Psycho auto-pilot

[Mikkel]

Hmmm, I was wondering if anyone else has ever tried something like what I experienced today.

Cruising through town towards the university in midday traffic my mind went wandering and I found myself riding along on auto-pilot. Not fast, not doing anything dangerous... really! Just that slightly detached state you can get if your mind is partially off somewhere elsewhere while you're pootling along on routine.

Then all of the sudden the auto-pilot must have sat down for a more than a few tequila slammers with the imp of the perverse and next thing I know I'm just a passenger.
I'd never pass a car in city traffic, on the centreline, around a blind 90° right-hander, with oncoming traffic - yet, I just did. :eek: :shit:
It wasn't dramatic, it wasn't fast, none of the motorists seemed to notice and nothing happened - and yet it was so incredibly stupid I've been trying since then to figure what the hell I did that for - without thinking, at all.
The whole operation went very smoothly and took a maximum of 10 seconds. And all the time I was thinking "this is stupid" - yet everything just went ahead, sorta without me... :nono:

So yeah, that was todays scary experience (I hope) - anyone tried something similar?

[xwhatsit]

All the time. Happens in city traffic where I've been so bored shitless by the stopped traffic that my mind wanders away. Next thing I'm up on the footpath, then aiming for gaps between parked cars to get back to the roadway.

[ManDownUnder]

Yeah sometimes... splitting. I find it easy for the speed to start creeping up and have to manually dial it back a bit. I'm fine tracking along but being on a quiet(ish) bike I can surprise cars, or at least they can surprise me by... changing lanes!

Good that you're aware of it, and a wakeup call every now and then doesn't hurt

[martybabe]

Hmmm, I was wondering if anyone else has ever tried something like what I experienced today.

Cruising through town towards the university in midday traffic my mind went wandering and I found myself riding along on auto-pilot. Not fast, not doing anything dangerous... really! Just that slightly detached state you can get if your mind is partially off somewhere elsewhere while you're pootling along on routine.

Then all of the sudden the auto-pilot must have sat down for a more than a few tequila slammers with the imp of the perverse and next thing I know I'm just a passenger.
I'd never pass a car in city traffic, on the centreline, around a blind 90° right-hander, with oncoming traffic - yet, I just did. :eek: :shit:
It wasn't dramatic, it wasn't fast, none of the motorists seemed to notice and nothing happened - and yet it was so incredibly stupid I've been trying since then to figure what the hell I did that for - without thinking, at all.
The whole operation went very smoothly and took a maximum of 10 seconds. And all the time I was thinking "this is stupid" - yet everything just went ahead, sorta without me... :nono:

So yeah, that was todays scary experience (I hope) - anyone tried something similar?


Not quite but when I was a puppy I went round a sweeping left hander whilst taking a power nap .Scared the bloomin shite outa me, since that day I've made it a rule to only sleep on long straightaways. :zzzz::scooter:

Someone was looking out for you and me M, even if it was only mother luck. :yes:

[Mikkel]

Yeah, thank fuck my number wasn't up. Just felt like bashing my bloody head in afterwards thinking that was too fucking stupid! :nono:

The thing that concerned me the most was that during the whole chain of events - from setting up on the left hand side of the lane for the corner until pulling back left into the lane after having passed the car - I was thinking "nah, I won't do that, it's stupid..." and what did I do? Exactly that!

Seems like the imp of the perverse had a good grip on me in those seconds.

[TOTO]

Yea I get to aoto pilot too if it is heavy traffic and i'm tired and bored, I just start passing them, but I dont stop after I have passed one, I do all of them. Anyone got a medicine for that :doctor:

[Mom]

Wow guys! Amazing to think that you can "auto" on a bike.

The only time I have ever experienced anything similar was when I was nursing, driving home after work. After I registered I used to do permanent night shifts. There have been times I have woken up in bed at 3pm and wondered how the hell I had got there? At this time the trip was Greenlane Hospital to Bucklands Beach. Not a small distance, some on motorway, against the traffic, and apparently I can do this trip and not actually register it at the time.

Cant imagine the same trip on a bike.

[Spuds1234]

Been there and done that before.

It tends to happen when Im tired. I just drift off and I loose focus and find myself doing things or missing things that I shouldnt be. That one day may kill me so when I become aware of myself drifting off I tend to start singing really loudly or yelling inside my helmet to wake up.

If a good set of corners are coming up though I find its just as effective to blast around them.

Otherwise I just pull over and do some jumping jacks in full leathers. No easy feat.

[Mikkel]

Wow guys! Amazing to think that you can "auto" on a bike.

The only time I have ever experienced anything similar was when I was nursing, driving home after work. After I registered I used to do permanent night shifts. There have been times I have woken up in bed at 3pm and wondered how the hell I had got there? At this time the trip was Greenlane Hospital to Bucklands Beach. Not a small distance, some on motorway, against the traffic, and apparently I can do this trip and not actually register it at the time.

Cant imagine the same trip on a bike.

No, that's not what I meant by auto pilot. It's nothing to do with fatigue or being unobservant...

What I meant by auto-pilot was just that you go through the motions without thinking actively about what exactly you're doing. Relying on observance and routine to take you from A to B.
Eyes scanning the traffic ahead, your brain processing the information and reacting in relation to it. All while your mind is thinking about all the stuff you have to do, what to have for lunch, how to find the money for your next bike, etc.
I'm guessing most people won't be 100% ON when they're commuting on well known roads outside peak rush-hour.

What scared me was that when I realised that I was about to execute a potentially dangerous maneuver I somehow couldn't snap out of it and just went through with it.

[jrandom]

Oddly enough, Mikkel, I know exactly what you mean. I'm sure I've done the same thing myself a few times, although I can't remember specific instances.

The feeling is very familiar, though.

And I don't do it any more. Perhaps it has something to do with a heightened sense of paranoia and a continual awareness of the physics and pain of crashing?

One way or t'other, I'm finding that as the years go by, I grow more hyper-alert on a motorcycle, not less. You'll probably experience the same thing.

[mowgli]

I'm guessing most people won't be 100% ON when they're commuting on well known roads outside peak rush-hour.

I reckon that's the key. When we're the most comfortable we should be the most concerned. At least that's what I've found as a learner. Every time I get confident and start to think I'm the man I get caught out by doing something dumb that I couldn't imagine happening even a week before.

There's a lesson in that but I think most of us were dodging class that day :bash:

[rocketman1]

I used to do this when I was younger, especially when driving my car.
But after scaring myself shitless a few times, I soon got out of the habit of doing it.
As I have gotten older & a few grey hairs I realise that with slower reflexes and faster bikes there is NO time to daydream.

[hospitalfood]

do it all the time, love it.
if we think long and hard about riding, there is a chance we would do the smart sensible thing and sell our bikes to preserve our lives. so I dont chance it with thinking while riding.

[jade]

Ive gotta feeling that I do this sorta thing more than the average motorcyclist and that gaps that I take, most people wouldnt take in a million years
I dont even think twice about it, just sometimes afterwards when Im off the bike I think it could be viewed as "risky"

[Mikkel]

A couple of things.

This incident didn't happen at high speed, control and manipulative riding skill were not factors. Only poor judgement - but even that is not true, I knew it was a bad idea as I did it. And still I couldn't stop myself from doing it!

Also, it will never be possible to ride a 100% all of the time. (100% is e.g. when you're cornering knee to the deck, tyres at the limit of their grip - and the focus that goes with it). If you ride at 100% you get tired very quickly. I'm sure a lot of people can confirm this - lowering your pace 10 km/h while on a long ride makes a big difference as to how fast you wear yourself out.

[BOGAR]

I will only say i wasn't on auto pilot but was stuck on a one track mind. I passed a truck on a corner that had a long straight past it and time before to "check" for cars. Going around the truck was the stupidest thing i have ever done and will NEVER do it again like that. :doh: :doh: :doh: I should mention that there was a bank right next to the road so no place to go if anything went wrong.

[Ocean1]

Scary. The closest I can think of is on trails I know very well, won't bore you with the details but I've done several semi-dodgy things like that over the years. Seems to me the decision to pull the trigger on the manoeuvre in question is made by the subconscious when you’re not paying attention. Even though your higher functions are otherwise occupied the decision process proceeds as normal, including the mental shortcuts we make by way of preparatory actions, like brief visualisations and tactile cues. Once they’re in place it’s actually quite hard to bail out, so even once you “wake up” to the danger there’s a strong tendency to continue. Weird insight on how the brain works, wonder if it’s related to hypnotic protocols…

[90s]

Wow guys! Amazing to think that you can "auto" on a bike.

The only time I have ever experienced anything similar was when I was nursing, driving home after work. After I registered I used to do permanent night shifts. There have been times I have woken up in bed at 3pm and wondered how the hell I had got there? At this time the trip was Greenlane Hospital to Bucklands Beach. Not a small distance, some on motorway, against the traffic, and apparently I can do this trip and not actually register it at the time.

Cant imagine the same trip on a bike.

I used to drive from Norwich up to Dundee and back in a weekend almost weekly at one point. This is the time I was doing some pro driving in the holidays at Uni and clocking up about 60,000ks a year in cages. I had a quite a few "where am I?" moments and micro sleep moments. Never any incidents though.

More worryingly I once gave a mate a pillion home and had no recollection of any of it. I didn't even know where he lived when I thought about tracing the route in my mind. Weird.

These days I think - focus focus focus all the time.

[EnzoYug]

I ride on auto all the time in the city.

After years of commuting you find that you're not actually talking to yourself any more. You're just 'doing it'. I'll be discussing the days work in my head as I fly up the southern - headcheck, split, indicate, turn, countersteer - I do it all without thinking.

And if I'm having a good day I'll push it a bit, feeling totally safe. Like a great game of pool, you're not wondering about the angle, or fidling with the cue - you're just hitting the balls and sending them home.


Corners and shitty cage behaviour will 'snap' me back into manual though.
I believe 'auto' is faster and safer as there's no 'think time' involved. Just pure reaction.

[vifferman]

Seems like the imp of the perverse had a good grip on me in those seconds.
Nah, mate; that's not an imp, it's a demon. :eek:
I'd get you straight to an exorcist, before it takes over completely.
Or you could try a DIY exorcism - I hear a brick is pretty good for that.

[Bikernereid]

Have never done it on a bike but in my car I have found myself at home or at work (when not wanting to be there) just because my mind has wondered and has headed automatically for known places. It is pretty freaky.

[Ocean1]

Have never done it on a bike but in my car I have found myself at home or at work (when not wanting to be there) just because my mind has wondered and has headed automatically for known places. It is pretty freaky.

A guy I used to work with left the company we worked at to work at a place just up the road. He didn't really want to leave but his role had pretty much been redundified.

He had to drive past our car park to get to his new job and about a month after he left he turned up in my office in the morning. Yup, he’d been on auto pilot and just sort of slotted into his old routine. He did it about once a fortnight for over a year, became almost a ritual, with me having his coffee ready when he arrived.

[madbikeboy]

My goodness. Auto-pilot. Zoning out. Detaching. I wonder how often "I didn't see the bike?!??!" is the end result of cagers doing this.

:oi-grr:

There are some effective mental exercises that you can perform in order to stop this. You'll find highly trained people like pilots use a philosphy similar to this.

The habitual check:
Get into the habit of doing a check routine. Instruments, road ahead, mirrors, road ahead... I do the habitual check process in the cage, and it's saved me a couple of times.

The what if planning scenario:
I plan for events - if that cages stops now, then I'll shoot left. If that kid runs across the road, I'll pull right and brake. If that chick in the lane beside me finishes her txt, I'll blow her a kiss.

If you're doing the what if, it keeps you alert, and you're always looking for gaps and trouble. It gives the ACTION when an event happens

The health check:
If I'm tired, or stressed, or sleepy - I have no right to be on the scoot. I'm an insomniac, so there are days where I am so tired, that life and sleep kind of merge. On days like that, I work from home, or get someone else to drive. Sleep depravation and the resultant effect is similar to being boozed.

The long ride thrash:
If I find that I'm starting to drift on long rides, I pull over, take a piss, whatever. Stretch. Whatever it takes to get the blood flow going.

Speed is my friend:
Instant death has a neat way of grabbing your attention, so by riding a little faster than the traffic you keep your head in the game. If you sit between traffic and flow with them (like a line of lemmings), after a while your brain normalises the traffic around you and you don't notice so much. By constantly moving past and looking for a way past, your brain is more occupied.

The Processor speed dilemma:
People are a lot like computers, some people have faster processors and more RAM. I can remember a massive amount of detail, some days I can see individual stones on the road and remember them (this is useful for track days for lines and braking points). Some people can sort of remember the general direction they're heading in, the rest is vague (drive with an old person sometime to illustrate this).

If you've got lots of processing going on, your brain will be alert. If you've got little thinking happening, you'll tend to be driven by the subconcious. Stuff like the mechanical bit of riding, steering, changing - should be intuitive and not thought about. Important stuff like braking, direction of travel, and thinking about hazards should be absolutely at the mental leading edge and continually thought about.

We having fun yet???