Outlaws Justice
Junior Member
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- Jan 31, 2009
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- Watertown, New York
Following clutch control the most important aspect of riding a motorcycle is your vision. "You have to look where you want to go!" Many people who crash "Target fixate" and crash. You go where you look. Getting people to turn there heads and look thru the turns is one of the harder points of teaching. Riders let fear control thier actions and have difficulty making this transition.
Think of driving your car, when you come to a stop sign or light you stop your car on the line in the road. Do you open the door of the car to see the line? No but you cannot see it becouse the front of the car blocks its view. You know where it was before you arrived at that point and you know when to apply the brakes to stop there. On a bike we can look down so many people do. That is not what we want to do though.
Experiment: have a friend place a 20 oz soda bottle on the floor 6 feet in front of you. Close your eyes, walk ahead and pick it up without looking. Move the bottle to 12 feet, look at the bottle, then again close your eyes, walk ahead and pick it up. Repeat at about 20 ft. You will find you can do it (Or get really close) becouse you saw it before and now know what to do.
Experiment: stand up and face a friend, stand about 4 or 5 feet apart. Look each other in the eye. Without looking down you will notice that you can look at thier head and still see thier feet. Now look at thier feet and you will notice you cannot see thier head. The point is that you need to look ahead to have your best field of vision and be able to handle all that is going on around you.
So when you come to a turn or corner, before you actually reach the turn in point you need to turn your head and see as far thru the turn as you can, "Look to your destination" and that is where you will go. You see the road ahead so looking down will only cause other problems that you cannot deal with while riding and cause you more problems than you can fix.
Riding a motorcycle involves several skills. The first is being able to control the bike, ie. clutch control, the second is being able to LOOK! "Turn that head and see your destination".
Ride safe and keep the rubber side down.
Think of driving your car, when you come to a stop sign or light you stop your car on the line in the road. Do you open the door of the car to see the line? No but you cannot see it becouse the front of the car blocks its view. You know where it was before you arrived at that point and you know when to apply the brakes to stop there. On a bike we can look down so many people do. That is not what we want to do though.
Experiment: have a friend place a 20 oz soda bottle on the floor 6 feet in front of you. Close your eyes, walk ahead and pick it up without looking. Move the bottle to 12 feet, look at the bottle, then again close your eyes, walk ahead and pick it up. Repeat at about 20 ft. You will find you can do it (Or get really close) becouse you saw it before and now know what to do.
Experiment: stand up and face a friend, stand about 4 or 5 feet apart. Look each other in the eye. Without looking down you will notice that you can look at thier head and still see thier feet. Now look at thier feet and you will notice you cannot see thier head. The point is that you need to look ahead to have your best field of vision and be able to handle all that is going on around you.
So when you come to a turn or corner, before you actually reach the turn in point you need to turn your head and see as far thru the turn as you can, "Look to your destination" and that is where you will go. You see the road ahead so looking down will only cause other problems that you cannot deal with while riding and cause you more problems than you can fix.
Riding a motorcycle involves several skills. The first is being able to control the bike, ie. clutch control, the second is being able to LOOK! "Turn that head and see your destination".
Ride safe and keep the rubber side down.
