See full version: There; s no such thing as a suicide shifter
I think you need all three to truly be a "suicide" bike. Me? I like bikes when they are set up with any two of these three attributes. All three is a little too hard to ride in close quarters. I personally ride in the city sometimes, where there is a lot of traffic. I like handshift, so I usually don’t compromise on that aspect.
For many riders, this is a true suicide bike: hand-shifted, with a spring-loaded clutch, and only a rear brake. This precarious arrangement leaves a rider unable to deal with a stop on a grade: It’s not possible to engage the clutch with the left foot, brake with the right, and somehow keep the bike upright as the bike rolls to a stop.
Hot-rod riders also shitcanned the system to get off the line a bit quicker and to ensure that the clutch did not engage during a race. They’d rework the clutch, removing the friction discs and pedal “over center” spring that keeps the pedal engaged, as well as the pedal, generally keeping only half the setup and cutting the other half of the dual pedal off. There were a few different ways to go about this, but the commonality was snappier clutch action that allowed riders to get the bike rolling much more quickly for stoplight-to-stoplight fun. Thus, the spring-loaded clutch was born and put into use on a motorcycle.
Hey, wait a minute. where's the brake flange? Photo by Dan Venditto.
Give it a whirl! It's a little challenging and fun to control a bike in a manner different from what you are accustomed to. Photo by Panhead Jim.
Prior to that, though, manufacturers took a few different approaches to controls over the years, and creative individuals also had their say in things. You'll sometimes hear someone reference one of these setups as a “suicide shifter.” They are usually trying to convey the point that the motorcycle’s gears are changed with the rider’s hands rather than the left foot, but in my opinion the correct term is suicide clutch.
The Law
Originally set to release in 2012, Carbon Motors Corporation (now shuttered) unveiled the Carbon E7, designed to be the most effective police vehicle yet — up to and including suicide doors that would allow for easy in-and-out-ing of detainees. Last June, the concept was revisited with Toyota’s Ultimate Utility Vehicle. Its affiliation with the 5-0 is speculative.
What’s in a name?
Admittedly, “suicide door” is not the most marketable of terms. So the recent re-emergence of center-open design also ushers in new nomenclatures. Rolls Royce calls them “coach doors.” The Opel Meriva B, introduced in 2010, has “flex doors.” And 2011’s Mazda BT-50? “Freestyle doors.” here
One group of people who celebrated a live-large ideology and these big boats on wheels that came with it: gangsters. While controversial, Dave Brownell, former editor of Hemmings Motor News, will agree this is where the name hails from: suicide doors make pushing someone out a piece of cake.
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The 2018 Rolls Royce Phantom / Image via Rolls Royce
Concept is King
A number of stunning suicide concepts have also surfaced in the past few years: the Tesla-killing Porsche Mission E , the forward-thinking, fully-autonomous Mercedes F 015 and — fingers and toes crossed — word on the street that a revived Lincoln Continental concept might be driving our way soon.
The physics of the suicide door are simple: it refers to a any door that is rear-hinged, such that it opens from the front, rather than the back. But from whence did they come? Where the hell’d they go? When are they coming back?
We’ve all heard or been told that various things are “against the law,” but rarely does anyone bother looking them up. So, I will give you a quick list of the most common things people mistakenly believe are against the law when it comes to driving. That is: This stuff is legal (unless noted otherwise for some states).
Driving barefoot. There is no law against it in any state. It is possible that there might be some place with a local ordinance against it but as of the most recent internet check, there are no federal or state prohibitions against it.
here
You are driving a truck, pulling a trailer in which your friends are sitting. You’re barefoot, wearing headphones – the big ones from the ‘70s – and steering the vehicle with a “suicide knob” on the steering wheel. You pull a U-turn and a police officer who was following you pulls you over. Can you be ticketed for any of this?
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A “Suicide Knob” is a small spinning handle attached to a steering wheel that makes one-handed driving easier. They are called “Suicide knobs” because someone thought they should have a scary name to discourage their use. Be that as it may, suicide knobs are not illegal in most states. And I just use the qualifier “most” because I would have to disprove the negative in 49 different states to be conclusive. You don’t see suicide knobs very often in cars (they are sometimes used in boats and tractors) and I’m not sure why you’d want one. Maybe if you have a car with suicide doors you’d have one to flesh out the theme. If so, Amazon has them.
Back in the days of Armstrong steering, spinners were called ‘suicide knobs’. here
It’s virtually the only time I use it.
The bolts underneath could also catch the driver’s fingers and injure the driver. [links]
When the driver would crank the steering wheel around, the steering wheel would then recoil…. spin back and the knob would come back and catch the driver in the wrist. [links]
I have a wood wheel in my truck, so I pad under the spinner, so it doesn’t scar the wood steering wheel. more