes down to price in this case.

EDIT: I say "fuel efficiency" referring to the fact that there are gasoline-fueled versions of this same type of vehicle. I realize the Solo is battery powered.

[michaelt]

If you can't lean into corners, can't split lanes, can't exceed 80mph, can't do wheelies, can't make it fall over, and can't go over the handlebars in a crash, I strongly suspect this will have better safety statistics than a motorcycle.

[sudosysgen]

Leaning into corners is a good safety feature of motorcycles compared to tricycles. It makes motorcycles much more stable.

[tomtheelder]

I think their point was that leaning allows you to corner at high speeds, and that not being able to do so would discourage dangerous driving behavior.

I'm not sure I agree with that, but there is some logic that to thinking that a larger, slower, clunkier vehicle might lead to fewer fatal accidents.

[sudosysgen]

But... it doesn't make sense. Sure, maybe a faster vehicle can indeed be more dangerous, but I see no reason why a vehicle that can turn better would be more dangerous.

A vehicle that can take the same corner at higher speeds can also take more difficult corners at lower speeds and is a lot more forgiving.

[spacemark]

This is the comment of someone that knows very little about motorcycles. Half the things you mention are not negatives, but positives.

[geddy]

Every time motorcycles come up in any topic ever, you can tell within the first three words of a post if the author has even the faintest idea of how to ride. It's very frustrating when people who don't even drive try to tell me how the laws should be to "make me safer", despite the fact that virtually all of the danger while riding a motorcycle responsibly stems from the fact that damn near everyone driving a car in 2020 is staring at their phone more often than not.

My father-in-law hates that I ride a street bike, and he frequently texts and drives. I'm like, you are directly creating the scenario for me which you are warning me about. The complete lack of realization of this makes my eyes bleed.

[michaelt]

Actually I've got 8 years of riding experience.

Let's be honest, nobody really believes doing wheelies, lane-splitting or being able to go at 130mph actually make us safer. That's just what we tell our moms when they're worried about us, and we know they won't be reassured by the truth - which is that we know what we're doing is dangerous but we're going to keep doing it anyway because it's fun.

[geddy]

There's also a huge difference between recklessly doing all of these things, and responsibly doing these things. Not necessarily 130mph wheelies, but lane-splitting is perfectly safe as well as practical, when done at a normal speed and practicing good distancing. It's far more dangerous to be sandwiched between two idiots staring at their phones in traffic.

Most if not all of the inherent danger of motorcycles is due to the existence of cars, driven by distracted people. You can mitigate just about all risk of riding a motorcycle. When I want to be an idiot on two wheels, I'll go mountain biking, or downhilling, or ride my dirt bike. On the street I keep my ass as safe as possible.

[NullPrefix]

Yeah, but showing off aholes perform them a lot, so we need to ban those moves.

[geddy]

I've ridden a motorcycle for years, seen countless riders, and yet never once have I seen a single person ride down the highway at 300mph with the front wheel at 12 o'clock like (apparently) everyone else in the world. People really seem to hate motorcyclists because "oh I saw one time on Facebook in some video where a guy wheelied his bike" blah blah blah. All those events are, are anecdotes.

Bikes a) take up less space, b) don't cause traffic jams, c) are only more unsafe than cars because of people in cars not paying attention. Funnily enough, bad behavior on a bike is regarded as 10x worse than bad behavior in a car, despite the fact that a distracted driver in a car can easily cause 10x the damage, and that no one on a motorcycle is scrolling through their Instagram feed while riding. Let's be realistic - more people are distracted in cars than on motorcycles because you need all of your limbs to operate a bike.

You say you've seen someone pulling a wheelie and it "needs to be banned" (it already is illegal, so I don't know what your plan is here), well I have seen easily hundreds of distracted drivers of cars who can actually end my life because of their actions. No one in a car is going to get killed by a motorcycle, but the exact opposite happens all the time.

[NullPrefix]

My post was pure sarcasm

[geddy]

Damn. Totally missed that, and in hindsight it's now obvious. Don't I feel like a dope :(

[labcomputer]

I suspect the whole point is to create a vehicle that looks and feels like a car without the mandate to comply with car safety standards.