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Running off the road


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I have never been to the California Superbike School but I have read and watched Twist Of The Wrist 2 so many times it is engrained in my brain. Keith Code's instruction on the 2 Step Vision Technique is by far what has improved my riding the most. Everything has slowed down for me in my mind resulting in the bike going faster. I live in Banff National Park (Canada) and there is a one way mountain road which is very track like. I have ridden this hundreds of times not worrying about oncoming traffic. I use this road to work on body position, trail braking, flick rates, throttle control and of course VISION. Yesterday I ran off the road at a good speed. I do wear all the gear including an Air Bag vest which worked very well. Just like a Moto GP rider I was more mad at myself than hurt and was worried about my bikes condition. I have been going over the incident in my head all night and all day today trying to figure out what I did wrong. I now know what it was. On this particular corner I did not 2 step properly (look ahead into the turn early enough) and all my survival reactions took over. I panicked because of my speed and hit the brakes bringing the bike up. I then target fixated on the side of the road and I froze on the bars. Nothing could help me now as I flipped the bike in the ditch. 

This could make someone not want to ride for a while but when you can identify why things went wrong it makes it much better. I owe this confidence to Keith Code and his teachings. It is important to note that even after doing something hundreds if not thousands of times we can still fall victim to our survival reactions. They can creep in any time but as long as you know what the causes are you can deal with them and learn. I must confess that I really don't feel like riding right now at all but hope that changes soon. Thanks Keith and to the female truck driver who helped me pick my bike up.

Don Dagg

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Welcome, Don!

Very true, as soon as we are not 100% mentally riding ahead of the bike, the perception (false or true) of excessive speed and lack of time and available space overwhelms our fears of not surviving the situation.

 "A superior pilot uses his superior judgement to avoid situations which require the use of his superior skills" - Frank Borman

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Don,

Glad to hear that you are ok. I have had my share of close calls before I ever heard of Keith Code. When I first read about survival reactions I was shocked. It's true, I did all that stuff and never realized it. I started doing "SR days" where I go out to a good mountain road and practice avoiding survival reactions. I actually talk to myself when approaching a turn like "ok now, loose on the bars, wide field of view, don't add throttle until lean angle is complete, smooth roll on," etc.

I hope you can get back on the bike quickly and back to enjoying the feeling of great cornering!

Best regards,

Andrew

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