Exceeding Your Skill Bubble (15/17)

Exceeding Your Skill Bubble

Behold, the most lethal of the Deadly Risks has been saved for last.  Such behaviour has resulted in countless rider injury and death.  This Deadly Risk boils down to self-awareness and discipline.  It is very easy to get carried away while riding a motorcycle.  Being caught up in the moment can be caused by many factors: complacency, adrenaline, peer pressure, chasing the dragon, cockiness, recklessness and poor mental states.  No matter the cause, you always land up in the danger zone while riding outside of your Skill Bubble.  This is an incredibly important concept, so a graph system has been devised to aid the ease of understanding. The Skill Bubble represents overall rider skill and is made of two components: operational skill and psychological skill.  The capacities of these components are plotted from the centre (0 skill) to the edge of the chart (expert level of skill).  When the points are joined, you get your own exclusive Skill Bubble!  For the new rider, the size of their bubble and consequent skill is small. A new rider with no operating experience will have 0-1 points for the various skill sets within the chart (as seen in the small red circle above).

As the rider becomes more and more adept at handling their surroundings and their motorcycle, their Skill Bubble will grow with corresponding notches on the chart.  You should never take risks outside your Skill Bubble.  Different aspects of riding, as well as different variables while riding, come with an inherit amount of risk. For instance, riding around in an isolated parking lot carries little risk, whereas riding in the rain during rush hour traffic would carry much more. When taking risks outside of the Skill Bubble, the motorcyclist will be subjecting herself to levels of risk which she does not have adequate skills to handle. This may cause a situation where the rider wouldn’t have the necessary skills to avoid an accident.  What is commonly misunderstood here is not how much skill is required to perform an operation with elevated risk, but how much skill is required to recover an operation with elevated risk when Murphy shows up and something goes wrong. In these delicate situations, risk spikes suddenly and the needed response to recover control also requires a spike in applied skill.

Let’s say a young rider has just picked up a new 600cc sport bike.  They have a need for speed and can’t help it. The first time out, they decide to see what the bike can do.  On an open stretch of highway they start grabbing gears.  Deep into fourth gear, a deer darts onto the road.  This is the first time the rider has handled a motorcycle at this speed (and the first time they’ve handled this bike).  They are unfamiliar with the distance being travelled per second, how much harder it is to swerve, or how long it takes to reduce speed.  The rider has found himself outside his Skill Bubble and has now put himself in an extremely hazardous situation where they’re just rolling the dice.  Maybe he’ll pull out of it,  maybe they won’t.  If the deer is struck at that speed, the rider will certainly sustain severe injuries.  Another thing that is certain, is that he don’t know how to handle a bike at those speeds and is likely to have a Panic Reaction.  “What’s a Panic Reaction?”  I’m glad you asked.

Panic Reactions

Panic Reactions are a combination of several factors: spiking fear, lack of skill, and lack of knowledge. When these ingredients are mixed together, a Panic Reaction will often result. There are three basic Panic Reactions:

1. Freezing up
2. Overreaction
3. Incorrect action

When an operator is faced with an unexpected threatening situation, it will cause an involuntary reflex reaction.  The origins of this reaction are hard wired into our physiology as the fight or flight response, and it is inescapable. If you are riding outside of your Skill Bubble, a Panic Reaction will result.  You will not have the skill or experience to instinctively navigate out of the situation, causing panic.  The mind is in a perpetual state of evaluating conditions in the surroundings with goals of self preservation. This is a subconscious process, and the mind will instinctively know if a situation is within your skill level (resulting in confidence), or outside of your skill level (causing panic). Although panic reactions can sometimes result in the correct action, this is a very rare occurrence.  What is far more common is an incorrect reflexive response which comes with a inflated chance of a crash.  Great care must be taken to train proper mental and physical skill in order not to overwhelm one’s instinctual capabilities.   

Putting Speed into Perspective

A general rule of thumb with motorcycle operation is; as speed increases, risk follows.  On top of increasing the likelihood of severe injury or death, the more speed a motorcycle has the harder it is to handle and more distance is covered per second which can impair judgment. Since crashing is not a daily occurrence, the average motorcyclist will be completely out of touch with the consequences of impacts.  The following chart will shed some light on the severity of impacts as speed increases.  Please note that these figures represent the worst case scenarios.  Jumping into the ground creates a crushing, instant deceleration.  During motorcycle crashes the rider hopes for slides and tumbles resulting in a gradual deceleration. However, worst case scenario instant deceleration can be caused by immovable objects such as: trees, cars, posts, poles, curbs, guardrails etc.  Another unnerving consideration is that crashes on motorcycles can often send the rider headfirst towards objects. In the following examples, you would be travelling at the same speed upon hitting the ground if you jump from the matching criteria. A building average of 3 metres (10 feet) is used per story for the calculations.

These numbers might seem crazy, but physics doesn’t lie. The above chart essentially summarizes why motorcycles carry high levels of risk. There can be serious consequences for impacts at moderate speeds that many motorcycles reach effortlessly. Additionally, as speed increases, so does the distance covered per second. That means the rider will travel a lot further before perceiving and reacting to hazards.

What is even crazier is the careless motorcyclist that isn’t familiar with their machine, that will travel at lethal speeds, and sometimes wearing shorts and a t-shirt!  Would you jump out of an airplane with a parachute you didn’t know how to use?  Not a chance!  Keep in mind that impact consequences increase significantly with speed and be mindful of objects in your environment that can cause instant deceleration.

The Bottom Line With Skill Bubbles

Just because it looks easy on Youtube or when your friends do it, doesn’t mean you have any business trying it yourself.  Adrenaline junkies that come from other extreme sports are especially vulnerable to this Deadly Risk.  Chasing the dragon to get hits of adrenaline will easily land you outside of your Skill Bubble. There are ways to encourage Skill Bubble growth, but it cannot be rushed.  Moto Instincts will build psychological knowledge, while deliberate practice will wire your nervous system for action. Proper instinctual reflexes will develop over time.  Avoid Panic Reactions and deadly situations that you can’t handle by riding within your Skill Bubble. Know your limit and stay within it.