Green light triggers

[bk94si]

Anyone have any experience with green light triggers? A few lights in my town just won't change to green for me. I have always suspected it is because a Hawk is so small but I really don't know.

[Doc]

No experience with them but this is what I do.

When i am at a Redlight and it won't change I wait for a good amount of time, look both ways and be sure it is safe and then I go.

I have been told by several of my police friends that this is legal.

I'm just saying.

[Swipe]

I tend to wave my arms about, flash my headlights or do a uturn in the whole of the road, failing that, I'll go through on red like Doc. I only tend to have problems with the temporary lights they use at roadworks.

[SkinnE]

I tend to wave my arms about, flash my headlights or do a uturn in the whole of the road, failing that, I'll go through on red like Doc. I only tend to have problems with the temporary lights they use at roadworks.

Yeah, we're lucky here in the UK, the triggers are camera/motion sensors. In the USA they're magnetic strips laid in the road surface. They rely on a large ferrous object coming within range to set them off. Most bikes (cruisers aside) aren't big enough/don't have enough steel in them for these to work. I've seen a big magnet that mounts to the bottom of a motorcycle for sale for just this purpose. Though why anyone would want to add about 10lbs to their bike is beyond me. I found that if I was approaching a sensor I knew to be problematic, and there was no one behind, I could brake very hard as I came over the strip and this would often (tho not always) work.

I have also heard the same as Doc; if the light won't trip for you after a suitably infuriatingly long time, you're ok to go using caution. YMMV

[motorcycleman]

In some states it is legal to go through, treating the light as broken, but not all. from what I've read the triggers are magnets that you put on the underside of the bike to make it have more metallic presence. What I do is try to line up over the line cut into the pavement that indicates where the trigger wiring is. then I put my kickstand down right on it. Works every time. If you can't see the line where the wire is take a good guess (around where a typical car wheel would be) and put down your stand for a few seconds. Should work for you.

[bk94si]

The triggers I have seen are only a few ounces of magnet so the weight should not be a problem. The kickstand idea sounds like a good one, I'll give that a try. I am pretty sure it is not legal where I live to go on a red.

[MrDude_1]

i always roll right over the lines.

it usually works, but when it doesnt... well i wait long enough to see if theres a cop watching.. lol.


most of the time, i just scoot forward enough that the driver behind me trips it.. because of that, i only have to worry on empty roads.

[Dienstuhr]

You can always turn right, do a quick u-turn, and then turn right again, if you don't want to go through the red.

d.

[Abquid]

Green Light Triggers

Sometimes the in-road sensors have become so corroded or otherwise damaged that nothing on a bike seems to work: kickstand, etc. On these I'll go through the red, but I have to admit I always feel funny doing it and am furtively looking over my shoulder for the police....

[bk94si]

I just realized it isn't the size of the Hawk that causes the problem it is because to little on the bike is ferrous. Aluminum frame, alloy wheels, aluminum swing arm. A Hawk must look like a skateboard to a sensor looking for iron and steel. What is the engine block made of? Is that aluminum also?

[ParcNHawk]

Crankshaft and rods are steel, and pretty massive also, no? I usually sit with the motor right above where the tar line from the light post (wire) joins to the tarline 'box outline' of the sensor and this works 95% of the time.

I've tried to wave car drivers up to the sensor, but they're usually .
-- Thanks for the help, cager.

[jaysun0ne]

pretty sure motor case is alluminum too.

i have a light, has i leave work, that never triggers for me.
same story with the rc51 so i wait and if a car doesnt pull up behind me i just go when its safe. im going to try the kickstand idea.

i used to work for a paving company and those things allways got in the way. if you tear them up it cost alot to fix too.

i have herds of a plastic strip with a metalic material that hangs off the bottom of the bike that worked. never used it my self. alot lighter than a magnet mounted to the underside. alot like the grounding stips you see hanging from cars every once in a wile.

[tajohnson]

There are a bunch of lights in my area that will never turn when I roll up to them on my Hawk. I have used the Kick stand Idea for a while now but it does't always work with all lights. So I came up with a slight modification to the Idea and it has worked really well for some time now.
I have put a few very VERY small Neodymiun Rare Earth magnets towards the end of the kick stand. This way when I pull up to one of the suspect lights I just flick down the stand and trigger the light every time. The magnets are super strong and should never fall off even if you brush/kick them with your foot while putting the stand down. If you want you could even glue them on if you think it necessary. Mine have been on there over three years now and I still have not lost them. Even better would be to somehow get them inside the stand itself.
These magnets are really cheap and you can get them all over the place. I picked mine up from the local Radio Shack.