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[evdjerome]

My place of work moved and I now park in a parking garage. The Zero won't trigger the parking gates on entry or exit. I've read you can mount Neodymium magnets to the bottom of motorcycles to trigger the gates and traffic lights. Is there anything on the Zero that could be damaged by this?

[DPsSRnSD]

Do you know if they use buried wire loops for detection?  If so, can you see the trace of the loop on the pavement? Stopping with your wheel on the side of the loop, tangential to it, and directly over it can often trigger the loops. This even works with most bicycle wheels.

[Richard230]

I spent 30 years working for a city engineering department and I can tell you that magnets will do nothing to trigger induction loops buried in the pavement. Our maintenance crews used to check for the operation of these loops by tossing a shovel on top of the loop. The detect metal, not a magnetic field. If you want these loops to detect your Zero, you will either have to attach a steel shovel under your belly pan or ask the parking garage manager to have a technician adjust the sensitivity of the loops so that it will detect your bike (good luck with that). 

Interestingly, the California DOT used to require new traffic signal installations to be able to detect Honda 50 step-though type motorcycles before they would be accepted by the State. However, now I believe that they must be able to detect a bicycle waiting at the stoplight. So expensive, computerized, adjustable, Department of Transportation-regulated traffic signal installations can be designed to detect just about anything with metal in it, but that may not be true for cheap parking garage detectors. Can you wiggle past the gate arm?

[Shadow]

+1 for getting in through the exit gate.

[JaimeC]

Yeah, a friend of mine bought one of those "Green Light Trigger" magnets and discovered it did absolutely NOTHING.  Put them in the same category as "Deer Whistles" as useless accessories designed to separate you from your hard-earned dollars.

If it really were a magnetic field that triggered those things, think about the field that must be surrounding that powerful electric motor in the Zero mounted down by the swingarm pivot less than a foot off the ground.

[evdjerome]

Thanks for all the replies. I will abandon the magnet idea and see if the garage will adjust the sensitivity settings.

[Erasmo]

You could try to flip out the sidestand, that brings some metal closer to the loop and might be just enough to trigger it.

[MrDude_1]

If you want to try something like this, I would be intrested to know if it works...

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Motorcycle-Green-Light-Trigger-Inductive-Loop-Traffic-Sensor-Activator-v3/332346508692?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2055119.m1438.l2649

I have the same issue leaving work. Right now I just roll the bike out through the pedestrian gate.

[JaimeC]

If you want to try something like this, I would be intrested to know if it works...

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Motorcycle-Green-Light-Trigger-Inductive-Loop-Traffic-Sensor-Activator-v3/332346508692?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2055119.m1438.l2649

I have the same issue leaving work. Right now I just roll the bike out through the pedestrian gate.

Didn't you see what I wrote above?  Doesn't work.  Same as "Deer Whistles."  All they do is separate you from your hard earned cash.  If a magnetic field was all it took, the rather large magnetic field created by that very powerful electric motor about a foot off the ground would activate it easily enough.

[Curt]

My office building has an underground garage with a large door that folds up and down. For the first year I worked there, it opened as long as I oriented in a certain angle along one of the wire cuts in the pavement. Then it stopped working and I'd be trapped in at night. I had to park in front of the door and take a 3-minute trip up an elevator and around the outside of the building to open it from the outside.

Building management was happy to call the contractor to adjust the sensitivity to max. It started working again, but only for a month. I contacted them again and the building engineer responded by placing an aluminum "tenants only" sign on the floor against the wall. When I want to leave, I lay the sign down on the floor in a very specific place. I can reach down don't even have to get off the bike.

I was skeptical that the sign wouldn't be stolen, but it's been there for nearly 2 years now. Whenever I run into another trapped biker or bicyclist, I enlighten then about it.

[DPsSRnSD]

. . . the building engineer responded by placing an aluminum "tenants only" sign on the floor against the wall. When I want to leave, I lay the sign down on the floor in a very specific place. I can reach down don't even have to get off the bike . . .

I wonder if putting metal foil under the inner soles would allow one to simply put their feet down.

[Curt]

I wonder if putting metal foil under the inner soles would allow one to simply put their feet down.

Brilliant, I'll have to try that. Well, assuming I'm there late one night this week, anyway, as my last day there is Friday. My new job will be riding all over the place.

[hubert]

Do these loops detect any kind of metal? I mean, the aluminium sign or the aluminium side stand. I thought the magnetic loop would only detect magnetic metals like iron/steel.

[MrDude_1]

Do these loops detect any kind of metal? I mean, the aluminium sign or the aluminium side stand. I thought the magnetic loop would only detect magnetic metals like iron/steel.

any conductive metal works. So aluminum ladders, signs, etc work just as well as ferrous metals

If you want to try something like this, I would be intrested to know if it works...

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Motorcycle-Green-Light-Trigger-Inductive-Loop-Traffic-Sensor-Activator-v3/332346508692?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2055119.m1438.l2649

I have the same issue leaving work. Right now I just roll the bike out through the pedestrian gate.

Didn't you see what I wrote above?  Doesn't work.  Same as "Deer Whistles."  All they do is separate you from your hard earned cash.  If a magnetic field was all it took, the rather large magnetic field created by that very powerful electric motor about a foot off the ground would activate it easily enough.

whoa there, back off the bitchyness..
I didnt need to read what you wrote, I already know a magnet wont work. lol

Go look at what I posted...
If you look into it, its an active device. It looks for the alternating current of the loop detector with its own loop antenna. When it sees one, it transmits an inverted signal. the effect is like trying to induce a current in an inductor in the opposite direction.. this makes the garage detector loop see an change in current, the same way it sees an change when its creating eddy currents in metal over it.... only much stronger.

the electrical theory is sound. Its not really available in the USA because its patented ( https://patents.google.com/patent/US7432827 ) and no one produces it... not to mention getting it to pass FCC part 15 would be tricky.

However this guy is outside of the USA selling them online.

[JaimeC]

I stand corrected:
https://www.superstreetbike.com/dropping-kickstand-or-using-magnet-trips-green-light-mythbusters

Apparently, those magnet things do work IF they are located on the bike properly.  Hmmmm... from reading the article it might be better to attach the magnet to a long piece of string and carry it in your pocket.  When you come to a stop, dangle and wave the magnet over the wire.  At least, that's what I gather from reading the article anyway.

I still don't understand why the magnetic field around the motor doesn't trip those things, though.  Is it that well shielded??