Habit Maintenance, good or bad??

Habit Strength: It can work for you or against you!
By David Dirig

I want to first off thank everyone who came out for our Group Riding Seminar this past month. This was a ideal opportunity for Chapter members to get a feel for being a front or back door in a low-stress environment. Credit to the new members for giving the front and back door positions a try. They did real well, even though there was some madman on a green Goldwing (yours truly) that kept causing trouble for their new groups. Its fulfilling for me to pass along information and promote rider safety, but it was just plain FUN to be the obstacle that the group had to pass, avoid, or get out of the group. I would be fast traffic for them, then slow down and force them to pass me. Then in town, I would be that car that was blocking the lane they needed. When Robert asked me who I thought I was, I told him that I was a 1972 Buick out of his worst nightmare. Like I said, we had a good time, several people developed the skills to front/back door a group, and we had a number of productive discussions toward increasing the safety of our group. In a similar vein, the parking lot practices have been very successful. Last month, we had 12 riders come out, and we had 18 for the one before that. Very impressive for something that I wasn't sure there would be any participation at the start. As we draw nearer to WingDing, Region, and District Rally, we will focus on the Skills Game drills. The goal is to take a shot at repeating the success we had last year at District taking home trophies in virtually all classes. Remember that there are trike and trailer divisions as well as 1-up and 2-up divisions for the 1000/1100, 1200, 1500, and other class.

I bring up all this success not to blow my own horn or feed the egos of others. I bring all these up to stress the fact that all the preparation and practice can be negated in an instant. Application of the training, practice, and discussions comes into play every time you get on the bike. We practice these skills on a closed course, take ERC courses, read up on riding techniques, and all are encouraged to apply what they learn and practice it day-to-day. The goals are two; to develop good riding habits and to unlearn bad habits. The rationale behind this is that if you get into a bad situation, you will react on instinct and habits. Will they be good habits or bad? Good habits will allow you to recognize and avoid the tight situation or at least give you a chance to extricate yourself. Reverse the last sentence and you see where bad habits will take you. Lets not sugar coat it, this is a dangerous sport we enjoy, and you or a loved one can die if things go wrong.

So what am I talking about? My wife, Dori, went down on a curvy road on the way back from CA2G's kick-off. We got extremely lucky in that she sustained only a broken collar bone in an accident that under different situations could have easily left me a widower. "So what happened?" asked the CHP officer. Dori's response sums it up, "I screwed up." Dori swung wide on a right hander, crossed the center line, and went off the left side of the road up onto the side of a cliff. The bike went down on the right side with her trapped under it. Had it been the left-hander, she would have gone off a 200 foot drop-off. Had traffic been coming from the other direction or had she panicked and got on the brakes late into the curve, we would have been scraping her up off the pavement, and I would be taking care of mortuary details instead of writing this.

We can talk about rider safety in the abstract and the mechanics of delayed-apex turns, but when you watch a friend or a loved one bouncing along the pavement, alternating between horror and focusing on not running them over, it changes the emphasis and the 'abstract nature' of what Rider Education is about. Earlier in the day, I had mentioned to Dori about delayed apex turns, but I didn't push the issue. Then she set up wrong for a curve, leaving her to swing wide for the next one, and the rest is history, bruises, broken bones, and destroyed plastic.

From Dori's side, her comment was she took the turn for granted. This was no different a turn from the hundreds of tight twisties we had been through in the past three days, with Dori dragging pegs all the way. We had gone up through Sequoia National Park and then south on Hwy. 49 from its origin at Hwy. 70 northwest of Reno. She went down near Mariposa/Merced, so you can see this was not a matter of one difficult turn, as much as it is a matter of not respecting the risk, relaxing, and not focusing on good habits. Dori did not set up right for the curve, took it for granted, and the curve was a bit off camber (whereas the previous miles had all been banked curves). All little things you say; it couldn't happen to me you say. I used to say the same thing; now I ask about your habits and your maintenance of "habit strength" for better or worse.

Habit strength is a term that relates to your riding skills and their development/maintenance. See Mental Motorcycling in the June 1999 Motorcycle Consumer News for more on this topic. Think of your day-to-day activities as habits; virtually all behavior is habit. The stronger the habit, the more difficult it is to change or even to recognize that you do it. Think about how you handle stop and go traffic; do you consciously think about down-shifting? How about driving into your driveway and garage? "Its just second nature, I do it all the time." you say. That's a strong habit; is it a good or bad habit? Now I ask you about delayed apex turns or where you look coming into a blind right hander or when you downshift/brake coming into an unfamiliar blind turn? Different people will answer differently, but here's a personal example. It took me over 8000 miles of riding my 1500 before I stopped downshifting coming into twisties. After years of riding my 1100, I naturally shifted to 4th when coming into curves. I know consciously that I don't need to do that as much with the power/torque of the 1500. 8000 miles and 3 months later, I still catch myself doing it and have to fight this good, but unecessary habit. Can you say habit strength?

I had been coaching Dori on her entry position into curves, but we were both fighting her habit strength. "It feels funny." she would say of a delayed apex technique. Sure it feels funny, its not the way you've become accustomed to doing it. The stronger the habit, the more difficult it is to change it. So when she relaxed and fell back into her 'normal habits,' this set her up for a fall. Her mental attitude and her riding habits all contributed to her going down. Bad habits or good, they're just as strong. Which would you rather have working for you? Riding habits/skills that can avoid or get you out of a tight situation or habits that contribute to a bad situation?

As soon as Dori's bike is out of the shop and both arms are available again, she'll be back up on two wheels, developing new habits as an extreme example of what can happen in an instant of inattention. Beyond her close call, our hope is that others can learn from this and recognize their bad habits without undergoing the potential extreme consequences. Count on the fact that Dori and I will be watching out for you all, and we'll be pointing out habits, both good and bad. This may bruise a few egos along the way, but psychic bruises heal much faster that broken bones.

Ride Safe

D&D