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Motorcycle Book Excerpts

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Biggles:
What makes a good rider?
The qualities of a safe and competent rider are:

• critical and honest self-awareness and understanding of your personal characteristics, attitudes and behaviour that are necessary for safe riding

• taking action to keep identified risks to a minimum

• awareness of your own limitations and those of the machine and the road

• awareness of the risks inherent in particular road and traffic situations

• concentration and good observation

• continuously matching the machine's direction and speed to the changing conditions

• skilful use of machine controls.

Motorcycle Roadcraft  Penny Mares et al  p3

Biggles:
Because as a rider you have no protective shell in a collision, you are more likely to suffer serious or fatal injuries of the head and neck, or of vital
organs in the thorax and abdomen.
Most riders think they are both safer and more skilful than the average rider- but we can't all be right. In around 2 out of 3 collisions, human error is the principal cause. Riders are most vulnerable to the actions of other road users, as drivers are to blame in half of all motorcycle crashes.
This is why understanding your vulnerability and learning to reduce your risks, especially the risks from the errors of other road users, is so vital.
Riding safety is not an add-on extra - it must be built into the way you ride. Those who ride in poor weather, all year round, have an increased risk of collision, even after other exposure and experience have been taken into account.
Experienced riders who stop riding and take it up again in middle age have a higher than average risk of crashing, possibly because they ride more powerful bikes than they did when younger. Formal training can help to refresh or maintain rusty skills and reduce the risk.
Motorcycle Roadcraft  Penny Mares et al  p6

Biggles:
Decision-making
Your brain compares [its visual input] with situations from your experience, identifies what actions you took in the past and chooses a plan of action for the current situation. Your brain assesses the suitability of the proposed plan of action by comparing it with actions that you have carried out safely in similar circumstances before. You use several types of judgement:
• anticipating how events are likely to unfold
• assessing the proposed plan for risk, noting hazards and grading them based on previous experience
• assessing your space, position, speed and gear.

Output
Take action - make an appropriate response.

Feedback
As you put your plan into action, your brain takes in new information and continuously checks it so that you can modify your actions at any time. Developing this ability to a high standard takes experience, practice, alertness and full concentration. The ability to judge a situation, grade risks and anticipate how things are likely to unfold is essential to safe riding, especially at high speeds.
Motorcycle Roadcraft  Penny Mares et al  p45

STeveo:
Thanks for taking the time to post these excerpts.   :thumbsup

Biggles:
Anyone coming new to this thread, you can find about 1600 excerpts from more than 160 books over at
http://ozstoc.com/index.php?topic=917.315

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