“Spinners”….Deceptive & Distracting
Monday, February 20th, 2006 at 9:44 am by 1bigdawg
I think all of us have seen the new fad in car wheels: “spinners” (I know they have been around for a few years). I even think they are making them for bikes. Most of my experiences with spinners have been coming to or leaving a stop light or sign.
I’m sure most observant motorcyclists watch the wheels/tires of the cars around them to determine what the car might do next. Recently I encountered a car with spinners at speed. The car was slowing down but the spinners gave no hint of that activity, but I knew the car was slowing down because my speed had not changed but I was passing him. I glanced at the wheels as I often do to see if there might be any signs of a lane change or other activities and was distracted by the decelerating wheels but the faster rotation of the spinners.
My brain was being deceived by the conflicting information. Furthermore this distraction interferred with my focus on the wheel/tire in general to determine if a lane change was about to happen. When in doubt gas it, which I did.
There are enough dangers on the road as it is and spinners for me have just added another aspect to watch out for. No longer can I trust the wheels mounted with spinners to give me advanced warning of what the driver might be doing.
Has anyone else experienced this or is it just because I’m getting old.
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You are 100% correct, spinner wheels are a distraction and can send confusing visual information. I’ve exprienced it also, but it’s not because you’re old. (Ever had a car inch forward at a light, and you brake check because you think your drifting backwards?)
Anytime your brain gets conflicting signals it’s going to freak. All the more reason to pay MORE attention to the vehicle itself, the lights (brake and turn) and the driver, rather than using the wheels for identify and predict part of your SIPDI.
Fortunately spinners are hard to see from front or rear (where motorcyclists are most vulnerable).
When you see spinners in the future, try to look away from the wheel and focus on the tire, it might help. Kinda of a anti target fixation excercise.
Spinners have taken away one more piece of information we use to safely navigate the gauntlet.
Bad News: there is probably no way to get them banned.
Good News: they will probably go out of style before cause too much damage.
Adding spinners as bling on bikes is much worse than cars because of all the added inertia in the wheels making it harder to both stop and turn.
One side note: there is a company experimenting with counter-rotating brake rotors as a way to reduce or cancel inertial effects in motorcycles. This has some interesting promise for better handling bikes!