Unknowns When Riding a Known Road

[Boog]

Note to self, don’t forget to remember which bike you are riding. The newer bikes with traction control might have prevented that but you also would not be getting the power to accelerate like you expected to.

Very true and exactly the reason I don't want traction control. Muscle memory still works for me anyway...

 

[RockOn]

Very true and exactly the reason I don't want traction control. Muscle memory still works for me anyway...

I wish muscle memory worked that way for me when I set down my glass of whiskey and later it takes me 15 minutes trying to find where I set it down.

 

[RocketRoyLondon]

I've ridden in London for most of my life (amongst other places of course) and you start school at maybe 17 trying to stay behind a dispatch rider as he filters through the traffic like a swan in a storm. A couple of years of doing that then BECOMING a dispatch rider, a very well paid job in the early 90's (as it should have been) and you start to get a feeling like you've almost developed a super-sense but STILL you encounter stuff that you sit and try to figure out. 'How did that person get to be there at exactly that point in time'?

I had an ex-Army pal who took a grouse in the chest at about 50, killed it, shoved it inside his jacket and took it home for his dinner without even slowing down! I've seen a mattress blown out of the back of a van straight into my path at about 80 (on a motorway) where I've just had to hit it with no brakes, loosened my grip on the bars and leave the outcome to the fates (I was okay). I've been hit in the face by several pigeons over the years that even with a full-faced helmet have been like taking a punch and making my nose bleed along with honey bees and all sorts of flying insects hitching a ride inside my crash helmet as I hate riding with a closed visor.

I've gotten about a million stories from riding for a living, some interesting, most funny and too many that are the exact polar opposite of funny.

Ride safe and keep your wits about you gentlemen.

 

[Jagster]

I think that 360 degree observation/concentration of everything around you is the core aspect to surviving out there. City, countryside whatever.
If you're switched on and also have confidence in your riding abilities, you should have a fighting chance, but I believe less so if you're a nervous rider.
Nervous riders tend to go for the brakes too quickly and as a result tend to brake sudden and hard. Not a good combination if you're not a fully competent rider.
That said, I also accept that no rider is invincible. When your time's up, that's it, but that's the same if you walk down the street. Some things you can't avoid.

Riding the same route every day is an interesting thing to consider.
On one hand, you're practiced to the max, yet on the other hand, complacency often creeps into the equation......so now we're back to where we started.....observation/concentration.