Evasive Muscle Memory Drills (11/12)

Evasive Muscle Memory Drills

In addition to parking lot practice becoming boring, the muscle memory built in these areas has limits. All of the parking lot drills contained within Operational Hazards can be adapted to street riding. By adjusting parking lot drills into real world riding, the motorcyclist is able to increase the connection between human and machine every time they ride. Note that engaging in these exercises can exhaust most of your attention, skill, and motorcycle capacity.  Ensure that the road you are using is free of hazards.  These drills should be performed on familiar roads, with good Line of Sight, an absence of Passable/Impassable Hazards, and ensuring that both tires and muscle memory have been warmed up.  Practising these drills will give the rider realistic feedback of the Evasive Potential that they possess. Performing these drills at street speeds directly correlates to dodging actual danger.  The movements would be the same.  Practice, practice, practice!

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Rapid Accels – Emergency Acceleration

While at the front of the line at a red light or stop sign, practice using bigger and bigger throttle inputs as you get comfortable with the relationship between throttle/clutch.  Avoid this practice if acceleration will coincide with a turn, as heavy acceleration while leaning can break traction.  Decrease time to get into motion by opening the throttle first, and releasing the clutch into the Acceleration Zone as the RPM’s rise. Doing so will feel as though you “catch” the RPM’s with precise clutch operation. Only start doing this once you can consistently hold your clutch in the Acceleration Zone. Clutch inconsistencies with heavy throttle will cause lurches or wheelies. Note that the goal is to accelerate quickly to a reasonable speed. Riders who really want to push their acceleration through several gears should search out a drag strip. In addition to being able to accelerate quickly in an emergency, when at the front of the line of vehicles, a rapid acceleration will give the motorcyclist a burst of speed which will separate them from the cars in the area. As will be discussed in the next chapter, the motorcyclist is safer when no vehicles are in the vicinity.

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Rapid Decels – Emergency Deceleration

When you need to slow your bike for a familiar turn, purposefully brake late.  Decreasing the braking distance will make you to use more braking force to enter the turn at the normal speed.  Baby step this by slowly decreasing your braking distances with turns you travel often when safe opportunities present themselves.  Rapid Decels will dial in your ability to gauge stopping distances at different speeds, as well as, applying heavy braking force without locking up. Note that before entering the turn you should be down to cornering speed. The objective is to brake heavily before the turn, not brake heavy into the turn. The rider should try to experiment at different speeds so they are familiar with braking distances at certain speed limits. If they can find an isolated area, experiment with braking from road speeds down to a complete stop to check out stopping distances at varying speeds. A very important step before practising emergency braking is ensuring there is no vehicle behind you.

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Low Speed Stability – Stop and Go

While approaching a 4-way intersection with stop lines, try to bring yourself to a crawl without putting a foot down. Continue reducing speed until you can nearly come to a stop and accelerate without touching the ground.  Do this only when there are no other vehicles using the intersection as it can confuse other motorists. The Stop and Go drill can easily result in instability and is not recommended until you can recover losses of balance consistently at low speeds. If the rider tip-toes on their machine or lacks the strength to hold their ride upright, this drill should be approached with caution.

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Corner Fluidity – Rolling Momentum

Corner Fluidity refers to, smoothly transitioning the motorcycles speed/direction around turns and uses similar muscle memory to low speed stability.  Brake down to corner speed.  Shift into an appropriate gear.  As you are about to initiate your turn, begin to ride the back brake lightly.  Counter-Steer into the turn.  Halfway through the turn, begin to lightly accelerate.  With the back brake engaged, the power hooking up to the rear wheel will feel much smoother and won’t affect your balance (this benefit will be most noticeable in lower gears and with larger displacement engines).   Ideally, don’t completely close the throttle upon entering the turn (maintain 5-10% throttle position throughout the curve).  Release the back brake and accelerate out of the turn.  Note that a motorcycle leaned over will not support heavy acceleration.  The more you bring your bike upright, the more driving force can be applied to the rear wheel.   When performing turns in this fashion it will result in a fluid transfer of momentum through precise Counter-Steering and the use of many controls consecutively.

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Counter-Steering – Emergency Swerving

The ability to adjust Lean-Angle or roadway position quickly are rider-saving skills. When learning to ride a motorcycle, the easiest way to grasp the leaning/turning mechanics is with the Push-Steering method. By pushing on the handlebar in the direction that is wished to go, the rider is introduced to Counter-Steering in a non-confusing manner. Once preliminary muscle memory has been established and confusion cast aside, the rider should begin to focus on Counter-Steering. Without bringing any confusing explanations into the mix, both hands are utilized to control the Lean-Angle of the motorcycle. To go right, push right, but also pull with the left hand. To go left, push left, but also pull with the right hand. The push and pull to initiate Lean-Angle is consistent with a transition from Push-Steering to Counter-Steering. Using both hands simultaneously to control Lean-Angle adds an increased amount of precision and assertiveness to motorcycle handling. A good analogy is driving a car with one hand compared to two. Using both hands to control the steering wheel will give the driver much more control over the wheels of the vehicle. The same is true with the handle bars of a motorcycle. When a rider becomes more assertive with their Counter-Steering, it will feel as though they can flick their bike into and out of turns.

The following drills may seem like a way to build turning familiarity, but the muscle memory being built here is primarily Counter-Steering; the turning familiarity is a by-product. Counter-Steering can be felt as a pressure being exerted on the handlebars to elicit changes to Lean-Angle. The faster the rider wants to change Lean-Angle, the more pressure is required from the pushing/pulling of the handlebars. A tricky aspect about increasing speeds is that as speed increases, more handlebar pressure is required to result in the same rate of lean-angle change. It is important to experiment with how speed affects your motorcycle’s ability to lean into turns. This fact directly relates to why it is dangerous to approach turns at high rates of speed. Being unfamiliar with the implications of speed on manoeuvrability can easily result in a loss of control when entering turns too quickly. There are many ways that general riding can be adapted in order to familiarize the rider with Lean-Angle management.

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Snaking

Use pavement anomalies as pylons to snake a line through pavement.  Builds Basic Ride Plan familiarity and accuracy. There are many road inconsistencies that can be used as pylons: sewer covers, cracks, Tarsnakes, painted lines, potholes, discolorations, etc.

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Delayed Swerves

Swerves can be thought of as an abrupt change of direction. Travel straight towards a minor Passable Hazards or pavement anomaly and Counter-Steer away at the last moment you are comfortable. Performing delayed swerves will result in the rider being aware of how much room is needed for swerving evasions, and how much Counter-Steering pressure is required to do so. Experiment with these motorcycle “flicks” at different speeds.

Swerves

While performing lane changes, swerve into the next lane. Be sure that you have the whole road to yourself before performing these swerves. Drastic changes of direction can be alarming to other motorists. When practising swerves between lanes, be purposeful with your manoeuvre by picking a disengage point as well an initiation point.  When swerving from one lane to another, using vehicle tracks as a starting and ending point is a fantastic choice due to Traction Hazard avoidance. Swerving between lanes will build muscle memory to flick the motorcycle into and out of lean angle. Being familiar with this type of lateral movement is invaluable when a vehicle cuts you off.

Swerve Chaining

While maintaining one lane, swerve back and forth within your lane, flicking your bike left and right to do so.  Quickly swerving one direction to the other will teach the rider how quickly they can change Lean-Angle from one side to the other, which is referred to as the “flick rate” of the motorcycle. In the first video the rider on the right practices some mild swerving.

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A skilled operator knows the limits of their machine.  Practising these drills will transform you from someone who owns a bike, to someone who operates a bike.  Hot and ready Evasive Muscle Memory is either built slowly with experience, or dialed in quickly with deliberate practice.  Utilize these drills to turn regular riding into a muscle memory building experience every time you venture out. Before you know it, you’ll be dodging danger with ease.