Mental Riding Issues

[metallimonster]

This winter I've been having these vivid visuals of wrecking my bike and all different types of injuries and problems.  I also started working at an insurance company where I see a lot of "large loss" information where we have someone seriously hurt or whole home loss.  I keep seeing bad accidents where people end up in wheelchairs and such.  I think the daydreams come from this. I know I ride as safe as possible and probably push it less than most riders while wearing my gear all the time.  The weird thing is that I never really think about all this when I ride but just when I haven't in a while.  I know riding is dangerous but I see a lot of people getting hurt in their cars too. I love riding and will not give it up but I hope I'm not psyching myself out here. Don't really know where I going with this but was just wondering if anyone else gets scared when they think about the consequences of a bad wreck.

[yotogi]

I have had thoughts like that.

Then I close my eyes, take a deep breath and think about things like:

- How the bike looks when I go out to the garage in the morning.
- How the bike sounds when I start it up.
- How natural it feels when I swing my leg over the seat.
- The familiar smell of my leather jacket, helmet and other gear and how much safer I feel with them on.
- How it feels like the hand of God is pushing me faster when I roll on the throttle.
- How we can only do so much to make life safer, but we can only do what we love to feel real joy.
- How much more sane I am at home and work when I get my fix, and how pissy I am when I don't.

Hang in there man, maybe find a "winter go fast" activity that works for where you live. I am in Texas so there are only a couple of weeks that keep me off the road. I don't know how all you people who have to winter your ride do it!

[EvilSteve]

Once you become proficient at riding, your actual safety level doesn't change that much but your perception of the risks might.

While you're still learning your perception of the risks changes a lot, or at least it should. I always have a bit of a WTF moment when someone who's been riding for years says that they quit because they "started noticing all the things on the side of the road that can kill you". They were always there, the fact that you're noticing them has changed.

[NoisyDante]

I've seen just about every big wreck video there is on the internet, and I do sometimes envision getting into a big crash myself.  I went down in August, broke my shoulder, but it wasn't epic.  I do daydream about a head on collision or getting swiped on the freeway and going under a car.  Scares the bejesus out of me, and just yesterday riding home I had 3 WTF moments from cars not paying attention. 

The odd thing is while I'm on the bike I'm cool and relaxed.  It's when I'm not riding that I'm thinking, "Holy crap, this is really dangerous."  Even in the morning as I'm getting my gear together my mouth goes dry and I get nervous.  On the bike it all disappears.  I call it 'the fear' and I hope it doesn't go away cause it keeps me in check on the road.  Maybe it's the concentration that keeps me calm when riding.

[metallimonster]

^^^^ This is exactly what I am talking about.  I freak out way more in the car when thinking about it but when I'm riding I'm concentrating so hard on everything that is going on that I feel like I am prepared for anything because I 5-10 seconds ahead of what I would be in the car.

[clydesride]

Yeah... I fell off mine in July and lacerated my spleen... still haunts me and I sit and think about how dangerous it is and all. I actually made plans to sell my baby and "live safer"... fortunately it didnt sell and I came to my senses when I went to pick up my bike from storage at the shop... told mrs I was going to ride it again (she only freaked for a minute or two) and did some repairs to it and boy that first ride back on the horse was exciting! I too don't even consider the danger aspect while riding, definately while off for winter and often when gong to sleep (as i said it still haunts me... it was closer than I wanted it to be for me) and I still get spleen pains as things return back to normal but... you cant live a life cowering from danger at every turn, if you really love something, just do it... I smile everytime I look at my bike in the garage and ride it maybe a little more cautiously now but, wow is it ever nice to clear your head and go for a blast, you really cant live in fear... now I get it with the biker types..."ride to live and live to ride" makes some sense to me.

[Drunken Monkey]

Flying planes would give me the worst nightmares. And while I could tell myself that that's just my brain processing the fears, helping train me for contingencies and otherwise helping a starting pilot out, I could never get enough hours of flying under my belt to really feel comfortable when I wasn't flying.

Then my life insurance stopped covering private pilot-type activities, so I quit flying  

But I vaguely remember similar feelings when I first started riding (it was a looong time ago) but eventually they went away. Probably helped that I was a college student, and was logging about 15K miles of 'just for fun' riding a year.

Long winded way of saying it's perfectly normal to feel this way. Your brain knows at some level what you're doing could kill you, so it uses it's "spare time" (your subconscious) to remind you of this. This helps keeps you cautious and prepared for those times when you are riding.

And in the end, I just remind myself that nobody gets out of this world alive.

[He Man]

Once you become proficient at riding, your actual safety level doesn't change that much but your perception of the risks might.

I cant agree with this more.

Your perception of safety is what chances not whats really going on. When you skill goes up, you begin to trust yourself more and more, so what seemed unsafe before, is safe now.

The only issue becomes other people. I always and forever will have visions of a car coming into my lane and running me over.  I had a crash where i lost control and skipped into another lane. if there was a car there, id been toast.

Which is why i dont really care to ride fast on the street anymore. Its fun and all, but riding smooth is just as fun as riding fast, and if you want to ride fast, ride where you have a good idea of whats around the corner and follow the left hand vs right hand rule ( right hand turns are more dangerous)

[ab]

You  verbalized what I am guessing most riders probably experience now and then.

I know that during winter I would watch youtube bike ride accidents and start having second thoughts.  Or even watching rides that I recorded and think "wow, that didn't look safe" "wtf was i thinking overtaking the car like that" "wtf" moments.

On the bike, I have my good days of riding on the twisties on R555 on some days and the very next weekend, I would just freeze up and became a baby.  Even a small corner would freak me out.  As if I have never been on that twistie.  I hate that and it is hard to shake it off for me.  Good days and bad days I guess.

It's all a freakin' mind game.

It's good to have some fear always and respect the bike and the road and not do something stupid (within reason).

The rest is up to God.

Be safe out there and try to block it off, the same as we're all trying.

ps.  I think if we didn't have that fear  , darn it we would all have been pro motogp racers      

[slickb0i]

This happens to me as well. I stop by thinking positive, and how great the ride is. I remind myself that negative thoughts attract negative energy which attracts negative action. Think positive and stay positive. To put a positive spin on this, if I'm having thoughts of an accident, I think of ways to avoid it/escape it instead.

[Halfast]

I think this is a very common thing in many sports.  I'm a full time snowboarder at Snowbird in the winters and I get that fear for both snowboarding and riding bikes.  When you're sitting around your room or talking to friends about it, it's very scary when you realized how many people get seriously hurt or die all the time, but how exciting it is to actually be out there and do these things.  I've been pretty badly hurt snowboarding and was on snow well before I was supposed to be.  The accidents shouldn't deter us. Once we're out on the road (or on snow) these fears seem to subside because we're in the zone and are only concentrating on what's in front of us.  Accidents are almost always freak cases and we can't prepare for them too much, that's why they happen.  It's just part of the game.  If it wasn't exciting or dangerous, would we love it this much? Ride safe ladies and fellas!

[DoubleEagle]

I rode last riding season with very little fear.

I honed my Road Racing skills in the Hocking Hills and Wayne National Forest where the traffic is light and the Police are few and far between.

Never have I ridden so hard or so fast . It felt great to be in control of the bike .

I knew what to do in almost any situation I could think of except like a Deer walking right out in front of me or a vehicle pulling out of a hidden driveway and not looking before they did.

But I was willing to take those chances .

Nov.15, '09 changed all that.

A " Hillbilly " tried to take me out with his pickup and almost killed me.

I haven't recovered yet from the injuries of that day when he signaled a left turn , turned left 3/4s and then stopped for a reason he told the Trooper " I heard him coming and I just froze."

He saw me coming because he pulled part way out in front of me coming and set there for a few seconds and then he decided to pull out and go up the road about 30 yards and signal a left hand turn.

I had slowed down but as he turned down this road to the left I accelerated and then he stopped.

My only choice at this time was to pass between his rear and some grass growing off a 3 foot slope along side the road.

My S4Rs went air born , turned over on it's right side , and came down on top of me in the middle of the road where we slid about 300 feet.

I was knocked out . My Shoei X-ll split 6 inches from behind my right ear at the base straight up.

I don't remember a thing from the time I started to pass by the truck. until I came to starring at the sky with people looking down at me telling me not to move the EMS was on the way.

I was transported to the nearest Hospital and from there to the Ohio State Trauma center because the X-rays ans CT-Scans looked like I had a broken back.

I did break 7 Ribs on the right side, snapped Tendons in 2 Fingers of my left hand  ( which are still not healed ) ,Tore ligaments and Tendons in my Right Ankle, , Dislocated my left Sternoclavicular joint, had severe Whip Lash, broke part of the T5 vertebrae, badly bruised left Knee, Hip, Crushed right Elbow, ,broken right big Toe, Road Rash on right Knee and Elbow. ,and left Shoulder that is messed up but doesn't show anything on MRI.

Plus developed a staff infection of my right Calf that required Surgery and 5 days in the Hospital and months to clear up.

I just received a pre order BMW S 1000 RR recently and I felt since the weather was to be nice today maybe there was just a chance I might go for my 1st ride but my shoulder hurts too much to trust getting on a new bike just to go maybe 20 feet and crash or 2 miles and crash.


I was wearing a Shoei Full Face Helmet , BMW Back Protector. Dainese Leathers , Sidi Vertigo Corsa Racing Boots , Held Racing Gloves.

There are not rips , holes or tears in any of my leathers but I still got Road Rash.

I'm really bummed.

Dolph

[metallimonster]

Dolph,

So sorry to hear about the crash and the hard recovery.

I absolutely love riding in your area but I have noticed that the people down there have no respect for motorcylists.  Probably because there are so many douche's that ride around there.  I got caught up in a group of ricers riding like fing idiots around Logan and had to pull over and stop so I wasn't associated with them.

Its really too bad because Southern Ohio has some awesome riding.

Maybe when you're ready I'll head down that way and we can meet for lunch.  I would love to see that stable you've got going on.

[swampduc]

Dolph, that's awful. I was wondering what had happened to you. Glad you survived, and hope you're back on the road soon.

[DoubleEagle]

Dolph, that's awful. I was wondering what had happened to you. Glad you survived, and hope you're back on the road soon.

Yea, it's been real hard.

I still feel like I hit a brick wall going 25 mph.

I did go for a ride Sunday last for the 1st time since the crash.

I took my new BMW S 1000 RR out for an easy ride.

Lots of sand and gravel still on the roads that I like ( left over from treating the roads from the 3 feet of snow we got this Winter ) .

It's going to take several more months at least before I can ride more than once a week.

Dolph