Key Elements: Introduction

Filed in archive Learning , Learning , Motorcycle , Performance on February 6, 2007

Key Elements Introduction

There's nothing like the feeling you get when you're on your favorite road with a familiar bike. You flow through corners as if on a rail, senses peaked, adrenaline raging uncontrollably throughout your body. When it's done right, it's almost as though everything is moving in slow motion.

You've done it dozens of times before; coming into the corner hard on the brakes. You feel the rear tire slide and skip slightly to the side as you approach the corner. You ease off the brake as you push the opposite grip, forcing the bike to lean into the turn, with your knee sticking out as if it were a wing. You continue to slow until you reach full lean and approach the apex, covering the brake and looking deep into the turn.

Then you see it. From the corner of your eye you see what appears to be a rabbit running towards the road. In an instant your mind calculates paths between you and the rabbit, and you realize they will intersect. You've already committed to the corner, and you know if you remain on your present line you'll hit the rabbit. You also know that at that speed and lean angle, hitting even the smallest of animals will greatly upset the bike and likely result in a crash for you.

What happens next has many variables. Some were determined before you ever entered the corner, other's will be determined by what you do next. Motorcycling can be an absolutely great sport, but it can also be frighteningly dangerous if you get into a situation like the one described above without the proper skills or preparation.

Over the next few posts I will outline some of the key elements that will help define your riding skills and provide you with information that could play a deciding factor in determining the outcome of your next emergency situation.

Your riding skills are something to be mastered through practice, patience, and as you will (hopefully) soon find out, common sense and natural reaction. These skills should be honed into a natural reaction by those of us who weren't born with them.

The first few topics I discuss will focus on those elements relating to the mechanics of motorcycles. The last few will focus primarily on rider related elements.

1. Acceleration and Braking
2. Turning
3. Grip
4. Dynamics
5. Assertive Predictability
6. Sudden Inputs
7. Mental Conditioning
8. Education