I definitely dispute those figures: Riding is 1% operating the bike and 99% a state of mind. Even that may be understating the importance of the mental side to riding safely.

Everyone has "off days", especially early on. My own policy on them:

An "off day" means I am not aware of the road conditions and traffic around me, so I do NOT ride the bike. It simply becomes far too dangerous (to me) to ride if I'm not paying attention.

Time does, of course, balance this out. Off days will occur less often. Your skills will improve significantly (over the course of years) making riding on one less dangerous. The severity of some types of off days will also decrease (for me at least they did).

Now to throw out all the above .... sometimes the best medicine to counteract an off day is to just get out and ride. Not many motorcycles in front of the psychiatrist's office.

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Traveling The World Since: 2011
Blog: The Seductive Life (General Travel)

Yep! Been there.

For me its been when I haven't eaten and my blood sugar is off and/or I haven't been drinking enough fluids.

I hit the road at 0230 in the morning, when deer, drunks and cops are the most active. I have to be mentally alert at this time. Sometimes I use these. They perk me up and help me stay focused.

[url=http://www.vroomfoods.com/foosh_mints.html]FOOSH

Wise words, all - thank you!

I got right back in the saddle again this morning - early-morning, not much traffic about to start with, etc etc - and my brain seemed to be back in the zone again!

Rode for a couple of hours and got my confidence back up again, thank goodness. Rain started coming down, so headed back inside - not ready for wet-weather riding just yet!

I think maybe the "off days" thing is actually a tiredness thing - first thing in the morning, I'm alert and ready for anything, whereas late afternoon, everything takes much more effort! Motorcycling's certainly not "coming naturally" yet - so maybe it's also "brain ache" through having to concentrate so much, hahaha!!

Jeanie

I'd highly recommend reading "The Pace" by a friend of mine, Nick Ienatsch.
I had the chance to ride with Nick and company back in the 90's when this style of group riding was being formed. Motorcyclist magazine frequently test new bikes in the Santa Monica mountains, my former back yard.

The Pace works, and you will be a better rider if you learn the basic tenants and put them to use ... daily. Not strictly for beginners but all the basic principles apply.
Check it out.

.: Nick Ientash's The Pace | Canyon Chasers Motorcycle Sport Touring :.

It's not just brain ache but physical tiredness, when it's all new you're more tense which has an effect on your abilities/endurance, three deep breaths often makes you aware of how tense you are.

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Anything can happen in the next half hour

Hey thanks for this MickeyD, it's a great read!

I'm reading anything and everything I can get my hands on about how to be a good - and safe - motorcyclist, as I want to get into good habits from the very start.

I've had some great basic training (thanks again, Ride-Tek guys in Melbourne!). But the real skill is actually reading the road and other road users, which is a combination of intuition and concentration, I think. At the moment, in my case, it's all about the latter (hence the "brain ache" and fatigue!) - but hopefully the former will come, the more I'm on the road.

Meantime, reading up on the best techniques for riding is really galvanizing my on-road experience - a good rider is an informed rider, no question!

Jeanie

Well it was all going so well... and then I came off my bike coming back into my own garage!

To be fair, it was the "perfect storm" scenario for me to come off - a right-hand turn into a steep slope going down into my underground carpark. Just as I made the turn, there was a car coming up the slope the other way, leaving not much room between it and the wall to my right. As I tried not to hit the wall to my left or the oncoming car to my right, whilst going down the slope (and over a speed bump on the slope!), my brain overloaded, I lost control and fell sideways.

Luckily, I was going at such low speed, I wasn't hurt at all. Had a weird "slo- mo" moment as I fell, hinking "Wow, so this is what falling off a motorcycle really feels like!" Wasn't worried in the slightest about hurting myself!

Happily, a knight in shining armour helped me get the bike back up and down into the underground garage. Bad news is - the clutch housing has snapped in two, leaving the clutch lever dangling helplessly by the cables. I have no idea how this could have happened, as the bike fell to the right, not the left. :confused1:

Not upset about coming off the bike. VERY upset about how I'm going to get the clutch fixed so I can carry on riding asap and not get hung up on this little incident...

Jeanie

It's funny is that. Lots of people are afraid of falling off, and to some extent it's a good fear... but the reality is often different from what you imagine.

Road work is much more likely to result in injury, but slow speed stuff, where the bike isn't under any real power is the most likely place for a drop. It's the same in an of road situation, the fear of falling is worse than the fall itself - often, but not always, depends on lots of things.

They (the safety police) make a big thing about 'speed kills' but how many fighter pilots die just from going fast ? No speed is your friend, stopping quickly is the problem, its very difficult to fall or drop a bike at speed. Stopping quickly is the one to avoid!

Did you know that your body cannot survive a dead stop from anything over 30mph ? Your internal organs continue through your rib cage and into your shirt! A sobering thought when you are hurtling down the road, hence the previous advice, can you stop in the distance you can see to be clear?

Still we all have motorcycles for a reason, freedom. whoever you ask it pretty much comes down to some variation on freedom.

I hope you get your bike fixed, we learn from our mistakes, and you've picked up a lesson early on. Think about it, and how to avoid it in the future, practice practice practice, but most off all - enjoy.

Not upset about coming off the bike. VERY upset about how I'm going to get the clutch fixed so I can carry on riding asap and not get hung up on this little incident...

Jeanie [/quote]

That's a good attitude. No need for it to put you off, learn from it and move on..

Can you remember what you actually did wrong? Did you grab the front brake too hard? Had you got your balance right on leaving the turn before the ramp? Should you have stopped after the turn to assess if the ramp was clear before progressing? In other words, was it a 'reading the road' or control of the bike mistake that led to you laying it down? Try to figure this out and then you can work on that aspect of your riding.

Sounds as if the slope of the ramp, the fact that you were coming out of a turn, the speed bump (and the oncoming car!!) contributed to affect your slow speed control. Think back to the slow speed control part of your lessons - I bet it was all done on flat ground. Adding road undulations really changes how the bike and your balance and traction points work, so maybe you could practice slow speed control on undulating ground?

I cant offer up any advice on how to fix the clutch, but I'd recommend you try fixing it yourself, or at least watching the person who does so that you learn a bit about repair work.

There's a real sense of achievement to be had from repairing stuff. Anyways, you're OK and that is the main thing!

PS. some folk recommend having all the bolts on handlebar mounting brackets a little looser than normal. This way brake cylinders/wing mirrors/levers etc have a chance to spin around the bars rather than snapping in the event of an off.

If you can try to get off road, not extreme, just tracks and trails on a suitable bike you can learn a lot of bike control and gain a huge amount of confidence in your abilitys, it really does help with road riding.
We all have off days, that never changes no matter how many years in the saddle, although with time and experience they do become less.