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I can appreciate the idea of watching top riders ride and figuring out what to do for your own riding. The only problem with that, I've found, is I still cannot ride like Marc Marquez or my all time hero, Valentino Rossi. But, when it comes to foot position there are some basics with the human body and physics that to apply. This may be contrary to or agree with some, either way, they are basic. When we move from side to side or forward and backwards, the ball of the foot is always our first point of contact unless you are doing it VERY SLOWLY. Flat footed moves require anyone to put their whole foot down and then transfer most of their weight onto it and the entire body is swaying side to side. Try it and see what I mean. Moving off the ball of the foot, we stay in balance and distribute our weight more evenly and we do NOT have to swing our body mass over and we do NOT have to change our balance point for the entire body. Does that mean the arch and heel methods are wrong, NO, it does not but it does point out which is the most efficient, strongest, most in balance way of moving our entire body. OK, what does that have to do with riding, pretty much the same forces apply to it because we are also lightening up our torsos, off the seat or lighter in it, in order to move relatively quickly as we must do in any series corners, like esses. Using the ball of the foot also gives anyone the most powerful lift position using the calf muscle. So what? Well, if you are using the method of locking your outside leg into the tank by wedging your inner thigh into it with an up press at a slight angle to engage it, which anyone can do, you have the most powerful engagement possible with a body. That's an advantage. Rather than trying to squeeze the tank, scissors style, where you do not have nearly as much power, your legs will get very tired, very quickly. Not to say we don't use that, we do, just enough to get engagement on the tank and YES grip material, as there is on many Moto GP bikes these days, helps. They often use some clear or slightly milky grippy plastic stuff. But what's the point in locking onto the bike to begin with? Using whatever method, locking onto the tank as your stable point on the bike has other advantages which become more difficult using the arch or any other part of the foot which lessens the "calf power" from the ball, being your base. Additionally, locking onto the tank is in line with the center of mass of the bike and the rider. That's an advantage because it is the part of the bike that moves the least, no matter what the bike is doing, as opposed to, for example, using the bars as a stable support point for your body mass. That alone is a huge benefit, you aren't being thrown around by the bike's movements. In addition to that, having your leg locked onto/into the tank in that fashion is the most stable position for your body's mass because the leg is connected to the pelvis and your body's center of mass is located in the cradle of your pelvis. So, your balance is maximized, your are the most agile, most powerful and the most relaxed you can possibly be while still maintaining your position and stability on the bike. Any sport or fighting discipline has that as the most basic goal for mobility, strength, balance, control, movement capability. And, aside from all of that, you can be the most relaxed when your core center of mass is stable. Resting your legs when you aren't using them, like the straightaways, is fine. That you have to move your feet is part of the game of cornering, no doubt about that. No doubt about it keeping the feet off the ground dragging holes in your pricey boots. No doubt that you aren't having to stabilize yourself by some other less efficient method. Having said all of that, which is inarguable, you might point out that Mick Dohan, musti time world champion, didn't have the body position that nearly every other rider has, these days. Also, you might also consider that GP bikes are, usually, more adjustable than your average street based bike and can be adjusted for different riders. Back a few years, one of my students had the opportunity to ride Danny Pedrosa's Honda Moto GP bike which is set up for a rider who is I believe 5'1" and my rider is 6'. He said it was nearly unrideable for him. All things considered, the base line for body position that is my definition is: Harmony with the motorcycle, freedom of movement on it and precision control over it, with the minimum necessary effort. Comments welcome. Keith

I took the MSF Advanced Rider course in 2022. It was a good experience- led by a state highway mounted cop; it was pretty funny having a cop yell at me to go faster. But there was an older guy in the class, he mentioned that he takes the class every couple years to test his riding fitness; if he couldn't pass the class then its time to consider not riding- balance issues, focus, mental and visual acuity or even just interest would all play into it. I think I'll do the same. I know a guy in his early 80's, he gave up his Harley because of balance issues, and I think strength also, though he'd never admit it. But he never lost the passion to ride, so just a couple weeks ago he bought a can-am spyder, much to his wife's vexation. His mood is a lot better, now he can go ride with his club again.. but if riding stops being exciting and interesting, if the passion disappears then maybe it is time to quit before making a mistake. I think ToTW1 captures it well; preoccupation with other matters gets in the way of riding. All those visual drills to free the mind from thinking and stay in the moment are critical. Riding is much like meditation in many respects. I commute by motorcycle as much as possible in the DC/Baltimore metro area. Distracted driving seems much the same as it ever was- prevalent, dangerous and a PITA. I've been able to watch movies thru the back windows of cars in the gridlock, whiff the skunk being smoked, watch the ladies putting on makeup, facebook posts being fiddled with; on and on. My favorite is when someone decides to merge right into where I am with no warning... always have to stay frosty, have a plan B, and never stay side-by-side with a cage.

Liqui Moly use in my personal cars: You'd expect me to have a biased opinion, but I can say this factually: A number of us at School pay retail to run LM in our personal vehicles. I just took a trip to NM from Calif in my 2010 GMC Sierra truck. Right before we left, did an oil change, and added the fuel treatment (for trucks, with larger gas tanks). If I get 18mpg in that truck, that's very good. I got over 19mpg. Just changed the oil in my '06 Mustang, added the Ceratech. Best mileage I've gotten on that car too. Mixed mileage part fwy, part city driving, 18mpg is reasonable. Got over 19. This isn't a long-term test yet, but I track every tank, with both vehicles, got a pretty solid idea of their mileage. I'd also noticed that oil consumption is down in the Mustang. Both my vehicles have lot so of use. The truck has almost 300k, the Mustang has 130k. This product line just looks outstanding.

Greetings all, first post here. I've been to 3 or 4 Level 4 days of School, ride a heavier Sport Touring bike on the street, Yamaha FJR1300. The guy I ride with has the same bike, we've been to Superbike School together, every time. Our track lap times are very close and on the street we ride extremely similar. At no point does either of us really leave the other one behind. We ride flat roads to get to the mountains but spend most of our riding on mountain and twisty roads. We were both running the same tires, Pirelli Angel GT's and have been for 50,000 miles for me. Back in August, I replaced mine because the sides of the rear tire were worn out. The front tire was rounded in the wear profile and it looked like a new tire, just with less tread. Nice even wear, no issues, probably had 2,000 miles left on it. The other guy changed his tires this week because his front was worn out. It had a trapezoid shape on the front tire. I know they are dual compound tires and I've seen them wear like that before. It was pretty severe. We weigh about the same and our suspensions are setup the same and I'm just curious why our tires wear so different riding the same roads on the same bike. My question, is that riding technique differences or something more along the lines of tire pressure. He's been running about 3-4 lbs less on the front than I do. We're doing a couple more days of level 4 in the spring so if it's technique related, it would be nice to know so we can work on correcting it (whichever one of us it is) at those level 4 days. I wonder if he's carrying more speed into the corners than I am, or perhaps he's braking harder than I am? It has to be a small detail because we are always so closely matched on the road. Thanks in advance!

There are loads of drills available in Level 4. Just tell your coach and consultant on your school day that you want to work on your braking, and they will incorporate that into your day. There is also an off-track bike that can be used to explore threshold braking, learn how much brake pressure it takes to lock up the front wheel, etc. There is certainly no shortage of drills for improving braking technique, and timing, and the visual skills that are needed to support effective braking.

It seems more likely, to me, to be a difference in riding style than in the difference in tire pressure, although I suppose either is possible. It logically makes sense that if he brakes more with the front brake and you 'brake' more with engine braking, that he would have more front tire wear and you would have more wear on the rear, since he is using drag from the front tire to slow the bike and you are using drag from the rear. Either technique is workable, but consider that brake pads are cheaper to replace than engine parts - if you overuse engine braking (like using early, high-rev downshifts to slow the bike) you can create some extra wear and tear on the engine. I asked about throttle application because tire wear can be a very clear indication of how a rider uses the throttle. Late, hard acceleration creates more wear on the rear tire than an earlier, slower roll-on. A rider that accelerates hard with a lot of lean angle will wear out the edges of the tire quicker. A personal example - I race a lightweight, relatively low horsepower bike. The tires usually wear pretty evenly, since there isn't huge drive power at the rear. A few years ago, I noticed that some other riders were carrying more speed into corners, braking late and trail braking deep into the corner, for every corner. It isn't my usual riding style but I decided to really give it a try and see what happened to my laptimes. I matched what the other riders were doing, found that my corner entry speeds went up, but my midcorner and exit speeds went down. My laptimes did not improve (although I did get better at making passes into corners, by improving my trailbraking skills and bravery). The most noticeable effect of the riding style was that I wore out my front tire, long before the rear, a clear indication that I was putting a lot more load on the front entering the corners but actually get less drive OUT of the corners. That was the biggest education point of the whole exercise!

This video is private now and I can't see it. Someone in this forum posted a video of a highly skilled rider doing a 180 degree turn around a single traffic cone while the rear wheel was spinning and the bike was at max lean! It was amazing and I've been searching for the video and name of the rider ever since... If anyone knows the video or rider I'm referring to. Please speak up. :)

Coffee, right you are, on both counts. Jayb, good that you notice it. How about the amount of head rotation that is needed to look into the turn? An already challenging factor for many--to look in to the right next location/target right after the turn point (maybe the apex if it's in view). With a negative attack angle (let's call A negative, B neutral, C positive attack angle), does one have to rotate their head more? Let's say a rider did the 2-step technique (defined in Twist of the Wrist 2), and rotated their head 20 degrees into a turn, before turning. With a negative attack angle of 10 degrees, then 50% more head rotation would be needed than "normal".

We are looking for qualified coach candidates. The primary reason is we continue to add is the number of coaches needed per School day keeps rising. We used to have 2 or 3 coaches--at some Schools it's now up to 15. If you are interested, think you might qualify, please read the following carefully, and return the application to me (download here).1. Racing experience is preferred. We have to see the riding to answer if the riding skill level will be adequate. Most of our students arestreet riders, but we do need someone that can set an excellent example for a broad range of skills.2. Friendly, personable, upbeat, high ethical standards, fit in with the rest of our team is a must.3. Excellent communication and observation skills. Willing to be trained and do homework. The coach training is vigorous, not for thewimpy. Every aspect of what you do is examined, honed, tested, and improved on a regular basis.4. The positions are part-time or full-time (meaning doing all Schools) for independent contractors but we need a minimum of 15 school days per year. In most cases, a coach will need to do all schools at a venue, and consider travel time. For example, if you could only do weekends, this would not be realistic.5. Application first, follow-up questions, then proceed to an interview. If appropriate a tryout is scheduled. That is usually 1 day at a racetrack.6. After the tryout, there is a short probation period/apprenticeship, but we pay travel and other expenses, use our bike, gear, etc. Probation period depends substantially on you and how well prepared you are.7. Coaches are paid according to their training/skill level, how many of the training programs they have completed. Starts at$180 per day, goes up from there.Friendly, interested in coaching others, willing to study and train, ride at a very high level, and handle long days--quite a package to find. About 1 in 40 that apply make it past the probation stage. We are a school, we train riders and racers and we do that totally. We don't give jobs to our friends because we like them.Download the application and email it to me. Best, Cobie Fair Chief Riding Coach

Great Vinny, thanks for that. I told you, but not sure I put it up here, but the last time I used both of those products I got an honest 1-2 in improvement in commuting mileage, and on the Mustang that's significant.

Glad I could join the crew and help you out on this one … 😉

Sorry, Boss. You are aging like fine wine and don't let anyone tell you otherwise.

I think the girls are calling you that, too.

Pushed up in the sense of the inside leg levering the torso inwards so the bike tends to stand up, sure... I guess it depends on how much fiddling around you want to do at turn entry. But using the pivot steer and 2 step to get out of the habit of that sort of thing is part of the benefit of the methods. Since the weather is finally getting civilized I rode to work today, very rusty having only a few good days for the last several months. I noticed a tendency for kinds of random body and leg stuff instead of a clean clamp off the outside peg w/ a slight torso lean in and no pressure on the bars other than the steering motion- so back to the drills. But its not all bad, I had pretty good corner speed on various test corners and my "hot" sweeper up to the highway. OTOH it looks like a reasonable stretch of good weather coming so I should be sharpened up a bit when you all come out to NJ 😀

So here's what happened: the audio versions of the books are somewhat unknown gold-mines. Keith does read the book to you, but if there had been additional discoveries in the years since the books had been released, he would include that in the audio book. If you know Keith for any length of time, you realize the guy never stops his research. Only a portion is released to the public, and of the material released to the senior coaches, there are still many topics that are in pilot status--meaning, he's still working them over. Right now we are looking at a training evolution (internal) that could change/improve the way we train our coaches...crazy cool, stay tuned!

The DVD isn’t a reenactment of the book’s material but more an evolution, IMO. So, the audiobook would be a spoken version of the book.

Great choice of words … "dynamically open" vs. "commute-style grind" visual skills. A nice way to think about the "distance is time" concept. I'll have to remember this! Also fully agree regarding lane positioning strategies being able to provide both reaction time and physical cover. I've found when you apply it as a key part of every ride it eventually just becomes second nature, using very little of your $10 of mental bandwidth. Gotta keep those seven survival reactions at bay!

And just to add an exclamation mark to this point, love this photo / article from the most recent issue of the AMA newsletter … 77-years young "Rocky" Spano still rocking east coast enduro …

OK, that made me laugh out loud.

Hi SlowPoke, Good thread you guys have going here. A few comments: 3-4 pounds diff in tire pressure can make a difference. Bigger heavier street bikes can need more pressure than we run on our bikes, but that can go too high (just reducing traction, via smaller contact patch) Do you ever do the 2-day camps when you come to the schools? If so, one thing we should do is get you on the Brake Enhancement Trainer. That will allow you to get to full braking, and a few things we can do on that bike we just can't do elsewhere. If you guys come together (and ride your bikes) please bring this up. I'm sure with a coach looking at both of you, we can find out what the difference is! Best, Cobie

I push on the inside bar with attention paid to make sure the inside elbow is loose so as to help avoid weighting the bar. Outside hand is along for the ride, just holding. Concur about tires making a huge difference. In 2022 right before my R6 ate itself I had a massive nail in the Q3+ rear 600+ miles from home. Got a tow to a nearby bike shop for a new rear, all that had were Rosso's and I was shocked by how quickly the bike leaned with just that new rear. I liked the Q3's but the Rosso on the rear felt like the bike was falling over in the corners until I got used to it.

I think it's really just more of a habit that I bring from the road to the track than anything else. Following a coach around helps me more than anything. Once I see, and do, that, then I'm a lot more plugged in. However, I do revert to being easier on the brakes than I should be, I believe. I don't ride like a hooligan on the roads too much, so I just settle into a pattern of being on the side of caution and not needing a handful of brakes at every turn. Then I have to remember at the school days that I need to ramp it up and be comfortable with some hard braking. I suppose I'm riding closer to my limits on the track and not nearly as close on the street, giving myself that big buffer in skill, should I need it for an emergency. I'm also riding a 650lb bike on the street, vs. the S1000RR's on the track so stopping on them is slightly different Got any good drills to work on at the track for brake usage?

Barber is a good place to practice, yes. What do you not trust about the brakes? What are you worried might happen? In what circumstances or situations are you tentative with the brakes?

Thanks for the reply, great information there. Thinking back to our last track session, he said he would catch me as we approached a turn, then I'd start to slowly put distance between us, then on the straight aways, I'd take off, but again, he'd catch me as we approached the corner. I think his words to me were something along the lines of "If you ever learn to use the brakes, you'll be checked out" 🤣 I'm working on it. I haven't quite had the internal switch click that allows me to trust the brakes to that level yet! Heading to Barber in the spring so I guess that's about as good a place as any to practice my braking?

OK, let's touch on another efficiency point, in particular on steering, at higher speeds. Different bikes require dramatically different amounts of force to steer vigorously. Ducatis in particular, due to their geometry, can require more force to steer. There sometimes needs to be a balance between steering effort and stability. Wider handlebars are significantly easier to steer than narrower bars. Tires can also be a factor, different profiles steer differently. All good so far?

That's a good question. He doesn't pull away from me, we are right with each other, but I do know a bad habit I have, especially on the street is engine braking. If I could say one main difference in our riding is I engine brake considerably more than he does. I'm working to change that, so I'm using my brakes more now, but overall, that would be the only difference I am aware of between our riding styles. No one is really putting any distance on the other one, regardless of who's leading the ride at the time.

Does your riding buddy trail brake harder and/or deeper into the corners than you do? When you ride with him, in mid-corner and corner exits, is there a difference between your acceleration and his? Does he pull away from you mid-corner or do you gain on him mid-corner? What about at the corner exit?

Good idea 😁. Additional application: some of us started to put a 2nd set lower than the tank, in the side panels if they will fit. This works great under braking. I have both tall and short coaches doing this and it works. Might have to epoxy them on, depending on the panels texture, but worth it.

Once I rode with StompGrip on my bike, I never wanted to be without them. I’ve done several makeovers and a new set has always been on the purchase list.

Just finished a quick trip to Taiwan. Trip went really well, temp was about perfect. A few flew in for that school and ended up renting some nice MV's, those bikes went very well. A point that came up was tank pads, and the effect on rider wear. Not sure we have covered it in this thread, so let's touch on that now. Tank pads, and the most aggressive you can find--huge rider aid. This is upgrade #1 for all my coaches. While in Taiwan the coach bike I rode had old (and not that grippy) tank pads. This really increases the effort to hold onto the bike, both in braking and cornering. We use the Stomp Grip here in the US, and their most aggressive line, Super Volcano. Short version is a rider can hold on better with half the effort. It's huge. Students are all tired at the end of the day. Coaches have to ride 2 or 3x, and having a good set of tank pads is vital.

OK forum lurkers and posters...new schedule is coming. Should be up on the website on Monday, Oct 30. Rumor is there are some dates at re-paved Laguna Seca. Hope to see you in 2024!

Hello everyone, I haven't been on this site for many years and forgot it even existed until I ran into it in my bookmarks. I went to CSS back in 2013, and had a blast. I had only been riding about a year and wanted more instruction. The school was amazing and it took my riding onto another level. I started carving the canyons twice a week, then started track days twice a month. I ended up starting to race with MotoWest at Willow Springs (Club still around?). I had also started training at other race schools. Riding and racing became my passion. I started teaching newer riders to ride in the canyons and made several YouTube videos. I must of read TOTW2 about 100+ times and watched the dvd more than 300+ times. Brought it to motorcycle classes for newbies, hangouts, etc. Unfortunately, I went down in the canyon back in 2015 and was almost killed. I almost lost my left leg, but it was saved. I had 14 surgeries and didn't walk for almost a year. Was also in the hospital for about 4 months. I picked up riding again in 2017, but only light street riding for about 6 months and stopped again after a car almost ran into me. So now my friend gave me a 2005 Hayabusa that didn't run. I got it running and have a huge itch to ride again. I also have the itch to do track days again. But I'm thinking of going back to CSS to sharpen my skills and bring me back to speed. I noticed the prices went way up like everything else compared to when I first went, but I understand that. Is the curriculum still the same? Just included a pic of what happens when you get run over by another bike in the canyons.

Hi Franco! Wow, what a story! Sounds like having you at the track could be good. We prefer it for less distractions. The School has undergone some changes in the last 10 years, both in the curriculum, as well as how we train the coaches (not huge changes, just evolutionary refinements). Gerry retired some years ago, but the current crop will say they are even better 😁. Let us know if you have any questions on the best way to proceed, happy to talk any time: 800-530-3350. Best, Cobie

Great way to get back into the groove of riding and will make the process of getting back up to speed much quicker and less frustrating. Prices have gone up, but not by much especially compared to how much expenses (gas, food, travel, etc.) have gone up; if you compare it to taking your own bike to the track and figure in tires, track prep, gas, etc. you realize it's a really good deal. And you can be confident CSS will provide a first class experience, and a fun one.

2013, my coach was Gerry Signorelli. Such a great dude!!! Where's Gerry?!!!

Another point: if a rider is not strong enough for the riding he's attempting, he has to work even harder and gets more worn out. This seems to be a real factor with legs, and inner thigh strength. One of my senior coaches, not a spring chicken, realized he was quite tired after a few fast laps. Over the winter he didn't do a ton of training, but did some, and worked on legs and inner thighs too. He came back the following year, said it was worth an easy 2 seconds off his lap times at Barber, and he was less tired at the end of the day. So, if you need a reason to get some exercise in, there you go.

These two stretches are for the front of your thigh and your hip flexors. Give them a go! Couch Stretch Foot to Butt Stretch

(SPOILER ALERT)...and after a LOT of patience (letting it sit for a few months), I was able to get my wife's 92' CB750 Nighthawk started today! I've tried it a few times, no dice, and had even somewhat given up. But being stubborn (sometimes it's a good characteristic) I put the battery on trickle charger about 2 weeks ago. Since I was taking care of few garage tasks, on a humdinger I decided to try to get it started. It took about 6-7 attempts at different choke settings but eventually it wanted to fire and I was encouraged to continue to try. Having a healthy battery was essential to withstanding multiple attempts. I'm not sure it it's good or not, but I think I have a better idea of where the leak is because the 4T is colored bright yellow (hope it doesn't permanently stain the aluminum). I hope that the issue is an improperly seated carb gasket, instead of a needle issue. Eventually, I was able to ride it up and down my street. I tried some high-power 1st gear runs, but my street is pretty short. I wasn't wearing gear (pretty risky) and the power on the 750 came in around 7k, right when I needed to whoa-down for a U-turn. I'll make a few phone calls and see what can be done to get her roadworthy again. I want to sell it (due to lack of use), but my wife won't let me - LoL.

Good points Coffee. Another way to look at it is more lean angle is used, as well as delayed throttle. We used to spend a whole class on this point, there are quite a few pieces to it.

Hmmm. A bike on attack angle A has a larger change of direction (turn) to make. As such, steering input will be slightly longer and it will take slightly longer (passage of time) to get the bike on line for apex and exit. So yes, throttle timing will change. It might be almost imperceptible, but throttle roll-on will start later than a bike on attack angle B.

Reduce the margin for error, good point, let's look at that for a moment, and one more piece of this. If on the "A" attack angle, will the throttle timing have to change, meaning when the throttle control can begin to roll on?

No doubt, more head rotation is required to look into the turn / apex. You also reduce your "margin for error". If you're on the B angle of attack and miss the turn point (so turning late) you still have plenty of pavement in front of you to get it done. However, if you're on the A angle of attack and miss the turn point, because you are pointed off track, you have less pavement directly in front of you to recover. Depending on our pace this can also use far more of your mental attention than desired.

I'll get the ball rolling … requires more lean angle to set your line to the apex, which in turn uses more of your available traction.

Coffee!!! You rock, this is perfect. OK, let's call "B" neutral attack angle, and "A" negative angle, "C" positive attack angle. Name one specific thing that would change adversely from using B to using A?

A is working too hard and C might be cheating the turn point - LoL

See if this works …

That did occur to me...if we don't get any takers, I will do that. We're a bit slammed at the moment, prepping for what is a 6 week tour, 21 school days, all across the country, wahooo!

Thanks all for the comments. I think we might be on a few subjects. The one I had in mind was this point on attack or approach angle to a turn point. What would be ideal is if we could get a drawing up here. Is anyone IT savvy enough to get us a simple line drawing up here we could refer to? With a short straight and a corner at end of the straight. Put an "X" for a turn point, then 3 different arrows laterally before the turn point, but side by side.. One straight on, one pointing slightly off track, and one pointing slightly into the turn...hope that make sense.

And now there is a position for road crew...did that already get posted? If you are interested, contact Whitney in our office: 800-530-3350, or whitney@superbikeschool.com Best, Cobie

In 1976 I figured I had the world by the tail once I discovered how to use Reference Points while riding and racing. That realization set me on the twisty road of rider-improvement discovery and began my maiden voyage of exploration into rider training. I began coaching students one-on-one, developing a curriculum that relied heavily on Reference Points and how to use them at tracks. I applied the data from that coaching and the Superbike School which was born in 1980 just after retiring from racing. Prior to those coaching experiences, Reference Points (RPs) usually only meant having braking markers. Lines were a topic of discussion but no procedure existed on how to figure out a line, how to dissect one or how to stitch a track together with RPs. From experience gained at the schools and later, coaching several factory riders, I wrote more on how to find and use RPs. That info came out in the first A Twist of the Wrist book in 1984. Today we know much more about RPs and what kind of visual skills a rider needs to develop. RPs assist us in defining the Space we’re in and the Speed we’re traveling through it. Accuracy with those elements relies heavily on having a minimum of three Reference Points (RPs). An accurate orientation in space begins with two external Reference Points. We find two points or objects or areas first and this then gives us a reckoning of our own location where we become the third point of orientation. Together, that creates an accurate tracking of the direction of our progress in relation to the other two. With those three, our eyes begin to create 3D space, which in turn improves our perception of relative speed and direction of travel. Also, and importantly, our sense of time and timing switches on quite automatically. In short, RPs help us create perspective. Finding and using Reference Points is quite natural and native to our survival: rarely do we walk into a closed door or bump against the furniture nor do we count how many steps it will take to walk across a room. RPs are automatically taken into account and coordinated. Some riders have a hard time finding and using RPs. While their very survival has relied on that ability they still insist that it’s difficult. This peeked my interest to find out why they struggle with something they already do. In riding there are many barriers but only two freedoms: The freedom to change the speed and to change the direction of the bike. Without RPs it’s impossible to do them well. Having the bike pointed where you want it to go is another ingrained-use we make of RPs. Whether conscious of it or not, we always have an intended destination, a location we are seeking to reach. Arriving at a location simply refers to staying in your lane, missing a pothole, not running wide, picking your turn entry, finding a line, recognizing you are on a line at all or simply avoiding hitting a car. Accurately gauging when and how much to gas, brake and turn so we can arrive somewhere depends on having three RPs. So why the difficulty? Accuracy and purpose both have something to do with it. Starting off with the idea to keep the bike on the road is a good goal; when it comes to cornering motorcycles it isn’t enough. Lining up for a corner right on the edge, in order to open the turn’s radius as wide as possible is correct thinking for most turns. Starting that turn 3 feet inside the edge defeats that purpose; especially on the road where 3 feet is 25% of the whole lane. Not accustomed to being that accurate, riders default to “safe in the middle of the road”. There are other visual and control weaknesses that can contribute to this common error. Not being adept at steering the bike can make any rider edge-shy. If they subscribe to so called ‘Body Steering’ they’ve experienced the bike lazily changing directions often enough to avoid being too close to the edge of their lane. RPs themselves have a viable range of application. Too close or too far away on the road’s surface are their chief parameters. Too far to one side or the other of your intended line can also create problems. The how, when and where of using RPs is nicely wrapped up in the two dozen drills I’ve developed which can be coached by someone trained to recognize the rider errors resulting from not having sufficient RPs. That’s good news. The bad news is we now run smack into every rider’s mortal enemy, that of Target Fixation. Target fixated is bad; it signals the onset of varying degrees of panic. The kicker is that the main reason we panic is because we’ve lost our other RPs. When target fixed we only have that one RP and we need two. Drilling and coaching on correct visual techniques with simple and doable exercises heads off the classic visual faults humans seem stuck with. It seems impossible to eliminate target fixation, tunnel vision and over-active scanning. However, through understanding and drilling of what, where, how far ahead, how wide and even how long we should look at our RPs we can make deep inroads into the problems and find solutions to them. At the schools we haven’t sat still on these problems. At this point in time, we’ve developed 64 visual exercises our coaching staff use regularly to help their students understand and to improve what you could easily say is the most important part of any rider’s skill portfolio. © 2017 Keith Code. All rights reserved.