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Kartings good fun. I'm not a fanatic but it's great to race around on those things. Most Kartings indoor though isn't it? I know you can get outside tracks but the majority is indoor I thought. Which means if they ear those things indoor they mst think they're cool.... Hahahahaha!!!!!!

Hehehe, I can imagine somebody with one of those things on the track... hahahahahahaha!!!! Oh God, I'm going to crack again... hahahahaha!!!!

RE: Most useless accessory

Black Dog — Tue, 20 Feb 2007 10:14:05 GMT

It didn't, and it won't - not among mainstream bikers, at any rate, mainly because it's an over-complicated solution to a simple problem.

Still popular with the karting fraternity, I'm told. Which just reinforces everything you thought about kart fanatics.

RE: Most useless accessory

Mazz — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 17:19:28 GMT

Ahahaha........ <deep breathe> phew, ok back to normal...........

But seriously though, I hope that never caught on or ever will in the future!

RE: Most useless accessory

Black Dog — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 14:53:17 GMT

Mazz (19/02/2007)

PAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA What a Gimp!!!! HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA...Oh god.... hehehe.... not laughed like that for a while! ..... ok breathe...........Pahahahaha!

Just breathe normally, you'll be OK in a minute. ... I'm sure ...

BWAHAHAHAHA that picture FNAHAHAHAHAHA

Effin priceless.

RE: Most useless accessory

Mazz — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 10:44:32 GMT

PAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA What a Gimp!!!! HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA...Oh god.... hehehe.... not laughed like that for a while! ..... ok breathe...........Pahahahaha!

RE: Most useless accessory

Black Dog — Fri, 16 Feb 2007 21:15:03 GMT

Yup, that's the boy. Curious.

RE: Most useless accessory

yukfoo — Fri, 16 Feb 2007 17:53:45 GMT

Black Dog (29/01/2007)

Is anyone else on this forum old enough to remember those propeller-type visors that were the fashion for scooterists in about 1965? Worn with an open-face helmet (yep, Centurion) and clipping on just like a standard flip-up, the visor took the form of a perspex propeller about 6 inches in diameter. As you rode along, the propeller whirled round and (in theory) flung all the rain off by centrifugal force.

One of these. The Rotary Rain Visor.

RE: Most useless accessory

Mazz — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 09:37:29 GMT

Surely there must've been a major health and safety issue with those things! Bloody dangerous if you ask me. I'll stick to my Shoei me thinks!

RE: Most useless accessory

Black Dog — Tue, 06 Feb 2007 11:40:34 GMT

I can just see it now. Dude on Hayabusa cruising at 190 down the motorway (where the law and conditions permit, obviously). Visor spinning merrily, flinging off the rain as intended. Rider sits up to see over screen, visor speeds up, gyroscopic effect means rider cannot turn head, smoke starts appearing from visor bearing, visor gets a wobble on, horrible screeching noise, visor lets go at 12,000 rpm, slices through neck of rider, decapitating him, bike gets tank slapper, end of world as we know it.

Hmmm. Think I'll stick to a standard visor and a spot of Rain-X, thanks.

RE: Most useless accessory

lady p — Fri, 02 Feb 2007 18:35:55 GMT

Can you imagine if you were on a really fast sports bike IE busa, blade, gsxr or something similar, going down Santa Pod with one of those things rotating at about 100000000000,0000 times a minute (ok slight exaggeration) but you would end up being a helicopter wouldn't you?????

Suppose it would give us (the audience) something to talk about when you went down the strip, makes a change I suppose from ohhhhhhh he was fast.....

RE: Most useless accessory

roadhoover — Fri, 02 Feb 2007 09:32:39 GMT

I knew I'd seen these things before also, so If you are mad, then I must be also. That ad looks like it could have come from the pages of a Flash Gordon comic mid fifties. I wonder how fast they would spin? (dependant on the speed you were going I'm guessing). What sort of bearing required for the whole contrivance to spin upon? Would there have been a problem with chopped up aerial fauna spattering ones Belstaffs and the mature bearded gentleman motobicyclist having to guard said facial hair in case of snagging and resultant possible neck injury. I checked that link out and it was mentioned that karters still use them. Surely not.

RE: Most useless accessory

lady p — Fri, 02 Feb 2007 08:37:47 GMT

Oh now they are attractive........NOT.....

RE: Most useless accessory

Black Dog — Thu, 01 Feb 2007 21:29:55 GMT

Well, I was sort-of right. My memory had them as propellers, where they were really circular with vanes on. But I found an original advert for them:

http://www.forums.lcgb.co.uk/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=6864&view=next&sid=7d955a376284176082f56af06e2d0b90, about half-way down the page.

So I'm not mad. Yet.

RE: Most useless accessory

Black Dog — Thu, 01 Feb 2007 16:07:27 GMT

Guys, I'm not kidding, although it was 40 years ago when I was very lickle. But I definitely remember seeing them around Leeds where I lived. We had Mods and Rockers in them thar days, and everyone wore the jet-style helmets if they wore anything at all (full-face helmets hadn't been invented). Rockers wore black or white, Mods were allowed to go for nicer colours Rockers would wear proper goggles, Mods would tend to prefer a flip-down visor, which most Rockers thought was the height of poofiness. The spinning visors were only ever seen on scooter riders, usually wearing a smart suit and shiny shoes as well As I said, they didn't last. A bright idea, a brief craze, real world, doesn't work, dead and buried.

I've Googled like mad, but I can't find a trace of evidence. Mind you, how many other products that went off the market 40 years ago will come up in a Google search? Not many.

RE: Most useless accessory

lady p — Tue, 30 Jan 2007 17:41:27 GMT

Must be the funniest thing in the world with a propeller going in front of your face... Well ok not for the rider but everyone would have to control their laughing....

RE: Most useless accessory

Mazz — Tue, 30 Jan 2007 11:56:33 GMT

Are you kidding me?

Have you got any pics of that? All I'm visualising is a visor on a pivot and spinning very rapidly. Is that about the gist of it?

RE: Most useless accessory

Black Dog — Mon, 29 Jan 2007 12:18:13 GMT

Well, that's all ********, innit. This V-wipe and the like (yes, I remember them, but a gloved finger always worked for me ) are actually an attempt at being useful.

1. The rider looked like a total prat. The effect was of watching someone being pulled along by his face, like the reverse of a hovercraft.

2. They didn't work. As the blades whirled round - and yes, they did fling off the rainwater - the oncoming air was transmitted straight through to the rider's face. You might as well have been wearing nothing.

ISTR the craze lasted about 6 months, before august publications like "Motorcycle Mechanics" and "Practical Motorcycle" tested them and told the world how shit they were.

Fun while it lasted - watched from the pavement, obviously.

RE: Most useless accessory

Mazz — Fri, 26 Jan 2007 11:42:00 GMT

Actually, on the subject of accessories, what do you all think of those furry animal parts you can stick on your helmet? In a way I find it funny and you know the rider doesn't take it seriously either but in another way I just think... "You look like a gimp, take them off your Arai and treasure the beauty that is an RX7 Corsair"

Any thoughts?

RE: Most useless accessory

Mazz — Fri, 26 Jan 2007 11:35:54 GMT

Ah, so it's already been done! I wonder why you don't see them around anymore? I've read a fair few mags and seen equipment reviews etc but not one has said about the Apache or something similar.

Glad you to hear you have a rain free visor Yukfoo

RE: Most useless accessory

yukfoo — Thu, 25 Jan 2007 17:18:29 GMT

Mazz, you have just described my well used 6 year old pair of Apache gloves. The integral flexible rubber blade stitched into each thumb works a treat.

RE: Most useless accessory

Mazz — Wed, 24 Jan 2007 10:06:03 GMT

On numerous occassions now I've been riding home from work in the rain and I've thought to myself 'How can I get ride of this rain on my visor?' I usually resort to turning my head or wiping it with my gloved hand but then I thought. 'What about a rubber strip integrated into the glove itself?'

To be honest number6, the idea is sound. Where they went wrong I feel is the fact it's a 'Slip On' (I've not seen the product but from what you've said it sounds like it), so it doesn't bend and clear anything.

If they were to've produced a glove with the strip actualy in the glove itself it may've worked better. It would've had to have been flexible so the concave shape of the visor wouldn't've been a problem, plus they could've gone all out and made it the ultimate Winter Warmer glove with Gore-Tex inner lining and padding etc.

Obviously, money is an issue along with R&D but if it can be made.... I think there might be a market for them. I've not seen a glove out there with this rubber strip... but that could be because it's been done and tested and it was crap!

RE: Most useless accessory

Mr Black — Wed, 24 Jan 2007 09:28:35 GMT

V wipe is such an unfortunate brand name isn't it? I mean one would think it was for a...no no no I won't lower myself (ho ho).

Off the top of my head I would say Centurion crash helmets ( wot a pun).

The best.....er....oh I dunno Allspeed spannies, halcyon days peeps

Most useless accessory

Number 6 — Tue, 23 Jan 2007 15:31:12 GMT

Here's my vote for starters: Years ago some bright spark decided that it would be a great idea if the functional simplicity of the car's windscreen wiper could be transferred to the biking market. The answer, it seems, was to invent the V-Wipe (if my memory serves me right, which it often does not).

This was a rubberised wiper-blade product that would slide over your gloved index finger of choice and, in rainy or foggy situations, would simply be brought to bear on the rider's visor with a swift left to right swipe and hey presto! vision was restored.

Except it wasn't. It smeared, it failed to remove the majority of water (unless you could master the technique of applying a flat surface to a convex lens), it needed application roughly on a par with the two-second cycle of the car-equivalent in heavy rain. It was crap. Turning your head from side to side however seemed to produce results.

Getting the thumbs up, however, is this: A small bit of flat wood. Nice. To have and to hold such an item is truly beneficial. Stuff it under your side-stand on hot days. Light, easy to replace, and probably free. No doubt your local dealership will sell you the carbon-fibre nano-technology derived modern consumerist society branded equivalent for a shed-load of cash. But like the kids from Grange Hill, just say no.

And you? Where do you cast your vote, Mr and Ms Modern Motorcyclist?