You Are Where You Look

As I was surfing the web I can across this article from Sport Rider Magazine ( www.sportrider.com ) that I felt is worth sharing with the readers of Biker-Space.com cause I know I have come up on some curves and I was like oh my God, so enjoy and hopefully you will get something out of this as I have.  Biker-Space Team.

P.S. The article mentions racers but we feel it applies to all sport bike riders.

Since racers are more often than not traveling at warp speed, they must anticipate what their race bike is going to do long before it happens-which means looking far ahead of their present location.  We know we're constantly harping on this subject, but we've seen one too many accidents lately that were caused by a rider getting into a corner a little too hot, locking up the brakes and/or straightening the bike, then running off the road.  We can't emphasize enough how important it is to not only look where you want to go, but also to scan far enough ahead of yourself; this is basically a recital of the racing mantra, "Don't ride the front wheel."

Riding a sport bike well means being in control, and although it may not appear that way, it's vitally important for a racer to constantly be on top of his motorcycle's handling.  Since racers are more often than not traveling at warp speed, they must anticipate what their race biker is going to do long before it happens-which means looking far ahead of their present location.  This is why racers seem to be checking out spectators on the side of the track when entering hairpins.  Instead, they're looking at where they'd like to be in a 10th of second.

Try practicing your vision skills at a fairly tight corner, either on your favorite canyon road or racetrack.  As you approach the apex (or a fixed, readily visible point on the pavement), note how close you are to the mark before you begin to scan ahead for your next reference point.  If you are staring at that point until you are nearly on top of it, you're target fixating-if the corner ahead tightened up or if you found an obstacle in your path, it would be difficult to correct.  In fact, if you're looking at that point even 25 to 35 feet before you get there, you're still not looking far enough ahead.

You need to get your steering and vision skills honed to the point where you can hit a certain spot on the pavement repeatedly without having to actually look at it.  This involves using your peripheral vision to see the intended path of your tires, while still looking ahead at the next reference point (or as far ahead into the corner as possible).  Try this: Find a tight, second gear corner, have a buddy stand on the side of the road, and have him observe how close you can come to a fixed point on the pavement repeatedly while keeping your head turned as you scan far ahead into the bend.

Heading into a corner with a little too much speed or having a turn tighten up on the exit unexpectedly is terrifying for a novice rider.  Modern sport bikes are highly capable machines, and as long as the suspension is even halfway close to being dialed-in and the tires are in decent shape, you are likely to be astounded at the lean angles/mid corner corrections they can achieve.