Reflection and Retrospect
Every non-riding season (and for some of us in Northerly areas, that can be a real long time - oh, let’s face it, any time we can’t ride, it is a long time), I usually do a number of things to get ready for the next riding season. There’s the usual, such as bike maintenance, looking over my existing riding gear to see if anything needs to be replaced (and what year was your helmet manufactured and how many seasons in the hot sun did you use it?), checking out new equipment coming out on the market, and spending some time reading or watching some trusted motorcycle related videos on-line that can assist me in some capacity.
However, there is one item that seems to get missed by so many riders and that is the ability to honestly reflect on their past riding “experiences”. As a motorcycle instructor / trainer, I keep a list of items that occurred to me, or that I observed, in my garage where I park my bike ( basically because if I don’t write it down immediately, I have a tendency to forget ). At the end of the year, after I am done riding and have some down time, I collect my lists and go over them.
So, what do my lists tell me? They help to give me insight as to why we should never be complacent and think we know it all, or cannot make riding errors. A good deal of what I collect off the “list” is from observations of others, whether they be motorcycle riders, or by other vehicles, which helps me to pass on information to my students that may not be part of “the curriculum”, which may get missed or assumed one would know. As former Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield said in one of his books, sweat the small stuff. In motorcycling, sometimes the small stuff can lead to the big stuff, in a hurry!
I also reflect on my own riding habits. How did I do? There are a ton of questions that I ask myself and sometimes I may not like the answer, but that is part of being honest with yourself. Here are just some of the questions you might ask, after all, what else have you got to do. Right?
These are just some of the possible questions you can ask yourself on your way to becoming a better skilled, more intuitive rider, keeping in mind that we are indeed Life-Long Learners. To finish this article, now comes the time to make the list of how you are going to improve, and make sure to follow it.
However, there is one item that seems to get missed by so many riders and that is the ability to honestly reflect on their past riding “experiences”. As a motorcycle instructor / trainer, I keep a list of items that occurred to me, or that I observed, in my garage where I park my bike ( basically because if I don’t write it down immediately, I have a tendency to forget ). At the end of the year, after I am done riding and have some down time, I collect my lists and go over them.
So, what do my lists tell me? They help to give me insight as to why we should never be complacent and think we know it all, or cannot make riding errors. A good deal of what I collect off the “list” is from observations of others, whether they be motorcycle riders, or by other vehicles, which helps me to pass on information to my students that may not be part of “the curriculum”, which may get missed or assumed one would know. As former Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield said in one of his books, sweat the small stuff. In motorcycling, sometimes the small stuff can lead to the big stuff, in a hurry!
I also reflect on my own riding habits. How did I do? There are a ton of questions that I ask myself and sometimes I may not like the answer, but that is part of being honest with yourself. Here are just some of the questions you might ask, after all, what else have you got to do. Right?
- Did I get into any situations that could have had dire consequences?
- If so, what were those situations and how did they occur? How can I best avoid them in the future? Where did they occur? What time of the day did they occur? Is there a pattern to these?
- Was I complacent with my riding and did I let my quart down?
- How are my skills? Did I improve, stay the same, or regress? Did I practice enough, such as threshold braking and low / high speed maneuvers?
- Did I have any difficulty with my bike, and if so, what were the issues?
- If I did have issues with my bike, is the bike still right for me, after all, I am getting more mature ( read: older) and as I do, any little changes to my stature can effect the riding characteristics of rider and bike.
- Would a smaller bike or different style of bike make a difference to the enjoyment and safety for me?
- Did I maintain my bike as well as I should have, or did I have a tendency to “put it off” until later?
- Did I have any accidents or experiences that classified as an accident, and if so, what caused them? What was missed in the Ride Skilled - Ride Smart- Ride Safe mantra that created these events?
- What do I need to do to improve my riding experiences?
These are just some of the possible questions you can ask yourself on your way to becoming a better skilled, more intuitive rider, keeping in mind that we are indeed Life-Long Learners. To finish this article, now comes the time to make the list of how you are going to improve, and make sure to follow it.