This week on MCrider we will discuss how we learn to ride a motorcycle correctly. There is much more than gathering the information of a skill. Let's look at how we develop knowledge and the critical step that must be take to develop any skill.
Become a member of MCrider and get access to the forums and the field guide.
I went to college from 1985 to 1989. In those days personal computers were still a fairly new thing and the internet was still very much in its infancy. When I did research papers in college I had to go find books on the subject, I had to find magazine articles on the topic, I had to go through microfiche to look up newspaper articles on the subject.
Research was time consuming. Today not only is learning at our fingertips but the growth of readily accessible knowledge is very specialized.
Today Siri or Google Assistant can help answer questions in seconds in what used to take hours. We can even be very specific in what we are looking for by asking something like “MCrider motorcycle training” and get direct access to several MCrider pages.
But, even with all of this information readily at our fingertips we still struggle in many ways to use this information to improve ourselves. Particularly, when it comes to riding a motorcycle. Just because the motorcycle skill can be accessed on the phone, it does not mean you have it ready when you need it on the road.
Why is that? To put it simply technology has made us lazy when it comes to learning a new skill. Getting information has greatly improved and become much easier but the rules for developing a skill are still the same.
When I was learning to ride some of the information I was taught was wrong. Things like don’t use the front brake or you will crash, which I was told by a Police Officer who administered my riding test, it was just plain wrong. And much of the development I had as a rider was learned from trial and error. I frequently had this silent conversation in my head, Well, that almost caused a crash…what can I do differently?
Let's look at the learning process and discover that critical piece that prevents many riders from improving their skill on a motorcycle.
I did a lot of research in creating this video on how our brain actually learns. When I started the research process it was not to create a video from it, it was for my own curiosity and knowledge. It wasn’t until I got into the research that I saw the direct application to what we are doing here with MCrider.
The Input Stage of Learning to Ride a Motorcycle
The first stage of learning is called the input stage. It is what is happening right now. You are sitting in a room somewhere, at work, or the kitchen table, or sitting on the couch watching this on TV.
Your brain is bombarded with over a billion bits of information coming into it. Not only the information coming from this video, but a Facebook notification just came up, the dog just barked, or someone left the room. All of this information is vying for our attention.
Thanks to something called the reticular activating system (RAS) the brain is able to filter out competing information and allows us to focus on what we deem as important. Hopefully you are still watching this video and recognize this as important information and you are not over looking at whatever the dog was barking at.
If you decide this is important information your brain will transfer it through the hippocampus to the memory systems of the brain.
The first stop is in short term memory. Kind of like the clipboard on your computer. The brain stores it in the clipboard and then decides whether to start saving it to the hard drive or just overwrite the content in the clipboard.
If you decide this is important information your brain transfers that information to the elaboration phase.
The Elaboration Stage of Learning to Ride a Motorcycle
Elaboration makes information memorable and meaningful. Think of elaboration like a workbench. You take out the items you are learning and you put on the workbench to begin looking at it and really understanding the information.
In this phase the brain is really attempting to make the material a permanent part of the memory. In this phase the brain can process information for 12 to 20 minutes, then it needs to take a break. During the break it cycles down for about 10 minutes and then it is ready to go again.
Even if the MCrider video is still running, after about 20 minutes I have lost even the best of learners…your brain needs time to process the information.
The Application Stage of Learning to Ride a Motorcycle
After elaboration comes application. The application stage focuses on giving the brain opportunities to apply this new knowledge through deliberate practice and real life application.
You have heard me say that riding a motorcycle is a perishable skill. This is why. We either use it or lose it. No video on emergency braking will help you stop a motorcycle quicker unless you get to the application phase of learning.
There are different ways to apply the application process with increasing levels of benefit.
You can watch a video on Emergency Braking on MCrider. The video provides the input, if you focus on the material and attempt to really understand the concept you can move into the elaboration of the concepts but in order to have or own this skill you have to experience application.
Mental Visualization: use this to practice riding at home
The easiest way but probably least effective way of application is through mental visualization. The good news about this technique is it the easiest to do and can be performed anywhere.
Using mental visualization you close your eyes and picture yourself on the motorcycle.
You accelerate up to speed and approach the stopping point, you squeeze in the clutch as you roll off the throttle, you downshift to 1st gear and you use the front and rear brake to begin the stop. You focus on the front brake as you squeeze the brake smoothly and progressively through the stop. You imagine the front forks compressing and springing back up as you have completed a quick but controlled stop on the motorcycle.
Without ever leaving your chair you can practice application of performing a quick stop on a motorcycle. By doing this exercise you begin to develop some of the mental pathways of performing a quick stop. It is important that when you do this technique you always perform the stop mentally correctly. You always perform that perfect mental emergency stop.
One of the best motivators of men on a football field was the former Dallas Cowboys coach Jimmy Johnson. Jimmy said something once that I think rings true and I have tried to adapt it to my motorcycle coaching style.
Jimmy said if he had a particular player who kept fumbling the ball. He would never coach them by saying “Stop fumbling.” To him that reinforced the negative. It created fear in the mind of the player and focussed the player on fumbling. It is a subtle difference but instead Jimmy would tell the player, “Hold on to the football.” or “Secure the football against your body.” Coaching in this manner reinforced the positive and he believes it made a huge difference in his interaction with his players.
This is why I believe when you are performing mental exercises for motorcycle control you always perform the skill perfectly, you are reinforcing what to do…and minimizing what not to do.
This is also why I am hesitant to show crash videos on MCrider. There is an endless supply of crash videos to show and they get viewer numbers, some YouTube channels get great numbers by showing an endless supply of people crashing their motorcycles.
But my goal is to teach you what to do on a motorcycle, not how to crash a motorcycle. I believe this to be a higher level of instruction and while it may be less sensational and get fewer views, it will benefit the rider and increase their skill more than focussing on the negative aspects of riding.
One step above simply performing the mental aspect of stopping would be to do the same thing but while sitting on your motorcycle in the garage. Here you are actually manipulating the controls the best you can in a stationary setting to feel the controls in your hands as you mentally perform the stop.
In addition to building the mental pathways to performing the technique , this will help you develop some of the muscle memory in performing the technique.
Bu, by far the best method of making the skill a part of your tool bag for riding is to get out on a parking lot and practice. This is as close to a real world setting that we can get and by regular practice you develop the mental capacity for the stop and the full muscle memory for a quick stop when you need it on the road.
This is the application of learning that scientists have said is a necessary part of the learning process.
It is much better to practice in smaller, more frequent sessions than one long session. What developed my skills more than anything as a rider was 10 minutes on a parking lot 5 days a week. I used to stop at an old MSF range when I worked for the airlines just about everyday at lunch. I did not have a lot of time but I spent about 10 minutes practicing emergency braking, u-turns, slow speed control, and cornering in a controlled setting.
The growth from doing this was tremendous and was much more beneficial than if I had spent 3 hours on the parking lot 1 time a month.
As I was doing the research for this video it dawned on me that an MCrider Membership is the perfect vehicle for this type of learning.
Every Friday I release a new video…the video is the input. It provides the springboard to focus on a particular aspect of riding whether it is Road Skill or a Road Strategy.
Members also have access to the forums. On the forums we discuss video topics and other matters related to becoming better riders. It is the Elaboration or the work bench where we examine and discuss the topic of riding better.
Also, members get access to the Field Guide with practical exercises that every rider can take to an empty parking lot and apply the knowledge from the videos and the discussion of the videos.
It is the application of the learning process. The Field Guide has 15 hand selected exercises with a description, exercise layout, coaching tips, problem correction and a video example of the exercise being performed.
The great thing about the Field Guide is it is not the 1 time a year 2 day training class. It is a supplement to that class that you can use frequently for 15 minutes at a time on your lunch break or Saturday ride to really make the fundamental skills of riding a motorcycle a readily available tool on two wheels.
The combination of the forums and the field guide is also cyclical. Many riders practice with the field guide and then come back to the forums and say, hey I agave trouble with this. They go back into that Elaboration stage and put it back on the work bench for other riders to help them solve the problem.
Many riders are under the false impression that seat time alone will make them a better rider. Seat time will give you a lot of practice at riding in a straight line, getting around broad curves and starting and stopping a motorcycle. You can become very proficient at that with seat time.
But, rarely is a rider injured when they can’t stop a motorcycle at a stop sign. They are injured when they can’t stop in time for the car that pulled in front of them and they have not developed the skills to deal with it.
You are only riding when you are riding, you are only developing life saving skills when you are training. Do more of the training so that you can do more of the riding,
It takes all 3 mental tasks to develop a skill. Input – Elaboration – Application. It is how you learned to ride a motorcycle in the 70s and even with the advent of MCrider on YouTube, it is how you learn to ride a motorcycle today.
