Looking through the corner? But look where?

[jellyrug]

I'm never relaxed in a corner unless I'm touring. My core is taunt, my outside leg it gripping the tank holding my arse in position and my inside calf is as tight as a knat's a$$ stretched over a 55 gallon drum. If I hit ten laps hard my skivies are so wet you can wring them out. I use the straights to rest. I guess I haven't figured out how to relax in the corners and watch the tweety birds mate.

Yeah, I still struggle with getting my inside calf tight and my knee out far enough. Still a Virgin here, can't open my legs that wide.

 

[dadofthree]

Interesting posts.

Our coach called looking through a turn, "Target Fixation" meaning your bike goes exactly where you look. Later during the day we had an excellent example of this, look the rider with the GoPro, following the crash rider he is looking at. You have to look at this video a few times, but if he kept his line and looked through the turn he would have been clear and through. Incidentally, I did exactly the same thing 2nd last lap of the day, could not get around two crashed bikes in front of me and crashed. The rider behind me did the same thing also, so four of us went down. If I kept my eyes on the line I had to take through the curve, I would have been through.

Major broken ego here, tore ligaments in my foot and my little Gixxer is a bit beat up.



So, remember to always look through the turn.

Incidentally, the guy who crashed in the video was Hector and the one with the Gopro was Arthur, should you know these folks.

Another thought is; in an incident the bike is gonna travel basically straight because of inertia until it contacts an object. So what you're saying is absolutely true, but I believe the guy with GoPro did a good job. I guess if he had gotten out of throttle fast enough he could have continued his line without contacting the bike and rider.

One things for sure ( target fixation ) if you look at a fallen rider or bike you're going to it.

 

[IG.]

I think in this video it is a bit more complicated. The rider who followed seemingly intended to take a wider line. The problem was the crashed bike was going wide as well and right into his line. For a moment there it was confusing as to whether he could go around the crashed bike on the outside or inside. At least, Arthur stayed up.

I also wonder what Hector's take is on what happened. I'd say Blue Group riders are so used to trading paint and extreme situations that I doubt a serious case of target fixation.

 

[fastblackblur]

As Jellyrug mentioned, the cones some trackday providers use to mark braking, tip in, apex and exit points are a real asset when learning how to connect the dots. They are there for a reason, use them if they are available.

The cones helped me out a ton! I never really had an issue with high speeds or hard breaking but boy did I have some issues with my lines. I just could not seem to figure out what the heck people were talkng about without them.

 

[fastblackblur]

Getting around the track is a game of "Connect the dots". If you approach it with connecting the dots in mind you'll advance much faster than trying to identify some imaginary line.

"Conecting the dots" would be a good metaphor for my thought process while going around the track and I would say my riding skills progressed pretty quickly last year.

...maye there is some sense to this stuff ???

 

[Lamb busa]

Target fixation...love the phrase. love it. All humans target fixate. This is how we see. We look at an object---> focus, thereby determining distance, size, movement etc... Humans cant "see" any other way. This is usually used to describe something negative. He target fixated and went right where he he\she was looking. The phrase for negative should be, he had prolonged target fixation. Lamb wants to stick to the street riding aspects as he does much more of this. Target fixation is a tool and understanding how one processes info is important. If one understands how the brain processes the info it will be easier to train it to fixate correctly. In and about town, never look at vehicles, always look at the space or escape routes between vehicles. This stops Lamb from staring at the car in front and the space is always changing..i.e. having to always change ones point of focus or fixated spot. and thats the key...Every human must fixate for a time on something in order to "see it". 1 second, half a second, 2 seconds. Cant fixate on a pothole 30 feet away going 25 miles an hour for 2 seconds because you'll roll right over the hole in that amount of time. You might wanna see the pothole, half a second, see the flatter road surface, half second and then look for the next potential obstacle. But if one is travelling 65 down an interstate, looking 30 feet in front becomes impossible, and so does looking at objects for only half a second. Looking further ahead takes longer to focus...i.e determine distance, size, movement etc..The trick for Lamb is to strive to never look any object longer than 2 seconds.
Sorry its a lil windy...thx for taking the time to read

 

[Lamb busa]

Pashnit! Perfect example of looking through the corner. Lamb hopes he looks just like that.

 

[brpo]

This is a great topic! After all my seat time there's two riding thoughts I continually have to think about particularly when the speed picks up... the first is get off the bars - don't tighten up the arms - don't strangle the the handling out of the bike as the blood pressure goes up - deep breath and relax. And keep the head up "look ahead" where you want to go and the bike tends to get there more or less by itself. If your eyes aren't looking where you want to go it's impossible to know the line you need to take. The faster you go the further ahead you need to be looking. I still struggle with these issues.

 

[kml]

On the street I look as far up the road as I can see, where the road vanishes to a point.

If you look through the corner to where the road disappears to a point it forces you to turn your head and not look at the patch of pavement in front of your wheel.

Looking as far up the road as possible also allows a greater time to react to impending problems.

I leave my peripheral vision to pick up motion, as that's what it does best.
The Rods and Cones of the Human Eye


Good read here on vanishing points.

Bend Assessment

The vanishing or convergence point is the last little bit of the road surface that you can see before it disappears out of the range of view, which can be the point where the road surface disappears around the corner.

What works on the track? I'll leave that to Tuff.

cheers
ken