Your latest smart riding decision

[Vermontster]

This morning, when riding to work, I came to the "Left hand turn from H***" as I approached my workplace. It can be a very busy road (traffic speed just speeding up from 35 to 50), especially at 'rush' hour, and the left is on a curve with approaching traffic slowing down (supposedly) from 50 to 35. I approach this turn with some nervousness each morning. Today there was quite a line of traffic approaching, with some 'holes' big enough for me to (probably) get through, but I decided to go past the turn and find a place to turn around up the road safely and come back to it from the easier direction...  It certainly felt much safer!

Seemed like a smart decision (IMHO). It's great when the brain engages 

Wondering what smart decision others have made lately.

[ToddW]

My smart decision lately has been to NOT ride with a destination.  Rather, I make a point to ride for an hour or so and simple focus on my riding fundementals.  This is my first year riding so everything is new to me when I ride EXCEPT for the destinations.  After each ride, I consider what I struggled with and the I read about what I could do to improve that skill set.  I then set out the next time I ride to adjust for those short comings.  I have the luxury (if you can really call it such) to live in a small town with lots of driving settings but not much traffic.  So I consider it all one big driving range.

Every time I get off the bike it seems that I've improved something yet realized something else that needs improvement.  Right now I struggle with confidence in my confidence while turning.  Oddly, it's the wide turns at speed that challenge me more right now for some reason.  So my riding will be in routes that have these curves that are out of my comfort zone.   

[happycommuter]

Very similarly, I opted to slow way down before turning through that patch of loose gravel in the parking lot instead of plowing through with my regular foolhardy panache.

ToddW, I used to be the same way: I could zag through tight corners at speed, but would wobble and loose the line through open sweepers.  I think it was mainly a problem of not looking through the turn.  If the turn is right in front of you, you really have no choice but to look at where it's going whereas a lazy turn is close enough to straight that you don't bother until you start veering off course.  Turn the head, look at the exit point.

[Bad Boy]

Hundreds of decisions every minute, the critical ones have no time to think just react.  Right corners being on the inside of the curve are tighter and much less sight distance so I have decided to take left handers briskly and ease up on rights. 

My worst decision happened when entering a right hander at 70 mph on a remote mountain road. Strewn with gravel, no time to think, I stood the bike up braking hard to scrub off speed. I would then run wide and turn in before running out of pavement, except for the on coming car.  So I went into the wide outer shoulder sunk into the deep gravel and fell over.  I could have easily made the corner if I had kept my cool and just went for it. 

What I have decided and practiced since is when I think I am into a corner too fast, gravel or not, is just go for it.  Counter steer, no brake, stay on the throttle and look through the corner.  If gravel stay in the car tire track.  This gives the best odds.  So I practice this to become instinctive.

[hppants]

I learned on Sunday that a few pebbles amp up the pucker factor exponentially!!!  I think I heeded your method, Bad Boy, by scrubbing as much speed as possible up to about 10 feet from the gravel, then very light throttle, lean, and pray.

I also learned that during drying pavement from a rain, a wet spot in the wrong place is not a good combination.

Most importantly, I learned that I'm not NEARLY as good a rider as I thought I was, and I should ramp my attitude down about 3 notches until my skills and experience get better.

[jwomack]

I learned that I'm not NEARLY as good a rider as I thought I was, and I should ramp my attitude down about 3 notches until my skills and experience get better.

this i have found is the case with most people...there brain things there better then what they really are...dont get me wrong i do the same thing, im not super man, and dont clam to be..

but as stated above look at where your going...dont try to look at what your rideing that moment...

my dad the first time i went rideing with him. befor we even got on the road. he told me to always look at where i want to go, and you will go there....if you look at the ditch, thats where you will go, if you look to the end of a corner thats where you will go...



his head here is looking threw the corner...

[LOKi]

I usually commute every day. Rain or shine I'm riding. So when my bike was laid up with a broken bolt in the clutch and no clutch tool to remove it, I had to park it for a good 4 or 5 days. Felt like much longer. After fixing it back up I went for a ride. At first I felt a little shaky. What the hell. Not even that long off the bike and I had lost some of the confidence I had with it. So I rode around town a little and found myself in the parking lot of the zoo. Yes the Audubon Zoo and no they did not ask for you. So I spent some time doing figure 8's and full lock turns. Then full lock figure 8's. At first I keep putting my foot down but gradually got my confidence back. As I pulled out of that parking lot it was like I had not taken a break at all.

[gammer]

my dad the first time i went rideing with him. befor we even got on the road. he told me to always look at where i want to go, and you will go there....if you look at the ditch, thats where you will go, if you look to the end of a corner thats where you will go...

This is a fundamental lesson that I learned when racing motocross. Look where you want to go. When approaching a corner (sharp or gradual) look to the apex of the corner, then when you enter the corner, look up and look where you want to go down the line. Your body will do the work as the bike goes around the corner. You will also find yourself going around corners faster. I do most (no stop) right turns in 3rd gear.

I do the same thing when 'train-tracking' behind cars. I use my peripheral vision on the vehicle in front of me, and I look down the line at other vehicles in front of the vehicle I'm in front of. If several vehicles ahead stops, then I can start to slow down before the guy in front of me even touches his brakes. This is part of the reason whey I don't think you should stay in a certain part of your lane when on a motorcycle. Because I move around the lane to see further ahead or to make things more safer for me.

[jwomack]

my dad the first time i went rideing with him. befor we even got on the road. he told me to always look at where i want to go, and you will go there....if you look at the ditch, thats where you will go, if you look to the end of a corner thats where you will go...

I do the same thing when 'train-tracking' behind cars. I use my peripheral vision on the vehicle in front of me, and I look down the line at other vehicles in front of the vehicle I'm in front of. If several vehicles ahead stops, then I can start to slow down before the guy in front of me even touches his brakes. This is part of the reason whey I don't think you should stay in a certain part of your lane when on a motorcycle. Because I move around the lane to see further ahead or to make things more safer for me.

i do the same thing, i most of the time tho ride in what i call the number 1 lane...i have 3 lanes for motorcycles, the 1 lane is the lane closest to the stripes , num 2 lane is the center of the lane, and num 3 lane as all the way agenst the sholder....i NEVER ride in the number 2 lane due to oil droppings from the caggers....its either 1 or 3, and 99% of the time its num 1

[hppants]

This is great advice.  I was watching the "Isle of Mann TT" race on HD Theatre.  These guys are absolutely insane.  But their skill is undeniable and in every corner, they are looking through the curve.  I will definitely try this.  I've owned and ridden dirt bikes some time ago and, taken from those days, I always have one or two fingers on the front brake lever.  I find myself using the front brake for at least 75% of the stopping.

Taking Jwomack's terms, on 2-lane roads, I find myself almost always in lane 1 - in my view, this gives me a little more visibility for oncoming traffic and people in driveways and streets to the right and perpendicular to me.  On 4 lane roads, when I'm in the right lane in traffic, I move over to lane 3 to buffer against traffic moving with me.  In the left lane, I move over to lane 1.  Like Jwomack, I stay out of the grey in lane 2.

Does this seem rational?

[LOKi]

I might have said this before but it wont hurt to say again.

You know how when your the only one on the road and a cage pulls up to an intersection ahead of you. Your thinking does he see me does he see me.... I don't know if this helps or not but instead of just thinking that over and over I do something to help them out. I'll swerve from one side of the lane to the other a few times. All the while preparing to either stop or go around. I figure this does two things. First it helps them see how far you are from them and how fast you are moving. Two it gets the bikes momentum moving back and forth so if they do try and pull out your ready to react. Remember that sometimes to avoid a collision you must go where the car was, not where it's going. I'll also do this when I'm hidden behind a car. That way the movement of the bike will catch their eye, even if its just glimpses of it.

[Vermontster]

I might have said this before but it wont hurt to say again.

You know how when your the only one on the road and a cage pulls up to an intersection ahead of you. Your thinking does he see me does he see me.... I don't know if this helps or not but instead of just thinking that over and over I do something to help them out. I'll swerve from one side of the lane to the other a few times. All the while preparing to either stop or go around. I figure this does two things. First it helps them see how far you are from them and how fast you are moving. Two it gets the bikes momentum moving back and forth so if they do try and pull out your ready to react. Remember that sometimes to avoid a collision you must go where the car was, not where it's going. I'll also do this when I'm hidden behind a car. That way the movement of the bike will catch their eye, even if its just glimpses of it.

  LOKi, GLAD you wrote it again.

I adopted this technique after reading your earlier post, often doing little 'swerve' manuevers when I see a potential driver who might not see me. The other thing it does is make that driver a little more cautious, "What the **** is he doing?!"

Looking through the curves is still something I'm working on.  I've definitely noticed the bike's behavior impacted by where I'm looking. Kind of amazing, really, and it's not instinctual (yet) for me. I need a local 'Dragon' to help me learn it.

[Shaivong]

The closest thing I can relate it to is snowboarding, since that's really the only other sport I've done extensively  . If you're looking down at your board when you're riding, you're concentrating on the mechanics of where it's pointed and what it feels like. You want to be focusing on the hill and where you're going. Those times when I manage to really look through the corner, I forget about the bike and just focus on where I want to go. The bike should almost disappear to you. When I'm not looking through, I'm concentrating on how I'm manipulating the controls and it's a much less confidence building experience.

Bike zen? I'll only call it that if you buy me a few drinks first.