What holds us back from being faster on a road is not too much of a secret. Everything we do comes down to something really simple – decisions made by our brains. And our brains make decisions based on what it is fed by our five senses; sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch. Ultimately, it’s these senses that feed information to our brains to take decisions to do what we do on motorcycles. However, out of all those senses, vision is by far the most important sense to master while riding. Be it on road or track. The secret lies simply in understanding the space. Vision tells your brain how much space there is to travel into.
I have discovered that my vision helps me ride safe and fast. Hence, here’s what I think might open your eyes (pun intended) to a few crucial pointers that will get you going in the right direction, keeping you faster, yet safer on the road and on the track.
The Challenge
The first and most common tendency that riders show is a combination of not looking far enough up the road through the different stages of a corner, as well as not having any real references for where they’re going and where they want to be, a phenomenon I’d like to call as ‘riding blind’.
The lack of marking real references means a rider will be very inconsistent with their lines (and bumps) through the corners.
It hits the brain!
One of the major disadvantages of ‘riding blind’ is the lack of grace in turning. Without markers, my brain has nothing to refer to and ends up making decisions a little later than it should. Due to this, it gets less time to process what is happening and makes hasty decisions.
Pushing the panic button
These hasty decisions are precisely what will land you in situations you do not want to be in. Because of the lack time to prepare, I was never fully ready for what was ahead of me. This could be anything from a car or bike in my lane, to a pothole, an oilspill or unexpected gravel that could lead to a disaster.
We go where we look
One time, I went flying into a bend, only to realise on the exit that I was starting to run wide. I pushed the panic button and looked at the exact spot I was not supposed to, where I didn’t want to go to – the outside shoulder of the road. Thankfully I was riding a sports tourer and I managed to save it, standing on the footpegs and coming out of the gravel. That happened because of my target fixation. I kept drifting further and further out because all my attention was fixed there, I was frozen on the bars and I was very close to taking an off-road crash course. Literally! And here’s exactly where I discovered that had my vision been on the point where I wanted to be, it would’ve saved me from the dirt excursion.
Markers are dot-to-dot maps
Always use a marker around a corner, for braking, turning in, apexing and while exiting as well. It works as a map to come out of a corner safely and makes you fast. It tells where you want to be and where you want to go. Later, markers helped me position myself for the different types and stages of a corner. However, don’t keep too many references as they can distract and take you away from ‘we go where we look’. And always look ahead to keep yourself consistent and go gracefully around a corner.
Peripheral vision
When riding on the road, you don’t want to have all your attention focused on markers only. That will make you unaware of everything else. Hence, apart from the use of markers and maps, but keep a wide vision as well. This is taking your markers to the next level.
Guess what?
One of the major issues I had when I used to turn was that I’d look into a corner straight ahead. What lay around the corner was all guess work. Looking further helped me eradicate feeling of being hurried while turning in.