moto-rama
Well-known member
Webster says it's:
1. visualization of a future event or state
2.a prior action that takes into account or forestalls a later action
3.the act of looking forward
It's also what the proficient rider develops over time and miles, the ability to make decisions based on previous experience and observation. It's an encyclopedia of situations, conditions and circumstances that gets hard wired into the brain over the years.
Example:
I have ridden the Shoreline Highway between Mill Valley and Tomales a great number of times, over the past 41 years. I have a photographic record of every turn, bump, pothole, former pothole, landslide, elevation change, the little seasonal nuances like streams that drain across the road, the places where trucks cut corners and spew gravel in to the roadway, even where the Kingfisher sits waiting for his daily fish breakfast.
I have a record of all the repairs, re-pavings, the texture and feel of the different colors of asphalt used over the years.
The more I ride this road and take in the experience, the better able I am to know what may lie around the next bend. I am able to anticipate what may be next and am ready to take it on.
This applies to all types of riding, too. Whether you are a daily commuter or weekend canyon carver or track rat, over time and miles you get that 6th sense of riding, Anticipation.
It isn't something you are granted when you first throw a leg over a bike and let out the clutch. It's something you acquire, a skill, a tool, a co-pilot that rides with you and keeps you out of harm's way, it makes you faster in competition, it keeps you alive to ride again.
Much has been said about Experience VS Skill and variations on that theme, and there is little argument on whether experience can make you a better rider. But what exactly do you get from experience?
You get more skilled at handling a motorcycle, assuming you have the right kind of experience and training. You get better at managing the way you interact with traffic, or other riders on the track.
But you get that priceless thing called Anticipation, too.
You are already thinking about the next thing, the next turn, the next situation, and over time you sort of "just know" what to expect when given a set of factors, and this gives you the 6th Sense of riding.
As Webster says, "The act of looking forward"
1. visualization of a future event or state
2.a prior action that takes into account or forestalls a later action
3.the act of looking forward
It's also what the proficient rider develops over time and miles, the ability to make decisions based on previous experience and observation. It's an encyclopedia of situations, conditions and circumstances that gets hard wired into the brain over the years.
Example:
I have ridden the Shoreline Highway between Mill Valley and Tomales a great number of times, over the past 41 years. I have a photographic record of every turn, bump, pothole, former pothole, landslide, elevation change, the little seasonal nuances like streams that drain across the road, the places where trucks cut corners and spew gravel in to the roadway, even where the Kingfisher sits waiting for his daily fish breakfast.
I have a record of all the repairs, re-pavings, the texture and feel of the different colors of asphalt used over the years.
The more I ride this road and take in the experience, the better able I am to know what may lie around the next bend. I am able to anticipate what may be next and am ready to take it on.
This applies to all types of riding, too. Whether you are a daily commuter or weekend canyon carver or track rat, over time and miles you get that 6th sense of riding, Anticipation.
It isn't something you are granted when you first throw a leg over a bike and let out the clutch. It's something you acquire, a skill, a tool, a co-pilot that rides with you and keeps you out of harm's way, it makes you faster in competition, it keeps you alive to ride again.
Much has been said about Experience VS Skill and variations on that theme, and there is little argument on whether experience can make you a better rider. But what exactly do you get from experience?
You get more skilled at handling a motorcycle, assuming you have the right kind of experience and training. You get better at managing the way you interact with traffic, or other riders on the track.
But you get that priceless thing called Anticipation, too.
You are already thinking about the next thing, the next turn, the next situation, and over time you sort of "just know" what to expect when given a set of factors, and this gives you the 6th Sense of riding.
As Webster says, "The act of looking forward"
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