Driving The Elio?

[wayne kemp]

The motorcycles I've almost hit was because they were black/gray/white and blended in with the road or was because of an Evel Knievel driver.
The cars that almost hit me (when I was young and dumb) were people not paying attention , rubbernecking, combing hair or hugging and kissing and a couple times my fault.
You have to stay sharp when on a bike.
The Elio is bigger than a cycle and you probably won't have as many accidents but it is smaller than a lot of cars and trucks so be careful.

 

[Jeff Porter]

HI, New to the Elio world. I am 'All in" and very excited!
But I wonder how many people have thought about how they should drive an Elio? I fyour answer is "Like I drive my car", you'd be wrong. Let's just hope your not "dead" wrong.
I feel pretty well prepared for the challenge as I've driven a motorcycle all my life and I also have a Mazda Miata. Both very small vehicles with a small visual footprint on the road.
When you're driving a small vehicle such as the Elio, all motorcycle rules will apply. That means SUPER DEFENSIVE DRIVING!! The little vehicles get no respect. Plan for every car to pull out in front of you, change lanes into you and NEVER be in another drivers blind spot!
I could go on, but you get my point.

Welcome to the forum Flyboy. Congrats on your reservation!

New motorcycle rider here, less than a year. I live in a rural area, small town of 2800 people. I'm so thankful to have the opportunity to learn to ride an mc with very little traffic. I caught myself yesterday, riding in a 20 mph zone on the mc, and a vehicle pulled out in front of me, crossing an intersection. As slow as I was going, he was able to make it thru the intersection easily, but my 18 yrs of driving in a metro area took over, and I actually accelerated toward him as he was crossing in front of me. That may be fine in a car, but on a mc, NOT A GOOD thing to do by me. lol

Agree with your advice Flyboy to be extra defensive when driving the Elio. Yes, it is as wide and technically wider on the front axle than most 4-door sedans, but the body is obviously narrow. The strange look of the vehicle hopefully will add to visibility. I saw one of those short Chevy small cars today, really caught my attention because it looked different despite its small footprint.

There are other threads that discuss lights, reflectors, etc. Would probably be a good idea to make your Elio as visible as possible. It's probably also been discussed on other threads, but the Elio's headlights should always be on, whether it's manually or by default.

I know what you meant by "all motorcycle rules apply", in that the mentality of the driver of an Elio should be one of defensive driving, always look out for the other guy, road debris, animals, etc. You must avoid at all costs, thinking after an accident, "how could that driver have NOT seen me?"

Safe travels everyone.

 

[Mike W]

Welcome to the forum Flyboy. Congrats on your reservation!

New motorcycle rider here, less than a year. I live in a rural area, small town of 2800 people. I'm so thankful to have the opportunity to learn to ride an mc with very little traffic. I caught myself yesterday, riding in a 20 mph zone on the mc, and a vehicle pulled out in front of me, crossing an intersection. As slow as I was going, he was able to make it thru the intersection easily, but my 18 yrs of driving in a metro area took over, and I actually accelerated toward him as he was crossing in front of me. That may be fine in a car, but on a mc, NOT A GOOD thing to do by me. lol

Agree with your advice Flyboy to be extra defensive when driving the Elio. Yes, it is as wide and technically wider on the front axle than most 4-door sedans, but the body is obviously narrow. The strange look of the vehicle hopefully will add to visibility. I saw one of those short Chevy small cars today, really caught my attention because it looked different despite its small footprint.

There are other threads that discuss lights, reflectors, etc. Would probably be a good idea to make your Elio as visible as possible. It's probably also been discussed on other threads, but the Elio's headlights should always be on, whether it's manually or by default.

I know what you meant by "all motorcycle rules apply", in that the mentality of the driver of an Elio should be one of defensive driving, always look out for the other guy, road debris, animals, etc. You must avoid at all costs, thinking after an accident, "how could that driver have NOT seen me?"

Safe travels everyone.

As a result of riding our scooters all over creation and the MFS safety training we got for them, that defensive riding mindset has transferred to driving the car. I still find that I am not on top of my driving game as much as I would like but I do my best. Yes, drive defensively (whether on 2, 3 or 4 wheels) and save yourself the discomfort of an accident no matter who's at fault! As for strong winds and the Elio, I think that as a result of it's relatively wide stance, low-ish ground clearance and really a pretty small side profile, that should be no problem. But let's face it, if the wind is strong enough it will put anything over. That's a really wild, extreme and highly unlikely possiblity though. And for the matter of avoiding things in the road, my thought immediately took me to pot holes. I think from what I've read here though, unless they are extremely large that shouldn't be a problem, given we aren't going too fast to take avoidence measures and the hole's not too big.

 

[CompTrex]

As a result of riding our scooters all over creation and the MFS safety training we got for them, that defensive riding mindset has transferred to driving the car. I still find that I am not on top of my driving game as much as I would like but I do my best. Yes, drive defensively (whether on 2, 3 or 4 wheels) and save yourself the discomfort of an accident no matter who's at fault! As for strong winds and the Elio, I think that as a result of it's relatively wide stance, low-ish ground clearance and really a pretty small side profile, that should be no problem. But let's face it, if the wind is strong enough it will put anything over. That's a really wild, extreme and highly unlikely possiblity though. And for the matter of avoiding things in the road, my thought immediately took me to pot holes. I think from what I've read here though, unless they are extremely large that shouldn't be a problem, given we aren't going too fast to take avoidence measures and the hole's not too big.

I straddled a dead fox on the way to work this AM. Dark. Foggy. Hilly. Dead center of my lane. No way to safely swerve to avoid so I straddled it. No problem on four wheels. Gonna get bumpy with three! Sadly, It's just not possible / practical to slow down to a speed such that if there is anything in the road in front of me, I'll have time to safely move into the other lane to avoid. Most times straddling works just fine. I've seen some pretty big dear out here, but so far have been able to straddle. There is the occasional slow moving skunk or 'possum that gets dead after it meets my undercarriage.
All that to say. three wheels will have a learning curve for sure.

 

[Truett Collins]

HI, New to the Elio world. I am 'All in" and very excited!
But I wonder how many people have thought about how they should drive an Elio? I fyour answer is "Like I drive my car", you'd be wrong. Let's just hope your not "dead" wrong.
I feel pretty well prepared for the challenge as I've driven a motorcycle all my life and I also have a Mazda Miata. Both very small vehicles with a small visual footprint on the road.
When you're driving a small vehicle such as the Elio, all motorcycle rules will apply. That means SUPER DEFENSIVE DRIVING!! The little vehicles get no respect. Plan for every car to pull out in front of you, change lanes into you and NEVER be in another drivers blind spot!
I could go on, but you get my point.


Moderator Comment: Merged into existing driving thread

In other words, like I drive my car, drive like every other driver out their is either totally crazy, or is out to get you.

 

[aknaten]

Once in high school driver's ed class, I swerved to avoid hitting a small critter crossing the road. The teacher let me have it and said, "What's more important, the life of the thing crossing the road or you? Hit the dang thing next time!" I still don't intentionally hit something in the road (Karma and all that) but where I could sometimes pass over it without harm, that will no longer be the case with Elio. What the front wheels don't squash the rear wheel will. C'est la vie.

 

[Mike W]

I straddled a dead fox on the way to work this AM. Dark. Foggy. Hilly. Dead center of my lane. No way to safely swerve to avoid so I straddled it. No problem on four wheels. Gonna get bumpy with three! Sadly, It's just not possible / practical to slow down to a speed such that if there is anything in the road in front of me, I'll have time to safely move into the other lane to avoid. Most times straddling works just fine. I've seen some pretty big dear out here, but so far have been able to straddle. There is the occasional slow moving skunk or 'possum that gets dead after it meets my undercarriage.
All that to say. three wheels will have a learning curve for sure.

Boy Howdy to that! One time driving the back roads of Iowa, in the Fall, in the dark I noticed the cars were swerving around something ahesd of me. I wondered why and because I was "younger and stupider" it didn't occur to me to be prepared to slow down and swerve. Turns out it was the biggest dead dear I've seen and I was closing in on it with no opportunity to avoid it (on coming cars) so I gritted my teeth and went on over and made it with no damage to the car. Couldn't say that for the deer. But you're right, I think that sometimes we'll just have to say "Oh shhhhurgar!", grit your teeth and hope for the best!!

 

[CompTrex]

Boy Howdy to that! One time driving the back roads of Iowa, in the Fall, in the dark I noticed the cars were swerving around something ahesd of me. I wondered why and because I was "younger and stupider" it didn't occur to me to be prepared to slow down and swerve. Turns out it was the biggest dead dear I've seen and I was closing in on it with no opportunity to avoid it (on coming cars) so I gritted my teeth and went on over and made it with no damage to the car. Couldn't say that for the deer. But you're right, I think that sometimes we'll just have to say "Oh shhhhurgar!", grit your teeth and hope for the best!!

As someone else on here stated, and I paraphrase, "A butt clenching moment, for sure!"

 

[wheaters]

I live near Sherwood Forest, one of the places we can still see deer running across the roads in England. There are a number of warning signs reminding drivers about this fact. I've seen a few in my time.

One night I was driving back in the dark through there, in my open topped Dutton Phaeton. My sixth sense made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up, so I knew something was about to happen. I felt myself tense up a little, then it happened. Two eyes reflected my lights back at me; I hit the brakes hard and swerved away from it as it leaped out right in front of my car, going like the wind.....



Boy, did I feel silly...but I did miss it!

 

[Mike W]

I live near Sherwood Forest, one of the places we can still see deer running across the roads in England. There are a number of warning signs reminding drivers about this fact. I've seen a few in my time.

One night I was driving back in the dark through there, in my open topped Dutton Phaeton. My sixth sense made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up, so I knew something was about to happen. I felt myself tense up a little, then it happened. Two eyes reflected my lights back at me; I hit the brakes hard and swerved away from it as it leaped out right in front of my car, going like the wind.....



Boy, did I feel silly...but I did miss it!

When I was young and ignorant, I really enjoyed driving at night. A lot less traffic, the cool summer air, nice! I'm just lucky I never got my clock cleaned by a deer! Now, when I'm away from town I look for the tell tale sign of two little round reflective orbs. I'm down right paranoid! Especially during rutting season.