Look there, go there, dummy...

[courier11sec]

Spooked myself yesterday.
My bestest buddy came up from Renton (about 100mi) to ride with me yesterday and while we were out, I decided we should go check out some nice county roads. Most roads around here are fairly straight with a few twistys here and there. I am a pretty conservative rider as I'm not too experienced, but I was in a good mood and had been doing well, so I was remaining fairly brisk in the corners. We were on an unfamiliar road and came upon what looked to be a moderately tight left corner, slightly down hill.
It didn't look too bad but I checked up a bit anyway as usual and entered the curve somewhere in the neighborhood of 30-35mph.
It turned out to be a rapidly decreasing radius that went sharply downhill and I was in it much too hot for my skill level or at least I thought so. As I realized the corner had become a corkscrew, I got a little nervous and looked over at the guardrail to my right. Then of course it started getting closer and closer until I realized what was going on, forced myself to look over to the left and leaned further into it. Got through just fine and avoided disaster, but slowed way down for a while afterward.
My buddy of course was focusing on me and had an identical experience. I yelled at him for looking at me instead of the corner.
So there's my lesson for the week. I might head out to that same corner again now that I know what's there just for the practise.
Yipe!

 

[marvinsc]

Glad Your OK Ray, Excellent Learning Experience and it is a Good Idea to Go there again and go Through it the Right Way, Look where You want to go and the Bike will go there.

 

[Redman]

Courier,

Glad you managed to avoid a certain painfull experince if you had ran off into the guard rail.

I know the subject you were intneding to discuss was the subject of where you were looking, which is an important subject.

I also noticed that when you did manage to look away from the guard rail (which is good) you said you "leaned" and got the bike going where you wanted it to. You used the word "leaned". Makes me wonder if you mean you are steering the bike by you leaning your body. Leaning works, but the response is slow and not very acurate as compared to countersteering.

Yes, not looking at the obstical is important, hard to do, its natural to focus attention on the obstical, but need to look away from obstical to where you want to go, or better yet, look way ahead where you want to be in a few/several seconds.

 

[courier11sec]

Good point Redman.
What I meant was I leaned the bike over by pressing the left handgrip further away, countersteering the bike. I didn't describe that clearly enough.

 

[bonanzadave]

Good point Redman.
What I meant was I leaned the bike over by pressing the left handgrip further away, countersteering the bike. I didn't describe that clearly enough.

BTDT ! I use to have the confidence to just keep pushing. When you feel the road on the center stand or foot peg thats about as far as you can go. Nice job. Yes, go back. Practice makes perfect !

 

[Jethro]

I always try to focus on the center line of the road. Target fixation is evil, nasty stuff!

 

[earlfor]

My focal point is about three feet to the right of the centerline. Seems more natural to me.

E.

I always try to focus on the center line of the road. Target fixation is evil, nasty stuff!

 

[Gravity Tester]

My focal point is about three feet to the right of the centerline. Seems more natural to me.

E.

I like this Idea since you could put your head over the centerline:shock: