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Originally Posted by rerun
I call bullpoop on this one.... did you actually even watch the video that I posted in my op? .... Parts 1 and 2.... not just Part 1?
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Yeah I watched the video. What a load of sensationalism.
You need to realize no matter how stable they make a quad, people are still gonna go out, push limits, and roll them. Its how people are wired, if they think it will go, they will try and ride it there.
The idea that nothing has changed in the ATV industry safety wise is a load. Proposing government standards for rollover points and wheelbases... is there anyone in the government who has the ability to make those decisions with actual experience designing, engineering and testing off road vehicles? Someone who would know what is up?
One of the main focus points in the video is how "it wont matter what protective gear you are wearing when 800 pounds falls on top of you" yet Ive seen you proposed adding weight to a quad, and centralizing it as a means to make it more stable. You simply do not design, build a performance machine and then slam... whatever... 30 pounds, 50 pounds... to a vehicle and expect it to perform favorably.
Joel Robert was a world champion motocross rider in the 70's from Belgium. "Industry standards" were set by people outside of the R&D circle in motocross to more or less stop him and his Suzuki's from dominating the sport. The proposed changes forced Suzuki engineers to pour molten lead into the frame to meet new weight laws for the upcoming season. Joel claimed his Suzuki's were ruined, never won another title, and Suzuki fought to keep frames in one piece for Joel.
When small things like cylinder head angle have massive impact on steering, handling in unload situations... what do you think something like strapping weights on will do to, in your mind, and already overweight and unstable machine?
A roll cage for a quad? They have those already. They are called side by side ATV's.
All the crashes shown in the video were all preventable, as any crash is. You know what the common denominator is? Stupid people who don't know their limits or their machines.
No amount of regulations or sanctions will ever stop this.
I have a sport bike. Lots of people die on them every year as they are capable of high speed, have extremely powerful brakes, and are painfully undersized compared to other motor vehicles. I guess we should start adding roll cages to them, adding weight, and having gov't run programs to limit their capabilities so people like me wont get killed. Right?
I used the leaded fuel example, even though its unrelated demonstrates what happens when gov't regulations make matters worse. I don't doubt you had terrible mileage with you dodge and chevy small blocks... and I know you wont believe me, but my old mans 69 plymouth rt with a 440 got over 25 mpg. His little barracuda with a 340 gets about the same. When the lead was taken out of fuel the manufactures had to drop compression to get their engines to stop knocking, and more fuel went through them than was burned as a result. No doubt some progress has now been made, but at the time of the changes, people were getting horrible, horrible mileage with overcarburated, pingy, ######ed ignition engines. Of course this was met by many people as progress. At the time it was terrible, and all this regulation, combined with factory engineers working around the clock to make sure you get a more expensive vehicle off the lot still has not solved the "gas crisis" problem. Hell, my boss just sold his brand new ford truck, complete with cylinder bank shutdown to achieve better fuel mileage, because he was getting
7 mpg on the highway. Yup, there's progress folks.
The government really needs to keep their nose out of what the factories are doing in terms of machines they produce. Lord knows they will be regulating the piss out of the trail system now as it is.
Gear up, be smart, and you instantly have better odds than the ######s who get pissed up, wear no gear, and go and roll their quad onto their head.
You know... that Darwin... he was onto something.
