Greetings, a few years ago I took up mountain biking, and like most new mountain bikers I found myself blasting (or more accurately gasping) around Bottle Lake. Now for those of you who don’t know the area, Bottle Lake is a forest which means lots of trees, and the track often passes between said trees. Being a careful rider I’d keep my eye on the trees I was riding between to make sure I didn’t hit them, and most of the time I did just that – hit them.
After a while the novelty of hitting trees wore thin, so I slowed down, which was good because I hit the trees at a slower speed and bad because I still hit them. Then it dawned on me – target fixation. Instead of looking at the tree, I looked at the area of track between the trees, and as if by magic I stopped hitting trees and fell off in completely different places. Which is why I don’t ride a mountain bike any more.
Target fixation describes the phenomenon of going where you’re looking and on a motorcycle (or pushbike) can work for or against you. If you look at this You Tube clip http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ZFpIpaFMlc, you will see that the first rider was obviously worried about going over the bank so instead of watching the corner looked at the bank. Which he then rode down while his mate, who was busy watching him head into the ditch, damn near followed him.
If you look at a racer taking a corner you’ll see that they’re usually almost looking over their shoulder around the corner they’re taking. What they’re doing is looking at the exact piece of track where they want to be because the way bikes work means that is exactly where they will be.
On the road the same applies – set your line through the corner, look where you want to go through the corner and where you want to exit, and that’s where you’ll go.
However on the road you need to add an extra facet – intentionally don’t look where you don’t want to be. That may sound like gobbledygook, but if you see a pothole, a possum or a tourist in a campervan in the middle of your lane, ignore them and look at the piece of road beside them (unless you want to take some time off work on ACC) because if you look at the possum/campervan/pothole etc, you will almost certainly ride into it. The same applies to the white line in the centre of the road when you’re in a right hand turn. Focus your eyes on the road at least a metre to the left of the white line, not the white line because if your wheels are on the white line and you’re leaning to the right, your head is in the opposing lane which could have you head butting an SUV. Potentially very ugly.
On a different subject, somewhere I’m definitely looking at being is* Greymouth this Labour Weekend for the 2009 Street Races *and I’ve booked enough beds at the Breeze Motel for up to 22 people (including seperate rooms for up to 5 couples). Accomodation works out to around $50 - $60 a night and the Breeze is a great motel and one of the closest to the track (and the pubs). Call/email me as soon as you can to book your place.
And thanks to those who came on the *RAT run last Sunday *- it was a great ride, the traffic was light and we had no rain. In the last 18 months I think we’ve only had 1 ride where it rained for more than a few kms. I've had a couple of people say "I don't want to come on a RAT run because I'm too slow, which is an understandable concern because many of us are experienced riders on fast bikes, only thing is we don't ride all that fast. The open road speed limit is 100 kmh, and because I love having a license; that's the speed I tend to ride at (or close to it). Some people like to go on ahead, and often come the windy bits some people will give their bikes a bit of wrist, but most of the time we travel at a pretty leisurely speed. And it doesn't matter what you ride either - we often have several non-Triumphs on a RAT ride and I don't think anyone really cares what other people ride.We take regular breaks (usually every hour or so) and while we usually have a pub as our midway point, most of us only have one small beer with a meal because drinking and riding is pretty dumb. The people on RAT runs are usually pretty friendly and we focus on careful and considerate riding.
I've often thought *Sidecar racing* looks like a lot of fun and if you've ever wanted to have a go on a sidecar, Graeme Harris is organising a have-a-go day at Ruapuna next Friday the 19th of June. Cost is a donation to cover costs which would have to make it the cheapest adrenaline fix in town - how does 0 - 100 mph and back to 0 in under 8 seconds sound? Phil will be there on his old rig, so get on down there - there will be 4 sidecars there, so you'll definitely have a go. Give me a call or drop me an email.
Finally we’re planning a *Mods and Rockers run on Aug 22^nd , *which will be open to all Vespas and classic scooters and 60s vintage Brit bikes, Bonnevilles, Thruxtons and custom café racers. We’ll ride across to Brighton (where else) where we’ll have a contest to decide the superiority between Mods and Rockers (nothing violent), then ride back to Christchurch and meet at Poplar Lane for drinks and motorcycle/scooter admiration at The Twisted Hop and The Vespa Room. You will hear more.
That’s it for now, have a great weekend and if you want to be taken off the mailing list simply reply with “unsubscribe” in the subject line.
David Thompson
www.streetandsport.co.nz
After a while the novelty of hitting trees wore thin, so I slowed down, which was good because I hit the trees at a slower speed and bad because I still hit them. Then it dawned on me – target fixation. Instead of looking at the tree, I looked at the area of track between the trees, and as if by magic I stopped hitting trees and fell off in completely different places. Which is why I don’t ride a mountain bike any more.
Target fixation describes the phenomenon of going where you’re looking and on a motorcycle (or pushbike) can work for or against you. If you look at this You Tube clip http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ZFpIpaFMlc, you will see that the first rider was obviously worried about going over the bank so instead of watching the corner looked at the bank. Which he then rode down while his mate, who was busy watching him head into the ditch, damn near followed him.
If you look at a racer taking a corner you’ll see that they’re usually almost looking over their shoulder around the corner they’re taking. What they’re doing is looking at the exact piece of track where they want to be because the way bikes work means that is exactly where they will be.
On the road the same applies – set your line through the corner, look where you want to go through the corner and where you want to exit, and that’s where you’ll go.
However on the road you need to add an extra facet – intentionally don’t look where you don’t want to be. That may sound like gobbledygook, but if you see a pothole, a possum or a tourist in a campervan in the middle of your lane, ignore them and look at the piece of road beside them (unless you want to take some time off work on ACC) because if you look at the possum/campervan/pothole etc, you will almost certainly ride into it. The same applies to the white line in the centre of the road when you’re in a right hand turn. Focus your eyes on the road at least a metre to the left of the white line, not the white line because if your wheels are on the white line and you’re leaning to the right, your head is in the opposing lane which could have you head butting an SUV. Potentially very ugly.
On a different subject, somewhere I’m definitely looking at being is* Greymouth this Labour Weekend for the 2009 Street Races *and I’ve booked enough beds at the Breeze Motel for up to 22 people (including seperate rooms for up to 5 couples). Accomodation works out to around $50 - $60 a night and the Breeze is a great motel and one of the closest to the track (and the pubs). Call/email me as soon as you can to book your place.
And thanks to those who came on the *RAT run last Sunday *- it was a great ride, the traffic was light and we had no rain. In the last 18 months I think we’ve only had 1 ride where it rained for more than a few kms. I've had a couple of people say "I don't want to come on a RAT run because I'm too slow, which is an understandable concern because many of us are experienced riders on fast bikes, only thing is we don't ride all that fast. The open road speed limit is 100 kmh, and because I love having a license; that's the speed I tend to ride at (or close to it). Some people like to go on ahead, and often come the windy bits some people will give their bikes a bit of wrist, but most of the time we travel at a pretty leisurely speed. And it doesn't matter what you ride either - we often have several non-Triumphs on a RAT ride and I don't think anyone really cares what other people ride.We take regular breaks (usually every hour or so) and while we usually have a pub as our midway point, most of us only have one small beer with a meal because drinking and riding is pretty dumb. The people on RAT runs are usually pretty friendly and we focus on careful and considerate riding.
I've often thought *Sidecar racing* looks like a lot of fun and if you've ever wanted to have a go on a sidecar, Graeme Harris is organising a have-a-go day at Ruapuna next Friday the 19th of June. Cost is a donation to cover costs which would have to make it the cheapest adrenaline fix in town - how does 0 - 100 mph and back to 0 in under 8 seconds sound? Phil will be there on his old rig, so get on down there - there will be 4 sidecars there, so you'll definitely have a go. Give me a call or drop me an email.
Finally we’re planning a *Mods and Rockers run on Aug 22^nd , *which will be open to all Vespas and classic scooters and 60s vintage Brit bikes, Bonnevilles, Thruxtons and custom café racers. We’ll ride across to Brighton (where else) where we’ll have a contest to decide the superiority between Mods and Rockers (nothing violent), then ride back to Christchurch and meet at Poplar Lane for drinks and motorcycle/scooter admiration at The Twisted Hop and The Vespa Room. You will hear more.
That’s it for now, have a great weekend and if you want to be taken off the mailing list simply reply with “unsubscribe” in the subject line.
David Thompson
www.streetandsport.co.nz
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