General Cycling Discussion - Kill all Hummers!!!!

This is an old topic made new by the size and decadence of the beast called Hummers. A ride this past weekend was almost made a disaster by a Hummer on a country road. As our group was riding we were benignly attacked by one these giants. I say benignly because the driver had no idea she took the entire lane and more on this two lane country road. As a result we were forced off the road by her rolling Stegosaurus. Whose idea is this? What's next, a tank available for commercial sale? Hummers must die!!!!

Werd!

You wouldn't be responsible for this would you? If so, can I turn you in for the reward? ;)

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/state/20030822-1226-wst-cardealership-fire.html


BTW- I drove a hummer in the great war to end all wars back in 1991. I really liked mine. It was great if you had to get 600lbs of explosives to your enemy's facilities in a hurry. The damn thing was a mountain goat and very reliable. No bike rack though...

Ok, I'm through making light of what I am sure was a very scarry situation. But I don't think the make of the car has anything to do with the incompetence of the driver. Most drivers suck. Some suck worse than most. And if only one in a hundred are dangerous, That means we meet with 5 to 20 dangerous drivers a day.

I'm truly sorry you got ran off the road.

A Hummer dealership close to where I live was set ablaze early this morning by a couple arsonists on bicycles........ hmmmm

I'm just glad the new H2 is smaller then the real HUM-V. Most soccer mothers should stick to minivans, because they are mini... i dont think they have the skills needed to drive a SUV as big as a H2. Or so i have noticed with this new h2 craze. Please spare me, if i wanted a hummer i would want it OD green, or desert camo, with all the millitary trimmings (NOTHING!).

:)

I'm glad that the US military uses Hummers. Our nations' security is worth it. I agree that soccer moms and yuppy a-holes are not qualified, and do not need to drive these things. But here's to a free country, where we are free to be as stupid as we want. :beer:

The H2 is a Suburban in new dress. The H1 is pretty much like driving a duelly. I feel that any vehicle class which is a departure from the standard midsize or compact that most people are taught to drive in initially should require the operator to undergo special training. As a matter of fact, I would certainly like to see automobile dealerships be required to include/provide a vehicle familiarisation course for the owner of a new vehicle upon purchase and before that owner can take delivery.

Not to be argumentative here but training is an ancillary point. There are some vehicles that do not belong on the road, these things are just too large to be safe, even in some military situations their girth proved to be too unwieldy. Now add to that a driver who is watching television or listening to one of his 4 cd players or whatever. Unsafe at any speed

Originally posted by Djudd
Not to be argumentative here but training is an ancillary point. There are some vehicles that do not belong on the road, these things are just too large to be safe, even in some military situations their girth proved to be too unwieldy. Now add to that a driver who is watching television or listening to one of his 4 cd players or whatever. Unsafe at any speed

I think driver training has everything to do with it. As for the width... a Ford F350 truck has an even wider footprint. A Hummer H1 has a width of 81.2". An F350 duelly which is the same class of vehicle has a width of 94.7". Would you also exclude them? Even a non-duelly F350 is not much leaner at 79.0". Ambulances and work-trucks are typically 95" or more wide. If people can learn how to drive these vehicles through effective training then it is possible for people to learn to drive Hummers effectively. You make it sound as if the Hummer's width stretchs from sea-to-shining-sea. Let's look at other vehicles of other classes too. Corvette - 73.6", Ferrari 360 - 75.7", Dodge Viper - 76.0", mid-90's Chevy Impala - 77.5", Audi A8 - 79". All of these are not that much thinner than a Hummer H1. Most are within half a foot of being as wide.

Perhaps we ought to determine the merits or demerits of a vehicle like the Hummer according to the things it does to all of us rather than the things it does for those who drive them. With fuel efficiency somewhere around 11 miles to the gallon, use of the Hummer H2 makes us more dependent on oil, which, in turn, makes us more likely to go to war in oil-rich areas of the world. Even if we can forget that the world's oil resources are limited and, if we continue consuming gasoline the way we consume it, bound to run out before we have developed alternative fuels and transportation methods, we ought to remember that consumption of fossil fuels adds to ozone pollution and pumps more carbon dioxide into our already warming atmosphere. If we consider, too, that Hummer drivers use them pretty much the same as other drivers use their vehicles--that is, drivers alone in their vehicles--we ought to realize that very few drivers have legitimate reasons to drive Hummers or other vehicular behemoths; they drive them simply because they want to drive them. Driving such environmentally and socially destructive vehicles may well be our right, but we exercise that right at the expense of our responsibility to preserve our environment and our social order for future generations. I would not want to prevent people who legitimately need them from driving them, but I'd like those who do not need such large, inefficient vehicles to stop destroying our future.

I think people who want to drive a certain size car need special training and licensing, like commercial drivers and pilots.

Originally posted by Djudd
As a result we were forced off the road by her rolling Stegosaurus.

:roflmao:

Originally posted by Djudd
This is an old topic made new by the size and decadence of the beast called Hummers. A ride this past weekend was almost made a disaster by a Hummer on a country road. As our group was riding we were benignly attacked by one these giants. I say benignly because the driver had no idea she took the entire lane and more on this two lane country road. As a result we were forced off the road by her rolling Stegosaurus. Whose idea is this? What's next, a tank available for commercial sale? Hummers must die!!!!

Your problem wasn't the Hummer. It was the driver.

I agree with the the need for training/testing for driving anything larger than a minivan. If they can successfully parallel park the behemoths in a tight space, then they can get a licence to drive them.

Last month I was sitting in the middle lane of a three lane exit from a grocery store (one right turn exit lane, one left exit, and one entrance). A young buck in a decked out over size pickup was turning into the entrance lane and managed to nearly hit me in my lane and clip the curb at the same time. Of course he yelled at me to move out of his way. As he pulled on by, I yelled back that he should get a small vehicle to match his driving ability. He took exception to my advise and tried to turn around his truck to come back towards me, but in his oversized PU his U turn became a 5 point turn which backed up traffic in every direction. By the time he got straighten out I was a block away and he never bothered to follow-up on our "conversation"!

Originally posted by blwyn

He took exception to my advise and tried to turn around his truck to come back towards me, but in his oversized PU his U turn became a 5 point turn which backed up traffic in every direction. By the time he got straighten out I was a block away and he never bothered to follow-up on our "conversation"!

All right, BLWYN! You have my number. If you run into him again, call me. Just keep going in circles around the guy. Even if I am across town, I should be able to make it to your location before he gets turned around.

Originally posted by mike
All right, BLWYN! You have my number. If you run into him again, call me. Just keep going in circles around the guy. Even if I am across town, I should be able to make it to your location (by bicycle) before he gets turned around. With the two of us circling around him, he should run out of gas before he catches either of us.

Originally posted by mike



?lol

Perhaps we ought to determine the merits or demerits of a vehicle like the Hummer according to the things it does to all of us rather than the things it does for those who drive them. :lol:
All BF members must now submit there vehicle purchase requests through Prosody for evaluation to ensure they are purchasing the correct vehicle for his needs. :lol:

Originally posted by KleinMp99
?lol

Kind of an inside joke. BLWYN and I live in the same town.

I was run off the road by a Beetle, does that meen they are evil too?

I don't understand why people blame cars for the drivers stupidity.

Originally posted by NitroZip
I was run off the road by a Beetle, does that meen they are evil too?

I don't understand why people blame cars for the drivers stupidity.



Dittos.



And the old man that hit 14 riders from a Tampa cycle club was driving an Oldsmobile.

Heck, I've been passed by the most curteous drivers in a full tandem 18 wheeler, so it's all in the driver's attitude, not in the size of the rig.

were not blaming the cars, if you all have read the posts were ranting and raving tha most people cant DRIVE them. I mean take any geo driving commuter and stick them in a hummer... see how they do.

Originally posted by spazegun2213
were not blaming the cars, if you all have read the posts were ranting and raving tha most people cant DRIVE them. I mean take any geo driving commuter and stick them in a hummer... see how they do.

But my point is that they are just as stupid in the GEO.

And the title does say Kill All Hummers, not the drivers.

But my point is that they are just as stupid in the GEO.

And the title does say Kill All Hummers, not the drivers.


true, but most "average" people have no idea how to handle things as big as a hummer...

but yes.. it is the person fault

Originally posted by Mtn Mike
I'm glad that the US military uses Hummers. Our nations' security is worth it.


I heard the US military wasn't that keen on it compared to the British Landrover?

Originally posted by khuon
You make it sound as if the Hummer's width stretchs from sea-to-shining-sea. Let's look at other vehicles of other classes too. Corvette - 73.6", Ferrari 360 - 75.7", Dodge Viper - 76.0", mid-90's Chevy Impala - 77.5", Audi A8 - 79". All of these are not that much thinner than a Hummer H1. Most are within half a foot of being as wide.

HALF A FOOT. Let me repeat that HALF A FOOT. That is HUGE. That is a huge difference. Obviously you know very little about automotive design. This is a game of inches. 1" can make a huge difference.
Have you not seen or been inside a H1 or H2? They are HUGE. The driver and passenger are nearly 3 feet apart. Go sit in your car, in fact, go sit in a F-350 and you tell me 6" is not a HUGE difference.

I like suv's but I hate the Hummer. They are too big to take off-roading and are very small inside. They get like 5mpg and they are impractical for anything a consumer would use it for. The ONLY thing they have is "look at me" cache. That can be equally divided between curiosity and hate.

Anything that makes a Hemi Ram look fuel efficient is really messed up. Welcome to the H2. btw, a smaller H3 is on the way next year.

Originally posted by belfast-biker
I heard the US military wasn't that keen on it compared to the British Landrover?


LOL

Originally posted by RacerX
HALF A FOOT. Let me repeat that HALF A FOOT. That is HUGE. That is a huge difference. Obviously you know very little about automotive design. This is a game of inches. 1" can make a huge difference.

It depends on the situation. If you're trailing the Rubicon and you've got your side-mirrors folded trying to squeeze between a boulder on one side and a tree and edge of a cliff on the other then yes, 6" is a big difference. For purposes of a vehicle on the road and passing, it is not. And I do know a little something about automotive design.

And what exact impact does the extra width of a Hummer effect? For purposes of passing someone on the road, 3" on either side more is not going to effect clearance distances that much. Someone who can't manage to clear an obstacle while passing on the road with a Hummer is not going to be significantly safer if they've got three more inches to one side.



Originally posted by RacerX
Have you not seen or been inside a H1 or H2? They are HUGE. The driver and passenger are nearly 3 feet apart. Go sit in your car, in fact, go sit in a F-350 and you tell me 6" is not a HUGE difference.

Yes, I have been in both the H1 and H2. I've also been on trail courses in both. I am not denying that there's a difference but again... for purposes of maneuvering them on the road, an H1 is no different in width than a duelly or a work truck. And the H2 is slimmer. My point is that there are people perfectly capable of operating such vehicles with a fair degree of safety so the problem the original poster had should not have been with the vehicle itself but with the driver who obviously has had inadequate training recognising and is not familiar with the boundary edges of her vehicle.



Originally posted by RacerX
I like suv's but I hate the Hummer. They are too big to take off-roading and are very small inside. They get like 5mpg and they are impractical for anything a consumer would use it for. The ONLY thing they have is "look at me" cache. That can be equally divided between curiosity and hate.

That is your opinion. Other people have found Hummers quite useful. No, I personally would not get one because I know they don't fit on the trails I go on but there are places where they do fit fine and even excel at.


Originally posted by RacerX
Anything that makes a Hemi Ram look fuel efficient is really messed up.

There are lots of vehicles that get worse mileage. Are they considered "messed up" too? It's all a matter of perspective. Blaming the vehicle for the irresponsible use by the owner is at best pissing into the wind and worse feeding silly contraversy and detracting attention away from the real problem which is poor driver training.

BTW, the US military is currently doing research and has at least two prototype hybrid-engine technology HMMWVs they're testing as well as hydrogen fuel-cell based demonstrators.


Originally posted by RacerX
Welcome to the H2. btw, a smaller H3 is on the way next year.

The H3 I believe will be built on the platform destined to replace the S10/Blazer/Jimmy chassis.

Originally posted by belfast-biker
I heard the US military wasn't that keen on it compared to the British Landrover?

SOCOM wanted and got the LR110 (actually they wanted their old M551 flat-fendered Jeeps) but thats because their mission requirements were different than the rest of the general military. For the most part, the HMMWV does well for its duties of a multirole/multifunction fast recon and light support vehicle. There are many things that an LR110 can do better than a HMMWV but the opposite is also true.

Originally posted by khuon
It depends on the situation. If you're trailing the Rubicon and you've got your side-mirrors folded trying to squeeze between a boulder on one side and a tree and edge of a cliff on the other then yes, 6" is a big difference. For purposes of a vehicle on the road and passing, it is not. And I do know a little something about automotive design.

And what exact impact does the extra width of a Hummer effect? For purposes of passing someone on the road, 3" on either side more is not going to effect clearance distances that much. Someone who can't manage to clear an obstacle while passing on the road with a Hummer is not going to be significantly safer if they've got three more inches to one side.

Yes, I have been in both the H1 and H2. I've also been on trail courses in both. I am not denying that there's a difference but again... for purposes of maneuvering them on the road, an H1 is no different in width than a duelly or a work truck. And the H2 is slimmer. My point is that there are people perfectly capable of operating such vehicles with a fair degree of safety so the problem the original poster had should not have been with the vehicle itself but with the driver who obviously has had inadequate training recognising and is not familiar with the boundary edges of her vehicle.

That is your opinion. Other people have found Hummers quite useful. No, I personally would not get one because I know they don't fit on the trails I go on but there are places where they do fit fine and even excel at.

There are lots of vehicles that get worse mileage. Are they considered "messed up" too? It's all a matter of perspective. Blaming the vehicle for the irresponsible use by the owner is at best pissing into the wind and worse feeding silly contraversy and detracting attention away from the real problem which is poor driver training.

BTW, the US military is currently doing research and has at least two prototype hybrid-engine technology HMMWVs they're testing as well as hydrogen fuel-cell based demonstrators.

The H3 I believe will be built on the platform destined to replace the S10/Blazer/Jimmy chassis.

Nice load you're trying to dump. I dunno, are you even convincing yourself?