2Wheeltips

As I begin writing this article I have four books and a magazine article open and lying on the floor in front of me:  

• “Corner Vision” an article by Ken Condon
• “Total Control” by Lee Parks
• “Riding In The Zone” by Ken Condon
• “More Proficient Motorcycling” by David Hough
• "Twist of the Wrist III" by Keith Code

The above books and articles are written by well respected authors and professional riders with a wealth of experience and expertise. All of the above authors have devoted at least one chapter of their books to the importance of vision skills and seeing “the big picture” while riding. I would strongly encourage you to read one or all of them as they are extremely well written, to the point and give you tips and information that is invaluable in improving your riding skills.

My objective in this article is to discuss some of the concepts and skills the above mentioned “experts” describe that will help you avoid mistakes like “target fixation” that is so prevalent with new riders. Let me share with you some quotes:

• “Spotlight versus Floodlight: What you are able to see is based on not only the amount of light available, but also on the types of things you choose to concentrate. Some people choose to illuminate the world with a spotlight. Others view their surroundings with a floodlight…. Using your vision as a floodlight slows down your sense of speed and allows you to be aware of more potential hazards and opportunities.” Lee Parks

• “How far ahead a rider scans is one measure of proficiency. Most new riders struggle to look more than a few second ahead. It’s natural to look down at the road when we are anxious. Unfortunately, focusing in the near distance exacerbates anxiety, which can develop into a vicious cycle of escalating fear”. Ken Condon

• “When riding, every decision you make is governed by the amount of space you have, think you have, feel you have or believe you have. The two basic functions (speed and direction change) of a motorcycle are totally dependent on the amount of space you have to do either of them. All riding “survival reaction triggers” (more on this a little later) have not enough space as their common denominator”. Keith Code (This is my favorite quote!! Read it about half a dozen times and the genius of it starts to sink in, which is why having good vision skills is so important.)
  

• “It’s not enough to simply look ahead. You must practice visual attentiveness and actively search for hazards by keeping your eyes moving, never fixating on a single object for more than a couple seconds. By scanning continually your mind can assess multiple hazards in a short amount of time.” Ken Condon

• “Imagine riding an urban street where sight distance changes from moment to moment. When riding a long straight boulevard it may appear that you have unlimited sight distance, but remember that vehicles can appear suddenly from side streets, alleys and entrances to parking lots. So, your sight distance must also include the possibility of intruders who haven’t appeared yet.” David Hough (What awesome insight!!)

• “We should all be aware of common vision quirks as well as specific vision problems we might have. One important quirk is speed related tunnel vision. As speed increases, the eyes focus farther and farther out in front, and the brain blurs out the dizzying view towards the sides. That’s why it’s important to mentally keep track of surrounding traffic while motorcycling down the super slab.” David Hough 

If you find the above excerpts to be valuable information I would encourage you to spend a few bucks and buy the books. It might not be as cool as that new leather riding jacket but they are every bit as valuable, in a different sort of way, and far less expensive.

So let’s talk about the consistent theme here, the “big picture” as it were. I love Keith Code’s “Twist of the Wrist III” and his discussion about “survival reactions” and how they are usually exactly the wrong thing to do when you panic. I’m going to digress here a bit but I think it’s worth it to touch on Keith’s teachings. Keith uses the example that you have only so much attention to work with. He gives you a maximum of $10.00 worth of attention. If you spend all $10 bucks of that attention on a wet spot up ahead in your lane and fail to see that car pulling out of a parking place into your lane you just spent all of your attention on the wrong thing. Though Keith’s book is primarily focused on racing and improving your riding skills to go faster, it applies equally well to street riding and avoiding doing the wrong thing because you allow your “survival reactions” to take over when you’re scared and in panic mode. The following are some of the “survival reactions” Keith discusses:

• “Roll of the gas: more problems are caused by cutting the gas then staying on the gas and keeping the weight balance between front and rear in that 40% front / 60% rear than not.”

• “Target fixation: steering in the direction of what you’re fixated on, freezing and not steering at all.” VTXRon just covered this in his recent article.

• “Braking errors: both over and under braking.”

Let’s get back to vision skills and I’ll continue with more of Keith’s teachings on this. He proposes that you practice keeping your vision out wide. Rather than moving you eyes around, open your field of vision as wide as you can then let your brain decide what it wants to concentrate on as compared to moving your eyes around from one target to another. Widening your field of vision reduces stress, opens up space, slows things down and allows you to make better decisions. I highly recommend this book for anyone wanting to improve their vision/riding skills. The whole concept of “survival reactions” I found fascinating and by understanding how these work against have really improved my riding skills.

To conclude I’ll share with you what Ken Condon writes in his article “Corner Vision”:

“Visual information is abundant but you need to be selective which bits of data are most important and which should be given less attention….. The wider your visual field, the more likely you are to identify a potential problem. You won’t get a clear look at objects in your periphery because periphery vision is not sensitive to color and detail, however, periphery vision will alert you to movements that could indicate a possible hazard. Rapidly scanning between potential hazards within your wide field of view allows you to observe individual objects while keeping track of the whole environment to better prepare you to manage multiple hazards.”

Remember to:

• Look well ahead, 5 to 6 seconds is good.
• Look in the direction you want to go.
• Look at the solution not the problem.
• Keep you vision wide and your eyes moving.

Hoping you found this information thought provoking and useful. Again thanks to the wonderful authors I’ve used to pull this information from for their valuable insight and knowledge.

Ride safe, be safe, live long and prosper.