Most helpful riding tip?

[Jarvicious]

  Use your legs and abs instead, especially on the downhills.

Abs??!!?? Awwwwwwwwwwwww   I'd rather

[Ddan]

I think all of us riders have been given this piece of advice from at least one person in our riding careers!  It is a good tip, but I wonder, what does it mean EXACTLY?
I know that it means that you have to be extra careful of all the other vehicles on the road and extra vigilant, and pretend that you are invisible, but how does it actually HELP us with our riding?  What do we do differently when we are riding like everyone is trying to kill us?

Misti

Everything is done with intent, or a plan, so when things go south you only need to react to that, not whatever it was you were doing before as well.  Every corner has a turn in point, an apex, and an exit so when the car crosses the line on the sweeper, or the gravel appears, you're not in the middle of adjusting your line and can react.

[He Man]

Stay alive 

[Cider]

ducpainter already posted my favorite, so I'll just add another that I like:

"In slow corners, I go slow"  --Freddie Spencer

[junior varsity]

fast riders have slow hands.

look through the turn, if you notice little grooves or intricacies in the pavement you are practically target fixating, and that can result in an bike repair. look through the turn.

[Statler]

quicker flick on turn in.   CSS school.

haven't felt the "oh shit I'm in too hot" on the street since then, even when I was going faster than I should have.    A fast turn in instead of a lazy turn in got me leaned over quicker instead of still getting to full lean as the corner is going by and I'm running wider and wider.

[Ducatista]

ducpainter already posted my favorite, so I'll just add another that I like:

"In slow corners, I go slow"  --Freddie Spencer

This quote is used by Aaron Stevenson, who is the owner and lead instructor of Cornerspeed.

[big ed]

Not really advice, but a statement I got from somewhere on this or that other Monster site...

"Your second year of riding is more dangerous than your first..."

eg. don't get overconfident.

And of course, the most posted piece of advice here...

"Ride like everyone's trying to kill you"

[misti]

Everything is done with intent, or a plan, so when things go south you only need to react to that, not whatever it was you were doing before as well.  Every corner has a turn in point, an apex, and an exit so when the car crosses the line on the sweeper, or the gravel appears, you're not in the middle of adjusting your line and can react.

Ohhhhh this is a really great point!  I like it.  It implies that you have a plan, that you stick to the plan and that way, you have more time available to react to unknown situations than if you went into the corner without a plan at all.  I agree that every corner has a turn in point, and apex and an exit and when riding I try to ride from one point to the next as smoothly as possible.  When you have a plan for each corner then your riding is more predictable than if you didn't have a plan going in.

I think of the term "ride like you are invisible/people are out to kill you" to mean that I need to use my vision to see the spaces available rather than the spaces that are taken up by other bikes or cars.  What I mean by that is that I try to widen my vision to allow me to see all the parts of the road that are open and free of cars, bikes or other dangers.  I see where they are NOT as opposed to where they ARE.  This tends to give me a lot more options and a lot more space.

I remember one time I was complaining to my friend that cars kept cutting me off because they were all such stupid drivers.  He said, "it's your fault." And I was so mad at him for suggesting that until he said this, "you should be able to see it coming before it happens, you should plan for it.  It's like a video game and you need to see things happening before it happens.  you need to pretend that everyone is going to pull out in front of you.  you need to see where they are NOT going to be instead of where they ARE going to be. 

After that, no one ever CUT ME OFF, because I knew it was going to happen.

I find this helps with passing other riders on the track as well as dealing with unexpected things happening on the street as well.

The thing with visual skills is that they need to be practiced.  Are there ways that we can practice these skills while riding?

Misti

[big ed]

The best way I know of to practice anticipating what others on the road are going to do is to get on the road myself.  Whether on the Monster, in the cage, or even on a bicycle, you can practice it.

As you get more confident, switch to roads with more traffic. 

Sorry I'm stating the obvious...but have to get that post count up too.

[somegirl]

The thing with visual skills is that they need to be practiced.  Are there ways that we can practice these skills while riding?

Yes, it's good to be scanning far ahead and trying to guess what everyone is going to do, whether you think it will affect yourself or not.  As big ed said, you can practice all the time, whether driving or riding, or even being a passenger.   It's also good to get in the habit of looking beyond the road itself.  Those kids playing on the sidewalk may suddenly dart into the road after a ball, and a car may suddenly swerve to avoid hitting them.

Recently I was being driven by a friend, I could see ahead that roadwork was affecting traffic on the other side of the road, but cars were moving into our line (far ahead of us).  I told him he might want to slow down, he didn't see why, and then got closer and had to stop quicker than I would have.  It reminded me how much my visual skills have improved from riding.

And splitting lanes is kind of the ultimate "video game" using your analogy...you have to be totally focused, get in the zone, and be watching signals, brake lights, wheels turning, gaps in traffic, head turns, shoulder turns, sudden grabs of steering wheels, road surface conditions between lanes, etc.  Add in darkness and/or bad weather conditions and it goes up a few notches.

[cmorgan47]

It reminded me how much my visual skills have improved from riding.

i was telling my wife this the other day.  there was a car about 3 up from us that was itching to get into our lane, thereby causing an accordion effect of brake lights.

it's like you just start to feel what everyone around you is going to do and how it will affect everyone else.

[CDawg]

Get full liability and comp insurance....my bike was stolen a couple of month later and the ins covered it.

[duccarlos]

Shiny side up.

[duc996]

"look where you want to go" Lee parks book.