Got hit by a gate arm today

[Rossco]

Well, today I got to test the durability of my helmet, which for a motorcyclist is never a good thing. Before any of you ask, no I did NOT crash.
As I was leaving the parking lot at the college I go to I had to pass through a gate.
Now these gates arrive from the manufactere with This on them.



Of course, back in September, when these gates ere installed. I immediately e-mailed the parking services people and asked if this as for real. They assured me that it was just put their by the manufacturer as a liability type of thing and that I would be fine bringing my bike through those gates.
The gate works using sensors placed in the ground that would detect a vehicle. When a vehicle is detected the gate arm is supposed to raise, and stay raised long enough for said vehicle to clear. It is supposed to stay up long enough.
Yep, guess who got hit by the gate arm? Except for a sore neck, I'm fine, oh and I need a new helmet.

Time to have a little word with the people at the parking services......

[TheIglu]

I'd say "here's your sign", but you obviously knew about it already

[mzdagrl]

so, they put them on all the lots with motorcycle parking spaces? sounds like discrimination to me.

[Mike Qube]

When I go into a lot with the gates, I just go around them.

[CBR929RE]

Salem State?

[Awesome]

Should have got a few guys to lift it up.

[slammp]

Fyi, the gates are activated by a wire, imbedded in the ground - called a "loop", which detects the metal in a vehicle. Most motorcycles do not contain enough metal close enough to the ground to trigger the loop. Thats why the stickers are on the gates as a warning. Same thing if you are towing a trailer - the gate will come down between the truck and the trailer thinking that the vehicle has passed because of the lack of metal at the hitch point.

Professional parking advice - drive around the gate.

[caddydaddy]

Professional parking advice - drive around the gate.

Some lots that I have been on....there's not enough room to go around the gate!

[R7]

Fyi, the gates are activated by a wire, imbedded in the ground - called a "loop", which detects the metal in a vehicle. Most motorcycles do not contain enough metal close enough to the ground to trigger the loop. Thats why the stickers are on the gates as a warning. Same thing if you are towing a trailer - the gate will come down between the truck and the trailer thinking that the vehicle has passed because of the lack of metal at the hitch point.

Professional parking advice - drive around the gate.

In most cases you can see the sawcut where the line is to detect the metal. Similar to redlights, the axle of your bike will trigger it. In other words, if your at one of those gates..or at a redlight, put the axle over the saw cut line and it'll trigger the gate..or activate the redlight.

[ThisBitch]

Some lots that I have been on....there's not enough room to go around the gate!

YouTube - Limbo Rock Vedio

[WordTooYoMamma]

SUE

[dontpanic]

Try putting the sidestand down at the sawcut.

[CBR929RE]

I think you guys are missing something here. The gate obviously went up as it had to come down on his head. so he doesn't need tricks on how to get it to go up.

[tsenfw]

This would happen to me at my school parking garage. The attendants told me it won't even open for a bike so I would walk/waddle with one foot on the high curb and roll pass the bar with the bike leaned all the way to the right just to make it through lol

[OreoGaborio]

Having worked closely with the parking garage folks in my building, I've gotten some insight as to how they and their equipment operates. They're probably gonna tell you to go screw... and rightly so. Plain & simple, the gates aren't designed with motorcycles in mind and there's signage posted there there plain as day.

Will it work with a bike? Sure.
Could it come down on you? Uhhhh yeah. Obviously, since it happened.

My advice: Be quicker or duck next time.

You're lucky you don't have hydraulic metal plate barriers that come up like a ramp as the arm comes down like we in my garage... I fucked up and started going just as it started to come up. No time or room to stop so I had to gun it, duck, and JUMP the fucking metal barrier as it came up. That was interesting.

[hskater26]

i worked in the providence place mall for a short time but i never had any issues with the gate.

[R7]

I think you guys are missing something here. The gate obviously went up as it had to come down on his head. so he doesn't need tricks on how to get it to go up.

You're right..take the car, problem solved is the only real advice here

Either the gate going down is on a timer, or something has to trigger it to go down...or it was broken.
I'd rent a crane!

[OreoGaborio]

You're right..take the car, problem solved is the only real advice here

Either the gate going down is on a timer, or something has to trigger it to go down...or it was broken.
I'd rent a crane!

In most cases, the trigger is when it doesn't sense anything metal over the inductive loop.

Every time I ride to work I go through 2 of these gates to get in and two to get out. I can take my sweet time passing in & out of these things, I just make damn sure I stay right over as much of the inductive loop as I can until I'm ready to pass through the gate.

[Doc]

Should have got a few guys to lift it up.

Or a crane.


OH OH!! Next time DUCK!

















Doc Sucks

[slammp]

I think you guys are missing something here. The gate obviously went up as it had to come down on his head. so he doesn't need tricks on how to get it to go up.

No we got it. What you need to understand is that these loops can be very sensitive. There is a box inside of the gate housing called a loop detector. This can be set at different frequencies to increase/decrease the sensitivity of the loop. In many cases (garages particularly) they need to be de-sensitized in order to ensure that SUV's passing by on the floor below do not trigger the loop as this could cause the gate to come down on a car.

Bottom line - your parking operator is not qualified to tell you it is ok to drive through the lane on a bike - there is a reason that the manufacturers put the warning stickers related to motorcycles on the gates - the settings are designed to detect a full size car (couple thousand pounds of metal about 12" above the floor). They are not tuned for a motorcycle and doing so would cause problems for cars (which unfortunately in garages and parking lots make up the majority of the traffic).

My bike works on some garages and not others. I go to Lowell once a week and for the life of me I cannot get the gate to let me out of their garage no matter where I place the bike- I can enter every time with no problem. It really is a crap shoot with a bike.

[gadget]

http://www.wikihow.com/Trigger-Green-Traffic-Lights

Basically, go get a Neodymium Magnet (rare earth) or buy one online for $20 and double stick tape it to the bottom of your bike.

Make sure you clean the surface well with alcohol and use a good double stick tape. Metal parts are usually alloys so they are not very good for holding a magnet by itself also magnets are easily dislodged with sheering forces (pushing on it sideways).

This will solve all of the issues people have mentioned here with not reliably triggering inductive sensor loops.

[The Magician]

just go faster.. were you going snails pace through there?

[RyanNicholson]

Couldn't keep it up eh? No worries it happens to everyone once in a while.

[kato617]

I never had problem with my gate at the condo. Stay in the middle to open and when it does just go!

[01xj]

Never had an issue when I park at Hartford Hospital. After I pay the first thing I do is make dam sure I give it enough gas to get all the way out to the edge of the street and not dawdle under neath the pole. Not saying you did that, but its always something I worried about.


Or you could do what my friends dad did and just drive straight through it.