The Eyes Have it

Do we really use our eyes properly? I know that sounds crazy but I don’t think we realize how much they help us in driving our motorcycles.

You’ve heard before that the eyes are the windows to the soul and I agree but they are so much more.

You’ve heard “keep your head and eyes up” so many times but do you know why?

When your eyes are up the bike feels light. When the eyes are down the bike feels heavy. Do you know why?

Because our hands follow our eyes in almost everything we do. The next time you go to the fridge to get a Coke think about it, you look at the Coke and then your hands reach for it. When you go to the shooting range you look at the target and then bring the gun up with your hands and put it on the target.

When you drive your car you look for the turn and then you move the steering wheel. When you drive your motorcycle you look where you want it to go and your hands steer the bars in the direction of your turn. So your hands follow your eyes. At Motomark1 we say “head and eyes first, body makes bike follow”.

Keep your eyes up and you will stay up, look down and you are looking for a place to land.

There is no reason to look directly at the ground. It’s in the same place it’s always been…directly underneath you. Sure you will do your surface appraisal before you get there but not as you are there. Where you are does not matter because you are already there. In motorcycling, we want to be forward thinkers and planners and we can only do this if we use our eyes properly. By looking up it helps increase your balance and allows you to respond to what is happening before you get there. If you can see what’s happening around you, you can predict what’s going to happen. If you can predict it then you can prevent it. You can only do this if you can see it coming.

The other thing eyes do to help you drive is they allow things / hazards to approach you in slow motion.

Example; if you’re traveling down the interstate at 70mph and look at the lines on the highway as they come towards you they appear to be in slow motion or at least you can see them. But if you look down, the lines seem to speed up even though your speed has not changed. So what did change and why do they appear faster? It’s because we changed our sight distance. If something startles you it’s because you did not see it coming, but if you see it coming then you are not startled.

Another example; let’s say you and Rocky are going to get into a fight. Well if your head and eyes are down you cannot see him coming or what he is doing therefore he’s going to kill you. But, if your head and eyes are up you can see him coming and take evasive action if needed.

Traffic is the same way, but you have to see it coming in order to respond to traffic. We want to respond to traffic conditions not react to others actions. If we are reacting then we are behind and the best we can hope for is a tie and in motorcycling a tie still hurts.