Motorcycle Training In Limerick

Motorcycles and the Perception of Speed

When it comes to motorcycles there is one big flaw! The Rider…  Even though humans have built motorcycles we are not physically designed to ride them. In truth, we’re not designed to drive cars or trucks or a great many other vehicles. We are designed to travel about 15 to 20 kilometers per hour – which is about as fast as the average person can run (these days I’m more at the 15 kph end of the spectrum.)
Because we are designed to travel at such slow speeds our eyes tend to naturally rest around 15 to 20 meters in front of us because that’s the distance we need to be able to see when we run.
When we move faster we do tend to lift them but often it’s not enough for a motorcycle.
Motorcycles are far more susceptible to the inputs from our bodies than other vehicles; tension in our arms can interfere with the stability, a slight shift in weight could upset the direction.  An overreaction on a brake could upset the suspension causing a weight shift and could cause the bike to become unstable. It takes much more effort to keep a motorcycle balanced and stable than it does for any other road going vehicle.
So what has all this to do with where we are looking?
At our IBT Training and motorbike lessons we teach our students that the bike is dependent on the rider to keep it stable. How the rider does this is by giving the motorcycle the instructions it needs and once the bike is set up the rider lets it do its thing.
Riding a motorcycle in a straight line is pretty easy, where the difficulty tends to arise is when the rider needs to go around a bend or a corner. The rider needs to set the bike up for going into corners. To do this we get the braking done before the bend, select the correct gear and have the suspension balanced with a throttle input and finally, we put the bike into the correct line on corner. If all of these are correct the bike should reward us by running through the corner in a stable and balanced manner. This allows the rider to relax and concentrate on where the bike is going to go next. If one or more of these is wrong then the bike will become unstable and the rider will have to correct it mid corner which could cause more instability. Now the rider is distracted in the corner just trying to keep the bike stable which can very quickly develop into an accident.
In order to do all of those things the rider needs valuable information in plenty of time. At our motorbike training school we teach our students to be able to read the road properly. We need to be able to be able to assess the corner, the road surface, possible hazards, the entry point and the arc or line the bike will travel in advance. Most of this information the rider can pick up long before the corner with the remainder of it being collected as the rider comes to the corner itself.
How we look at the road ahead will dictate how we treat it. If we look at the 15 to 20 metre distance then we are limited to riding at slow speeds. If we try to rider faster while holding this viewing distance then we will be relying on very fast reactions to cope with the most mundane of issues. This will mean the rider is always riding on edge and constantly in fear of the next hazard. Not really a very pleasurable experience!
At our motorcycle lessons we show our students how changing where we look can have a dramatic effect on our ability to deal with potential hazards. By looking farther up the road not only can we see potential hazards earlier, we will also have more time to deal with them.
For this reason we always scan back to ourselves. We begin our scan along the road at the farthest point and then work our observations back to ourselves. So… we look far, then middle, and then near.
If we look into the distance we see the potential hazard or problem early so by the time it has made it to the middle distance we’ve already decided what to do about it. Perhaps roll off the throttle is the way to go, or perhaps alter our position on the road, or a combination of both of those actions.  By the time the hazard has made it to the near distance we’ve already dealt with it and we’re already on to the next potential hazard.
By using this process of far, middle, near we stay ahead of the problems and potential hazards.
There is another advantage to looking into the distance.  We can alter our perception of speed. Here’s how it works. Imagine you’re sitting facing forward on a train travelling at 120kph. To your right is the window. As the train travels along it passes a high picket fence with small signs attached to the fence at 50 meter intervals. If you look ninety degrees to your right at the passing fencing you will find it difficult to distinguish the individual boards on the fence, they will be a blur and it is highly unlikely that you will get time to read the sign. However if you were to turn your head only  twenty degrees to the right and look farther up the fence, you could see the individual boards coming towards you. You could possibly read the signage as it came towards you. Your speed is still 120kph but your perception of speed has been greatly altered by where you look.
If we apply that to our bike riding then 120kph becomes a lot slower if we look into the distance. Now we have time to assess the corner, and figure out what speed we can to carry into the corner, what position we want to be in and what gear we want to select. We can get all of these done in plenty of time and choose the correct line for the bike through the corner, and all bought with time we gained from keeping our eyes up.
Keeping your eyes up is only one part of getting the correct observation on a motorcycle but it is an important one that will allow you to increase your hazard perception and as a result give you more time to choose the appropriate course of action on the road.
Irish Motorcycle Training