Congratulations on getting through the class! From what I recall, you don’t have experience operating a motor vehicle. It’s not uncommon for new riders to fail the range for various reasons. A person who has not operated a motor vehicle much or at all will have a steeper learning curve than someone who has driven thousands of miles, ridden bicycles a lot, perhaps a moped or dirtbike, etc. I’d just write it off to the process of getting caught up.
From what you’ve written above, it sounds like two skill areas are the keys: 1) use of the clutch from a standstill and 2) visual skills. As you point out, to learn to clutch properly, you’ll need access to a motorcycle. You can work on visual skills without one.
Motorcycles and cars move us through space faster than we can go on our feet. We have to use our eyes a little differently than when we are walking or running in the sense that we must look farther ahead. But how much farther?
You’ve done a good job of identifying a couple of important points about looking ahead. As you mentioned, when to look and what to look at are the keys to almost all other riding actions being accurate. One way of thinking about vision in a corner is the notion of selecting reference points in the turn. Keith Code has a lot to say on this topic in Twist II. It takes a minimum of three points to define the shape of an arc. Any turn you negotiate on a road can be described with three points, though often you cannot see all three from the approach to the turn.
The first point would be a turn point. As you approach the turn, you can select a point where you intend to turn, something on the road or near surface that you can see and recognize. Once you pick this point, you know you won’t turn until you arrive there. It’s possible once you get closer to it that you’ll decide to turn later than that, but rarely would you find you need to turn earlier.
This opens some doors on the approach to the turn. If you can choose a turn point well before arriving at the turn, you can use the time between where you are and that point to focus on your entry speed, being in the right gear, etc. this creates the sense of having more time because you have fewer things to allocate attention to.
As you get to within about a half second of the turn, you’ll want to look into the turn and find the next place you want to point the bike at. This answers the “when.” More on this in a bit.
The matter of what to look at depends on whether you can see the apex of the turn from where you are. If you can, that’s your target. If you’re not sure, select a point on the road surface that looks like it’s on the path to the apex. This point should be a few seconds ahead of where you are.
People will sometimes say, “Look as far as possible into the turn.” This is well meaning, but sometimes bad advice. In some turns, it is possible to see the exit from the entry. If you look at the exit from the entry, you would be disregarding the apex, that crucial third point required to describe the shape of the arc. This can (and has been known to) result in steering the bike into the dirt at the inside of the turn.
Instead, that second point is useful to you if it is the apex or on the path to the apex and far enough ahead that you have time to point the bike at it and confirm that your arc will intersect it. So, that’s the “what.” This gets us back to talking in more detail about the “when.”
Above, I mentioned looking into the turn about a half second before you arrive at the turn point. If the turn is unfamiliar, you may need to look a little sooner, but not so much that you end up wanting to hunt back and forth between the turn point and the apex (or whatever you have selected). It’s ideal if you look once, find your target and keep your eyes on that, while maintaining a peripheral awareness of the turn point so you know when to initiate your steering input.
So, why a half-second? This is about the time it takes to see something, make a decision about it and take action. If you look later than this, say, while you’re in the process of beginning to steer, you would be in a situation where you know where to steer but not how much to steer. This is where inaccurate steering comes from. A rider who looks into the turn about a half a second before the turn point, finds a target at or along the path to the apex and steers the bike toward that point will be more accurate and will feel like there is enough time.
You can practice this on a bicycle, keeping in mind that the distances will probably be greater on a motorcycle because of the difference in speed. You can also practice if you are a passenger in a vehicle where you can see out the windshield. While you’re not the one steering, you can still make decisions as if you were.
This is enough input from me for now. There is plenty to say on the topic but this should give you something you can work with.
From what you’ve written above, it sounds like two skill areas are the keys: 1) use of the clutch from a standstill and 2) visual skills. As you point out, to learn to clutch properly, you’ll need access to a motorcycle. You can work on visual skills without one.
Motorcycles and cars move us through space faster than we can go on our feet. We have to use our eyes a little differently than when we are walking or running in the sense that we must look farther ahead. But how much farther?
You’ve done a good job of identifying a couple of important points about looking ahead. As you mentioned, when to look and what to look at are the keys to almost all other riding actions being accurate. One way of thinking about vision in a corner is the notion of selecting reference points in the turn. Keith Code has a lot to say on this topic in Twist II. It takes a minimum of three points to define the shape of an arc. Any turn you negotiate on a road can be described with three points, though often you cannot see all three from the approach to the turn.
The first point would be a turn point. As you approach the turn, you can select a point where you intend to turn, something on the road or near surface that you can see and recognize. Once you pick this point, you know you won’t turn until you arrive there. It’s possible once you get closer to it that you’ll decide to turn later than that, but rarely would you find you need to turn earlier.
This opens some doors on the approach to the turn. If you can choose a turn point well before arriving at the turn, you can use the time between where you are and that point to focus on your entry speed, being in the right gear, etc. this creates the sense of having more time because you have fewer things to allocate attention to.
As you get to within about a half second of the turn, you’ll want to look into the turn and find the next place you want to point the bike at. This answers the “when.” More on this in a bit.
The matter of what to look at depends on whether you can see the apex of the turn from where you are. If you can, that’s your target. If you’re not sure, select a point on the road surface that looks like it’s on the path to the apex. This point should be a few seconds ahead of where you are.
People will sometimes say, “Look as far as possible into the turn.” This is well meaning, but sometimes bad advice. In some turns, it is possible to see the exit from the entry. If you look at the exit from the entry, you would be disregarding the apex, that crucial third point required to describe the shape of the arc. This can (and has been known to) result in steering the bike into the dirt at the inside of the turn.
Instead, that second point is useful to you if it is the apex or on the path to the apex and far enough ahead that you have time to point the bike at it and confirm that your arc will intersect it. So, that’s the “what.” This gets us back to talking in more detail about the “when.”
Above, I mentioned looking into the turn about a half second before you arrive at the turn point. If the turn is unfamiliar, you may need to look a little sooner, but not so much that you end up wanting to hunt back and forth between the turn point and the apex (or whatever you have selected). It’s ideal if you look once, find your target and keep your eyes on that, while maintaining a peripheral awareness of the turn point so you know when to initiate your steering input.
So, why a half-second? This is about the time it takes to see something, make a decision about it and take action. If you look later than this, say, while you’re in the process of beginning to steer, you would be in a situation where you know where to steer but not how much to steer. This is where inaccurate steering comes from. A rider who looks into the turn about a half a second before the turn point, finds a target at or along the path to the apex and steers the bike toward that point will be more accurate and will feel like there is enough time.
You can practice this on a bicycle, keeping in mind that the distances will probably be greater on a motorcycle because of the difference in speed. You can also practice if you are a passenger in a vehicle where you can see out the windshield. While you’re not the one steering, you can still make decisions as if you were.
This is enough input from me for now. There is plenty to say on the topic but this should give you something you can work with.
