PittsDriver

Big thanks to Dylan and Hotfoot! That kind of knowledge is priceless to us casual track day riders.

Hmmm, I would think that I can visualize being in the situation where I need to activate my anti-fixate antidote without engraining the judgement error that got me there You would know better than most the value of chair flying!

Good point. That's why I think Hotfoot's advice about her trigger/response seems like the best in this thread. Whenever I catch myself being compelled to brake for something (like a corner) harder than I anticipated, use that as the trigger for a LOOK, GO reaction. I think the main point of my question is to discuss how to make a good response like this something I can do without thinking about it. When that "oh @#$%" moment happens, your thinking isn't going to suddenly catch up and get ahead of the action - just the opposite. In aerobatics we call that brain freeze. Hence my point about this reaction needing to be something you've programmed in your reptilian brain. But how? One technique pilots use in training is chair flying where I'll sit and close my eyes in the comfort of my favorite chair at home and mentally go over and over some maneuver. I wonder if that would work here to spend time imagining finding yourself charging deep into a corner and triggering the LOOK, GO reaction? For the really skilled riders here like the CSS coaches, is that a technique you've ever used to learn something new? I could see it especially useful to "ride" a track mentally taking yourself through every reference point around the circuit and I'm sure that's something that you do. I'm thinking it might also be a useful homework assignment for students to do that for skills they're trying to learn as well. Thoughts?

SRod321, I like it that you seem to have had enough survival reaction experience (or more to the point, constant reenforcement ) that you seem to have a proper reaction spring loaded in your reptilian brain. Wouldn't it be great if there were some training opportunities to get more riders where you are without the risk on the street. I can't remember if I mentioned this in my OP but the slide bike option at CSS was a great way to work on my SR from locking up the front or just panic braking. That's a great laboratory for demonstrating how I do exactly what I don't want to do in that situation - get a death grip on the bars. I had to do that drill several times before I could be light enough on the bars during threshold braking to become the human ABS I needed to be. I felt like I got pretty good at it after several attempts but I'm sure that's also a perishable skill. If someone pulled out in front of me suddenly on the street would I be locked on with my lower body and light on the bars? Maybe a lot of experience and focused attention on this problem is the only answer. Just asking the question on here it's interesting how it's come up that some track junkies just stop riding on the street altogether. On the track you should be able to not be often surprised by charging a corner, et. al. by focusing on all that preventative stuff posted here. Sure it's going to happen but not like it would on riding a few 10's of thousands of street miles per year. For that, the best advice seems to be to stop riding when you're tired or not well hydrated or not mentally all in the game and have the restraint and judgement to ride The Pace where you're less likely to catch yourself charging a corner.

I can't remember if I've posted this hear before - probably not. I have front/rear video running on my Super Duke and got this video last year when out in the hills of Virginia. A buddy was following me when this knucklehead came at me near the centerline. He then proceeded to get target fixated on my buddy and ended up passing him ON THE RIGHT! My apologies for the quality of the video which is about as good as the Zapruder film but you can get the idea of how dangerous it can be to target fixate. This guy had plenty of margin left to get leaned over and make the turn if he would have just looked where he wanted to go and make the bike do it. This was very nearly a bad day.

Thanks 53Driver. All those things you posted are great advice for how to properly set up and execute a corner in a way that keeps you mentally ahead (slows down the action) and having proper vision and a LOOK - GO mantra. If you train and engrain those habits I'm absolutely convinced you'll be a safer and better prepared rider. However, none of that addresses an antidote for your survival reaction of target fixating when you do find yourself in a completely unexpected situation. Doing all that proper stuff you covered helps reduce those incidents but sooner or later everyone finds themselves with a car suddenly crossing the center line at us or some stuff in the road that runs you wide toward the ditch. In that case we can get target fixated and don't use the margin and maneuverability we have available to avoid the "target." If you go back and read my initial post in this thread, I make the assertion that in order to be able to eliminate target fixation we have to have to be able to 1. instantly recognize/acknowlege in that moment that what's happening isn't what I expected; and 2) have a response that has been practiced enough to be in my reptilian brain. I gave the example of how we do this in aerobatic upset/recovery training in aircraft. I was hoping that bringing this up on here some minds much more experienced and instruction oriented then me would give it some thought and figure out a way to train out that target fixation instinctual reaction. Thanks for your contribution but it's my hope that there's a solution out there other than be skillful enough to have it never happen. I have to believe that target fixation puts a very large number of motorcyclists in the hurt locker.

I've wondered about this as well that they can brake hard enough to lift the rear tire without putting stress on the bars and with one leg dangling. My presumption is that they're locked on well enough with the outside leg and that throwing out the inside leg still allows for them to further shift the CG in to the turn without further shifting around on the bike. It seems like there would be no way for them to have any front end feel if they were bracing with the arms.

Yeah, I was so brain locked that when asked for airspeed I kept giving him our altitude.

If you think spins can't induce some brain freeze, let's go do some cross-over spins where we'll go from upright spinning to inverted before recovering. The first time I did those with my acro instructor he told me just to fly straight and level after and say airspeed. As I was just trying to keep the wings level I said, we're at 3500 feet. Yep, I was that confuzzled. But the point is well taken that it'll be difficult to set up a target fixation SR to work on an antidote like the one Hotfoot suggested - when compelled to brake, look in at where I want to go.

That's the best explanation I've ever heard about how the front should feel riding near the limit. I think I've spent a lot of my track time assuming traction rather than discovering it and I can see how that's holding me back from getting nearer to the limit. Thanks Cobie!

It's personally comforting to me that there's more margin in the front than the rear - that's just how I like it.

For riding at the track, the skill (or lack of) that's holding me back from advancing is feeling front end grip and riding near the limit. I'm not sure why. Maybe it's fear of a low side that's keeping me from riding near the limit? The one and only time I've ever put a bike on the ground was a low side in an off-camber decreasing radius where I felt like I had everything working just right until I was sliding on my back. I blame that incident on my stupidity of pushing cold tires but it's put a road block in my advancement and I wish there was a way to get past that to develop finer feel for the limit. I'm a dirt bike guy as well and I'm comfortable with that bike moving around under me at and beyond the limit of traction but for some reason I just can't trust myself to push the bike into any kind of slide at the track knowing that I can control it. Also, I never throw my leg over a motorcycle without hearing protection. I'm a poster case for being stupid about that earlier in my life and I'm just trying to save the hearing I have left.

Another skill for street riders would be developing your spidey-sense for danger from other vehicles on the road. Unlike the track where you can put almost all your attention into looking where you want to go and how you get there, if you do that on the street that's when someone is going to pull out in front of you because you didn't notice that they hadn't made eye contact with you and were looking the other way. I guess in CSS terms, that would maybe be the wide view? Maybe that's still vision but with a different emphasis on detecting potential dangers.

I think visual skills are far more important than the others listed. I think your school thinks so too You teach that and throttle control first because it's the foundation of all the other skills in that those two things keep you mentally ahead of the action unfolding in front of you. The only other thing I would add as a skill is being smooth and steady on the controls. If your vision and throttle control are good, I think you'll find that those quick reflexes, bravery, and other skills will get tested less often!!

That came through in your original post and I just paraphrased it poorly. Thank again for all your (and Cobie's) insights on this! Wes