Probably why the brakes failed. Overloaded.

I think those are actually part of the brakes. I was once told ( but I never verified) that the braking system on a train is analogous to a power generator. All of the power dumps to heating coils, on top of the train.

I wouldn't dare to place blame in this video, but I gotta say the biker is totally stupid for thinking that, on a rolling motorcycle at hwy speeds that you should elect to kick a moving car instead of tapping your brakes.

I like it.

In the situations where I would use my horn to avoid an accident, I'm usually too busy driving to take a hand off the wheel and sound the horn. If someone on the freeway is merging into my lane and about to collide with me, it seems I'm much better of braking and actively avoiding the collision myself rather than blowing my horn and counting on the other car to stop merging.

In my experience, aside from "excuse me the light is green", all horns actually communicate is "fuck you." For many those two are also the same thing. Personally, I don't have enough emotional investment in other drivers to want to swear at them with my horn.

Your video, How to Brake, has made it into the Top 15 New Videos listing. Congratulations on your achievement. For your contribution you have been awarded 1 Power Point.

How to Brake has been added as a related post - related requested by notarobot.

Just because you have the right of way does not mean you are safe.

If you pause at the 12-second mark you can see the biker is going 80mph. Is the speed limit 80mph? Leading up to the accident, he's passing other cars like they are standing still. Going much faster (or slower) than traffic around you always increases your risk.

He's traveling too quick for conditions, or even for his own reactions and brakes.

Reddit thread about him: https://www.reddit.com/r/videos/comments/6cj4i8/motorcycle_got_cut_off_on_la_freeway/dhv4h38/

The accident is the fault of the car that pulled out, but this biker could have avoided the accident altogether if he had slowed down to comparable speeds of the traffic around him.

But what would he do that for? He's a youtube asshole who took down other videos of him being an asshole who now has one of his vids go viral to the point that he makes money off it. Insurance will cover the repairs to his bike.

Look at how he drives: https://streamable.com/jewxu

He's a cocky asshole who instigates problems on the road.

So yeah, the car that pulled in front is technically at fault. That doesn't make this guy some kind of angel. It's possible he consciously allowed himself to hit the car....

I don't want to imply that this was the motorcyclists fault, because it wasn't, but that was a shit-ass reaction time on the emergency braking. You can see him roll off the throttle and grab the brake as soon as he sees the car moving over, which is good, but then it's clear the car is moving into the carpool lane and... nothing... he just keeps rolling forward...

At 0:20.5 he clearly identifies the threat, by 0:21.0 the car is in his lane, he's off the throttle, and his fingers are on the front brake, and then... he doesn't do anything... just keeps rolling at the same speed... rolling... rolling... he doesn't squeeze the front brake until well over a second and like 100 feet later around 0:22.25 when he's barely 20 feet behind the car, and even then he doesn't brake particularly hard at all.

I moto-commute on this same road and shit like this happens every single day, it happens so often that you should expect it to happen every time and react accordingly. You just have to be way better prepared for it than this. There was plenty of time for him to simply brake and avoid that guy. Plenty.

I assume (but don't know)---in the San Francisco sequence as he psychotically departs from the intersection of Hyde and Chestnut Street down the Hyde St cable car tracks towards the Ghiradelli Square/Aquatic Park area---that the black thing he is holding in his hand is some sort of control of for a disc brake on the rear wheels? The rotors and pads of which...would be glowing red hot and dripping bits of flaming debris as he comes to a stop before being mashed to by crossing traffic on Bay street at the bottom of the hill? Sort of like in those emergency runway brake tests they do for airliners?

The other car didn't brake until after the impact. There was easily enough time to make the decision whether to brake or try for an easy insurance job.

I don't think he even saw him till he was in the road in front of him, or did not expect that he would pull into his lane when most cars would have stopped in the middle. I think he tried to slow down as his brake lights were on, but didnt have time at all to hardly slow the car. i assume he hit his brakes and horn about the same time.

When I rode 30+ miles a day, almost 30 years ago, I used to do something similar on downhills. I wouldn't take the toe clips off, but I would hang my ass over the rear wheel with the seat in my gut. This flattened my body and made me more aerodynamic (but not nearly as much as he is) and put my weight farther back and lower, meaning I could brake much harder without going over the front. His center of gravity probably goes higher in this position with his legs that high. Since my feet never left the pedals, I could still pedal if needed and get back upright in an instant.

I never raced, so I don't know if this would have been against any specific rules, but taking your feet off the pedals that way would make you far less stable, imagine if he had to brake or swerve, and reattaching at speed is no walk in the park either, so it's probably considered a likely hazard to others and banned...but that is just a guess.

I'm gonna jump on the "always wondered why this wasn't a thing" bandwagon too.

It seems like such an obvious and cheap idea, there must be a reason why it's not implemented.

I wonder if it's one of those things that sounds great in theory but has some terrible side effect in practice (e.g. maybe no-one pays attention to a short brake tap? I dunno)

Comment hidden because you are ignoring dag. (show it anyway)

I remember seeing the hazard lights flashing for hard braking in Erurope. Not sure if it's legal in the US or other regions as i've never seen it.

Yeah I don't think this is a new invention by any means. I swear I remember reading about this type of brake indicator quite a few years ago.

FYI, there are a number of high-end cars that have this built-in. BMW has different versions across a lot of their cars, and calls it the 'Brake Force Display'.

BMW found it was less distracting and more intuitive for other drivers if the brake force was indicated by a few stages of big lights going on (3 or 4), with the last stages also having one or all of the brake lights slowly flash in the 'hazard light' mode if you really slammed the brakes.

Motocyclists also commonly buy aftermarket flasher modules that indicate when they are braking heavily, which you can find on amazon.