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Iron Butt
Posts: 804
Perry Hall, MD | Always have trouble with my EZ Pass being picked up at the toll plaza. Went back to have it checked and was advised it is a common problem for cycles. I went to driving right down the middle of the lane and it seems to help. Did that today near the end of a 1600 mile trip and was reminded of MS safety 101. The center of the lane was covered with some white grease. Thank You Victory for the tipover design- Curb took out the front wheel and exhaust, but otherwise not much to report.
There is a reason we don't use the middle of the lane - don't let your guard down for a faulty EZ Pass system. |
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Iron Butt
Posts: 849
, FL United States | Glad to hear that you're OK. The bike can be fixed, much harder to fix YOU. |
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Cruiser
Posts: 152
Litchfield Park, AZ | Holy smokes that is scary....hope you are OK. I know that when I lived in Illinois we registered our I-pass to our vehicles and our license plates so if the unit ever failed to pick up the transponder that the plate would be crossed-referenced to the database before issuing a ticket.....IE: register your plate and you never get a ticket. Because of this I never carried my I-pass on my bike and never worried about getting a ticket. 3 years.....never one single ticket. |
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Iron Butt
Posts: 804
Perry Hall, MD | I appreciate the thought - while we were cleaning up, the Mrs. got a little upset when she started to consider that I had plans to leave Saturday for a trip to the Smokey Mountains with our son who only recently started riding. |
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Tourer
Posts: 354
20 miles west of Chicago. | Sorry about your mishap. How do have your transponder mounted? I used some two part 3M tape strips like those which come with the transponders, only a heavy duty version. I got it at the local hardware strip in a blister pack with two each of the male and female strips. stuck the female halves to the inside of the windshield about half way up on the right side and the male halves to the transponder. I've never had a problem with the signal being read, across five States.
I stopped at a manned booth last year in Indiana and suggested to the woman in the booth that the tollway authority clean the oil blackened road surface at the booths once in a while, citing the hazard to motorcyclists. She said they cleaned it once week. From the look of it the cleaning consisted of hosing it down with plain water. The amount of oil on the lanes at the toll booths was unbelievable, and it wasn't all in the center but was the heaviest there. I feared exactly what happened to you would happen to me or someone else on a bike. Thankfully, Illinois has "Open Road Tolling" in many places...no booths or gates, just an arch over several lanes. I don't think many, if any, government entities resposible for the building or maintainance of roads give any thought to things like that, or tar snakes, slick pavement marking paint or gravel shoulders that allow passing vehicles to kick up gravel onto the roadways (especially on curves). We're too small and quiet a user group on the roads. |
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Visionary
Posts: 1290
Ruskin, Fl | Sorry to hear about your mishap. Stopping in the toll lane to pay the toll can be hazardous too. I stopped on the left side to hand the money to the toll taker. My right foot was in a pool of oil. I didn't drop the bike, but they sure make me nervous now. Some agencies used to run scrubber machines in the lane at night. Never understood why until I started riding. |
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Cruiser
Posts: 192
Republic of Tejas | In the Houston area they have two types of tags for the toll roads. One is membrane thin with a very small chip in it which is for cars (not waterproof). The second type is a boxy looking hard plastic maybe 3" x 4" x 1/4" which is what they give to motorcycles if requested. Mine is the latter which reads fine from inside the left forward compartment of the Vision, or the windshield bag on my old C model.
Glad to hear the damage to you and your scoot was relatively minimal.
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Cruiser
Posts: 192
Republic of Tejas | In the Houston area they have two types of tags for the toll roads. One is membrane thin with a very small chip in it which is for cars (not waterproof). The second type is a boxy looking hard plastic maybe 3" x 4" x 1/4" which is what they give to motorcycles if requested. Mine is the latter which reads fine from inside the left forward compartment of the Vision, or the windshield bag on my old C model.
Glad to hear the damage to you and your scoot was relatively minimal.
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Iron Butt
Posts: 804
Perry Hall, MD | Have the plastic box type transponder in a tank bag that I have mounted on top of the dash. It seems to register fine so long as I'm centered in the lane. On this trip I went through one booth to the attendant side of the lane and had to stop when it didn't register. The attendant said that they just don't see motorcycles as well as cars. Certainly a learning experience.
Good news was when I took it to the dealer today the Victory tour truck was in with the 2011 models sitting there calling me to think twice about what to do.
Have to say that it is amazing how fast an incident like that can happen.
Anyone know if I should be asking for the insurance to replace our helmets since they both struck the pavement? Only minor scrapes, but I've heard that just dropping them can be a concern.
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Visionary
Posts: 1484
LaPorte,Tx. | A friend and wife went down on their HD earlier this year. Insurance replace helmets and leathers, plus repaired the bike. |
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Tourer
Posts: 562
SC, Bluffton | Luckily, I haven't had any issues in years on my bikes. I ride in any lane position I want. I recently went through at about 40 MPH in my truck, and it didn't pick my up. 30 MPH is the posted speed, so I need to get slower. I use this suction cup dohicky for the Vision.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/0903/HerbGP/Vision/PICT0026.jpg
It just sits on the dash of the Goldwing (never slides) and I have one Velcroed to a tech-mount on the Kawasaki handlebar.
Herb |
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EZ Pass Lane, Not So Easy