Riding under the influence... of RAGE (LEARN FROM MY MISTAKE)

[Danae]

This is where having only a 250 on learners license sucks balls.
If I had a bigger bike, I could have easily throttled in front of him.

no, Im more upset I couldn't catch up to him, he was pulling away with me at 120kph, ringing it.
Perhaps my boosting testosterone levels are getting away from me. That means its working, MWAHAHAHAHA. (evil).

Oh god kid. Oh god.

It's called a learner's licence for a reason, and there is a cc limit for a reason. So you don't buy a GSXR thou and plaster yourself into a wall or something.

This is Auckland mate, worst drivers I've seen are here. But honestly, how can you expect a cager to make room for you? You have to think: who's going to come out better off, a little bike or a car? Assume you are invisible. I've only had a bike for six months and this has saved me countless times in Auckland traffic.

You were going 120kph onto an onramp on your learners licence, fretting about how some guy was pulling away from you? If anything you should at least be worried about getting pinged for doing 50k above what you are legally supposed to be doing. Lose the ego and grow some brains or you're going to get yourself killed you douche.

[magicmonkey]

Question about the target fixation. The few times I have pushed myself beyond my meagre limits and am thinking "this will hurt". I have always (tried) to keep my line and looked (instinctivley) for the softest place to end up. Thankfully I have not yet found out how hard the soft places are. How bad is target fixation in a situation like this? Should I force myself to keep my eyes fixed on the exit of the corner?

Target fixation is an interesting one, I'm sure most people here have learnt about it more than once in their lives. I first learned on a pushbike, then a canoe, then a car and now with a bike, the idea is the same but the actual act is slightly different for each as you need to take your own skills into account with each type of movement. Target fixation isn't about where you're looking, it's about where your attention is; it's fine to look other places but they should be glancing looks or peripheral vision looks with a low priority placed on them while maintaining an overall focus on the direction you want to travel in. I'll often look directly at a manhole I want to avoid and move my attention to the areas around it to discern the best path, my attention isn't on the manhole, that's just the centre of an area I'm paying attention to and once I have the best path that becomes the centre of attention, even if I am still looking straight at the manhole. I still have a lot to learn about target fixation on a bike but the basic principle of using your peripheral vision and shifting your attention, not necessarily your eyes, is something to be built on...

That said, don't ride using just your peripheral vision, you'll wind up under a truck or something!

[Spratt]

If I'd focused, I could probably have even just sat in the middle of the lane and hit the brakes and stopped (mostly) before the corner. Dunno if that'd have been a good move with the van behind me though (although I was probably pretty far in front of it by then).

Loads of good advice in this thread, which is great to see. I think trying to stop is not a good ting, you most likely would have crashed anyway or had a van up your ass - both probably worse that what did happen.

I jsut been lent a book - 'A twist of the wrist vol 2' by Keith Code, which has some very, very good advice. It is focused on track riding but all the advice is relevant to road riding as well. It focuses on survival reactions and how to overcome them. It seems you succummed to a number of these SRs. They are rolling off the gas (which reduces traction), tightening on the bars, narrowed and frantically huntinh field of view, fixed attention (on something), steering in the direction of fixed attention (read as ditch), no steering (i.e. frozen) and braking errors.

If you can get a copy (the Vol 1 is also meant to be very good) then I would highly recommendit. Also, having just done my first track day, with training by Brian Bernaurd, I would certainly recommend that, I feel mush more confident about what my bike and I can do.

[zeRax]

bugger, maybe you should have had a rum to calm down before you jumped on your bike!, that rage will get ya !..