My 2011 Heritage does not have enough mass to change most red lights. I'm told I could just tape a neodyium magnet to the bottom of the bike and it should do the job. Also read these magnets are permanent and very powerful. Could interfere with the electronics on your bike. Anybody have the scoop on this...

 

Most red lights are pressure sensored so a magnet probably wouldn't work but I am no scientist. Best thing to do is read up on laws in your state, here in NC you wait three minutes and then you can run it. Which really means as long as a cop isn't around you could pretty much run it when ever because it would be hard to prove you didn't wait.

 

I usually just make a right turn, a u turn, and then another right turn back on to the original road. It sucks but it works.

 

Surprisingly enough, even though Jersey is stupid when it comes to their laws, this is true here too.. If you're sitting at the light, and it's not changing for an extended amount of time, and you can legitimately make a safe pass through the intersection, you're free to do it on the bike. When I took the motorcycle safety course to get my license, it was taught by a retired 25+ year motorcycle cop, and he told us to do it like that, he also mentioned that you don't necessarily have to come to a complete stop at stop signs (i don't mean run them.. i mean slow down, be aware, check for vehicles, but you dont have to stop enough such that you'd have to put your foot down), and it's still passable for bikes. Just be safe with it, and don't be a dick if you get stopped..just tell the cop "I was sitting there, the light wasn't changing, it didn't sense i was there, I checked both ways repeatedly and felt it was safe"..he'll understand, and probably want to check out your ride. At which point you should ask him to check out his gun.

 

same as above in SC

 

You will probably have more luck with the ones like in the firetrucks. What I have. You can get one on ebay. Quite small. Think they are legal as long as you use it sitting steal at the light in most states. Magnets do not work. Some lights just do not work no mater what. Report it to your locality. We have a fairly new law in VA about red lights and motorcycles. Quite long, two cycles, jump up and down, look for the police and go....

 

In addition to no helmet laws if we could add lane splitting we would have the triple crown in mc friendly laws. Thanks ABATE!

 

I thought they were all weight activated. The ones I have encountered seem to be. Whenever I come up to a red light that is activated by traffic, I hit the breaks fairly hard right at the end to throw weight forward onto the front wheel. That's been working great for me. I haven't failed to activate a light yet as long as I hit the breaks hard right at the stop line.

 

Not trying to bust anybody's ***** here but actually those loops, circles or squares you see in the road at a light are not pressure sensors or some big plate acting like a switch waiting for something heavy to roll over it to make contact with another below it. They are inductive loops. So it is more like a metal detector. The whole switching system of that intersection monitors the inductive reading at each light which is a constant reading. Once something large and metallic rolls over it the reading gets higher and therefore knows a vehicle is there and begins it's timing protocol, whatever it may be set to at particular times of the day.

Normally a good sized bike like a Harley should change the inductive field and be detected but as we all know that does not always happen. The loop detection sensitivity can be set at certain levels but a problem arises when the left turn lane loop is set to be more sensitive in that it might detect a larger vehicle in the lane to the right. So I normally ride up on top of the right hand side of the loop when feasible hoping that if a vehicle is in the right hand lane that me plus that vehicle are creating a larger inductive disturbance on the right hand side of the loop. Am I crazy? I dunno. Try not to be so much in the middle of the loop but more on top of one of the lines.

But as far as a super strong magnet on the bottom of my bike? Just introducing a gremlin to the system and I also don't want to be a mini streetsweeper picking up any kind of metal that may be on the road.

 

first of all sorry this is wrong .there is a an inductive loop of wire under the ashphalt or cement not a scale.it operates by sensing a change in frequency in the electro magnetic field over the coil of wire..
second are you advising people to run red lights ...............really