Looking at Where We Want to Go (Seeing the Horizon and Everything Within It)

LOOKING AT WHERE WE WANT TO GO
1.1 When I was in the army I used to go cycling with a friend. We had a regular circuit that included a steep uphill as well as a bendy downhill and a pub at the end where we could sit and chat at the end of our ride.
1.2 One of our favorite parts of the ride was the steep downhill that turned sharply left at the very bottom. We always egged each other on to see if we could go down without using our brakes before the corner. It was a scary prospect because we never knew if a car would be coming the opposite way.
1.3 My friend and I both finished our training and got posted to new locations before I was able to figure out how to go around that particular corner without using my brakes to slow down first. I did do it once and thanked the gods there wasn’t anything coming the other way. I would liked to have ridden that corner comfortably and with skill rather than hope and a prayer.
1.4 Fifteen years later I went on a motorcycle course that focused on teaching motorcycle riders how to go faster on the part of a track or road that slows them down most, the corners. I was finally on my way to going around corners fast on two wheels.
1.5 On the course we got about five rides each day. We’d get a briefing before each ride, a preview of what we were going to practice on the track. Then we tried the lesson on the track at speed, applying what we learned. After each ride we were asked what we thought and what we had learned and we got to ask questions if we had any. Then we were given the theory and instructions for the next part of our ride. Each day had some sort of rhythm, rests so we could learn where we were going and also see where we’d been so that we could learn how to go faster.
1.6 We learned how using the brakes affects the pitch of the bike, throwing it forwards and compressing the front forks. On the other hand, accelerating tends to lift the front end. We could use the accelerator and the brakes to help balance the bike as well as adjust our speed.
1.7 Going around a corner, if we release the brakes too late then the front end of the bike is still dipped while going around the corner. So we learned how to time when to engage our brakes and when to release them.
1.8 We learned how shifting our weight to one side pushes the bike the other way so the bike has more clearance on the side we are leaning our body towards. This same action could be used while cornering, shifting our body into the corner so the bike moves out from it to create more clearance to the inside of the bike. That would give us that much more room to go faster or tighter around the bend. On the other hand, sitting up higher on the bike in a corner would push the bike down reducing clearance between it and the road.
1.9 We were learning a lot and by the time we were on the last ride of the first day I was pretty tired. I was looking forwards to a rest but I thought I had enough juice in me for some fun on the final few corners before the pits.
1.10 On the track I was riding there is one corner called the Corkscrew that has two turns, a sharp left turn followed immediately by a turn to the right. Rounding the first part of the corkscrew the road momentarily disappears from sight because it dips down. The usual tendency is to upright the bike at that point, but then when the road reappears you see that you have to keep on turning left otherwise you’ll run off the track. Then you have to lean right quickly after for the turn that follows.
1.11 Following the track into the first turn of the corkscrew I was already thinking about corners yet to come. My focus tightened to the road just ahead of me. Exiting the second left turn I leaned the bike to the right and kept looking a few feet ahead of me. The bike smoothly went to the right and continued going right until it was on its side sliding and I was on my backside swearing at myself as I skidded after my bike.
1.12 I was the thirteenth mishap of the day and the head mechanic was marginally upset. I think he threw a spanner. I wasn’t too happy either. Luckily the damage to myself was minimal.
1.13 Looking back I realized that I’d gone where I was looking. Thinking about corners I couldn’t even see I’d become fixated on a point on the road just ahead of the bike. I stayed looking at that one small stationary piece of road and that’s where I went.
1.14 I should have been looking ahead as far as I could see and dealing with what I could see, the horizon and the road leading up to it. Then, as the road changed I would have seen those changes and been ready for them and been able to handle them. As it was, the road changed and I didn’t change with it.
1.15 The next day I got on my bike I was scared. My mind was dominated by the notion of not crashing. Going around the bends I felt like I was being pulled to the outside of each corner. And because I was scared I kept looking at where I didn’t want to go, to the outside of each corner. And that’s where I went.
1.16 I decided to look at where I wanted to go.
1.17 In the next corner I followed the inside edge of the turn with my eyes. When I could see the track beginning to straighten then my eyes followed the line out of the turn. I looked for the furthest point ahead that I could see, each moment shifting my gaze and following the road’s horizon while staying aware of the road leading up to it.
1.18 There was a feeling, delicious, of falling into each corner, but then I’d smoothly roll the accelerator and come flying out. It’s similar to the feeling I had when skating, falling from skate to skate, easily, rhythmically, smoothly transitioning from one side to the other. Riding was fun again.
1.19 Looking back, initially my problem had been becoming fixated on one spot. This was particularly dangerous because I was in a corner when it happened. On a straightaway it wouldn’t have been such a big deal, I probably could have just kept on going straight. But because the road was bending and dipping and rising, I needed to look ahead to see the changes before I got to them. Because I wasn’t looking ahead, I didn’t see those changes and so I went down.
1.20 The next problem was looking to the outside of each corner. My mind wanted to follow the bend of the road to the inside but my eyes had been looking to the outside of the turn. I was pulling myself apart because part of me seemed to be going one way while part of me wanted to go another.
1.21 When I looked at where I wanted to go, and kept moving my gaze ahead of me, then my eyes and my mind and my body were unified and together we handled each bend as we got to it. Leading with my eyes the bike and my body followed.
1.22 And now I know part of the reason why I had so much trouble going down that road on my bicycle with my friend in England. After having accelerated down the hill, when I went around the corner I looked at the place I didn’t want to go, the outside of the bend, the opposite lane of traffic, and that is nearly where I went unless slowed down first. I didn’t realize that part of what I needed to do was look at where I wanted to go so that I could go there.