Mountain Riding Tips #5 – Mastering the Curves – See Your Future

A few times each year I read about a motorcycle wreck nearby on the Blue Ridge Parkway. It’s a small town so details travel fast, often not reported in the newspaper. The story is typical – somebody hit a guardrail in a turn and either them or both they and the bike went over it. The rail usually stops the bike. Most times, the accident is not related to excess speed. While not reported, the cause is pretty well understood – target fixation. Too much time looking at the view and not enough attention to the road.

We’ve all experienced it. We’ve seen that pothole, or road kill, or stick in the road, focused on it in an effort to avoid it only to run right over it despite our intentions. Or maybe you’ve looked down at the side of the road whizzing by only to find yourself drifting towards it. Or maybe you’ve had the parkway experience – focused a little too long on the view only to find your motorcycle has been magnetically attracted to it when you glance back at the road and that curve is suddenly upon you. What you see is what you get.

One of the tricks to mastering the curves is to learn to keep your eyes moving. Another is to look through the curve. Wherever your eyes go, your motorcycle goes. Always look as deep into the turn as you can, seeking the path you want your motorcycle to follow and exit. Scan well ahead of the bike looking for problems. When you see that patch of gravel, note it, then immediately look for your path around it, where you want to be to avoid it and once you’re beyond it. Look beyond the hazard.

Keep your eyes moving, darting from the obstruction to the path ahead. As it comes closer, train your focus at where you want to be, do not focus on the obstruction. The more you look at it the more likely you will hit it. Force yourself to keep your eyes down the road. Your peripheral vision will take care of the rest.

The views from the Blue Ridge Parkway are what make it what it is. So are the sweeping curves that follow the rise and fall of the ridgelines. Beware when the two cross paths. As you are clipping along enjoying the rock and roll of the woods flanked in green and you come around that curve and a vast and panoramic view explodes before you, plan to appreciate it from the side of the road instead of the saddle. Zip into the nearest overlook and take a break to enjoy it. If there’s no overlook, find the next one and swing around to go back and appreciate it by pausing at the side of the road. Snap some photos to share.

Enjoy the road. Enjoy the views. Beware of mixing the two.

Wayne@americaridesmaps.com

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