Quote:

I keep a couple magnets under my bike to help trip traffic signals.



Not to burst your bubble, but the loop sensors in the road don't detect magnetic fields. They detect any suitably large chunk of magnetoresponsive material, such as a car's engine, frame, body, etc...

This changes the inductive resistance of the circuit made by the wire buried under the road's surface, which tells the traffic light that a car is present above the wire loop. A magnetic field (especially from a tiny magnet under your bike) will not have any effect on it; but not to worry, as your motorcycle's frame will be plenty to trip the circuit. Even steel-alloy framed bicycles will trip a properly calibrated circuit. However, the newfangled aluminum alloy bikes with carbon-fiber wheels won't.

Additionally, those wire-loop sensors are falling out of favor. Most new traffic lights use cameras mounted on the overhead section of the gantry. These cameras are arranged such that they have a good view of the lanes. A computer monitors the images and can tell when a vehicle rolls into the lane, even a small vehicle like an aluminum-framed bicycle.

The cameras have the added feature of being able to record activity at the intersection and thereby provide photo-evidence in the event of an accident at the intersection. But their main purpose is to detect traffic waiting at the light; and certainly you won't be able to trip the camera-based lane sensors with magnets.

Now, if you really want to be able to trip traffic lights in your favor, you can purchase a MIRT device online for about $400.

http://www.themirt.com/order_now.html

Here is an article though that explains why that may be a waste of money...

http://www.drivers.com/article/651/

Certainly it is poor judgement. While I'd like to have one, I wouldn't want you, or anybody else to have one or it'd completely defeat the purpose.

He came up and asked, "What are you riding?" I looked at him and said, "Triumph Bonneville America" and he got that 'hellz yeah' look in his eye.