Target fixation around blind curve led to low-side

[Gary856]

Yesterday I was riding my SV650. Around 6:30 pm, about 4-1/2 hr into the ride, I was on Upper Zanyante Rd (off Summit Rd, pretty steep and very twisty) that I hadn’t been on before. Going uphill, I came around a left-hand blind corner in the one-lane, two-way traffic section, going around 20 mph, mindful of the potential of an oncoming car cutting to my side, so I was hugging the right shoulder through out the turn. I almost made it through, already saw the corner exit and started to accelerate, but my eyes got drawn to a section of broken/missing pavement on the right edge, and my bike went straight toward that broken/missing pavement. Instead of peeling my eyes away and looking thru the turn, I gave up on the corner, stood the bike up and braked hard (front only). The bike entered the soft dirt, right where that missing pavement was (amazing!), and low-sided on the left side before I could think. I only vaguely remember impacting the pavement on my left elbow, but when I got up my left boot was pinned under the bike and I had to pull to get it out. After a few moment of disbelief and some cussing, I picked up the bike, being careful in the soft dirt for not wanting to dump the bike over the right edge of the road and down the hillside, and fired it right up. I pulled away from the curve and parked the bike about 30 ft up the road in a straight section to assess the damage:

- To my amazement and great relief, there were no damages to the tank or any body pieces.
- The mirrors got knocked out of position.
- The left bar end, left front turn signal lens, and the clutch tip got scraped.
- The left frame slider saved the day. Yeah!

I then checked my gears:
- Looked like I touched down on my left palm; got a sprained left pinky.
- There were some small scratches from the left elbow to the left shoulder on the leather jacket, which is from Helimot in San Jose, with absurdly huge and thick race-quality padding in the arm/elbow/shoulder area, so no injuries there.
- Not a scratch on the overpants; didn't even get dirty – I still don’t get this. How is it possible for the elbow/shoulder to touch the ground without the pants hitting the ground?
- Left side of the helmet had a pea-sized chip on the paint.

I walked back to check the crash site. There was about 3 feet of black tire mark before the front tire entered the dirt shoulder. My guess is by the time I went down I was going maybe just over 10 mph.

I have ridden in the twisties for a couple of hundred hours over the last year and gotten pretty good at looking where I wanted to go, been accident free for the last 10 months, 11k miles, but still committed a rookie mistake like this. Big sigh…

My failure analysis:

- Needless to say, look thru the turn, don’t stare and target fix at the trouble spots. (This is very basic stuff, but sometimes I get caught looking at the wrong places on very tight roads that’s debris strewn.)

- I think speed was the biggest factor. I was probably riding too close to my limit, speed-wise, for that condition, and got no cushion left. If I was 5 mph slower around that blind corner, I would have been able to deal with surprises and the momentary target fixation better.

- I had been out for about 5 hours by then and my concentration and riding got a little sloppy, and I was thinking about the next road to hit.

Right now I have a question for the veterans - how do you train and MAKE SURE that you never, ever, target fixate on the wrong thing at the wrong time? I mean, I'm ok 99.99% of the time, but is there a trick to fully eliminate that last 0.01% of the mistake, when the going gets fast?

 

[TheRiddler]

Right now I have a question for the veterans - how do you train and MAKE SURE that you never, ever, target fixate on the wrong thing at the wrong time? I mean, I'm ok 99.99% of the time, but is there a trick to fully eliminate that last 0.01% of the mistake, when the going gets fast?

I'm hardly a veteran, but I'll chime in.

There's a turn in Berryessa that I hated. Every time I took it I'd inch closer and closer to the edge of the road as I was reaching the exit and couldn't figure out why. I could always tell which turn it was by thinking, "Oh, here are the guardrails, hate this turn." And that was the key; I always target fixated on the guardrails as I was reaching the exit.

Simple solution; I thought about looking through the turn. I've ridden the roads enough so it's almost automatic, but by actually thinking, "Don't look at the guardrail, look past it and down the road" I managed to conquer it.

Been riding around that road for about 3 years, same turn, always had that problem. I figured this out a month ago Sometimes the basics are what work best.

 

[Aluisious]

Not that I'm a veteran but I do have 2 cents...find crappy roads and ride them for practice. You're in SJ, it should be really easy. Black Road, Skyline from Bear Creek to Black Road, 238 from 9 to China Grade, China Grade, Jamison Creek, Alba...hell, you can link all those roads into one ride pretty easy. You'll see so much BS all over the road you'll get real used to avoiding it and looking at where you need to go instead of at the funky stuff on the road. You'll even figure out what stuff is just fine to hit dead on

 

[Cinco]

I'm real glad that you came out okay. I know your a bit bummed by the low side, but you gotta start looking at it from another angle. Give thanks that the minimal damage is all that occurred and your still around to tell us about it, and not somewhere down in a hillside ditch with broken bones or worse.
On that note, I'm going to be checking in on this thread cause the exact same thing happened to me last week. I'm guessing that the solution is somewhat close to TheRiddler, where you need to make the conscious effort to look through turns. Over exaggerating my head turns on every turn seems to have been helping.
I too was confused as to why I didn't have scrapes on my pants. I figured that I landed on the forearm, and then bounced into the dirt where my pants never touched the asphalt.

 

[Gary856]

...find crappy roads and ride them for practice. You're in SJ, it should be really easy. Black Road, Skyline from Bear Creek to Black Road, 238 from 9 to China Grade, China Grade, Jamison Creek, Alba...hell, you can link all those roads into one ride pretty easy. You'll see so much BS all over the road you'll get real used to avoiding it and looking at where you need to go instead of at the funky stuff on the road. You'll even figure out what stuff is just fine to hit dead on

Those are the kind of roads I ride hours on end, week-after-week, often at night, on damp pavement. Every small road I can find in the Santa Cruz mountains from Half Moon Bay down to Santa Cruz/Watsonville, plus the Mt. Hamilton side. Sometimes I even feel it's easier to ride in the dark - very few vehicles on the roads, and I can see headlight coming around blind corners. Also, at night I can't fully see how broken the pavement is and what kind of debris there are, so I just stay loose and ride over everything. Can't target fixate on what I don't see...

 

[911NeverForget]

How long were you off the gas before you applied the brakes?

The problem might be right there, but you also could have been over riding your sight lines by a large margin. Do you think if there was a cone over the hole you would have been able to stop by the time you reached the cone?

 

[Aluisious]

Those are the kind of roads I ride hours on end, week-after-week, often at night, on damp pavement. Every small road I can find in the Santa Cruz mountains from Half Moon Bay down to Santa Cruz/Watsonville, plus the Mt. Hamilton side. Sometimes I even feel it's easier to ride in the dark - very few vehicles on the roads, and I can see headlight coming around blind corners. Also, at night I can't fully see how broken the pavement is and what kind of debris there are, so I just stay loose and ride over everything. Can't target fixate on what I don't see...

Well don't fixate then.

What do you want

 

[Gary856]

How long were you off the gas before you applied the brakes?

The problem might be right there, but you also could have been over riding your sight lines by a large margin. Do you think if there was a cone over the hole you would have been able to stop by the time you reached the cone?

I was on the front brake hard the instant I got off the gas, but the whole thing happened within several feet and a fraction of a second. Hard to say but I think if I had another 2-3 feet of pavement I might have been able to stop in time. The point is target fixating and braking was the wrong move in that situation. Like I said, the turn itself wasn't any harder than others, but somehow that piece of missing pavement on the right edge really caught my eye. (And I've seen plenty of broken/missing pavement thru out the ride...)

 

[sjmike]

im an expert. as far as im concerned.

too fast for conditions.

case closed.

why?

you didnt know the road. RIDE the road several times before hotdogging it. period. and dont tell me you werent hot dogging it or you wouldnt have single crashed without any outside help on a sunny day going upfreaking hill.

calm down. slow down. learn the route. do it several more times.

then hot dog it.


couple hundred hours of riding twisties dont mean squat if you crash without outside help. next time might be cars involved. if i sound mean good... cuz if you would have died your parents would have been more pissed.

 

[911NeverForget]

Sorry man, didn't want to say it like that, but....

 

[AkatomboRR]

sounds like target fixation is not the issue but speed is.
every single crash analysis post have speed involved. trust me, i was reading 10 pages of crashes the first month i started riding. it was bad to the point that i wanted to quit.. :|

 

[rodr]

Since the newbies are chiming in, as a mere 2-year rider I'd like to throw in a slightly different point of view.

When I hear stories about target fixation, I have the impression that it doesn't affect me as much as it does others. While I do practice looking through turns, sometimes a close road hazard is very compelling and I pay attention to it while still managing to avoid it and stay on course.

So how about practicing your ability to survive target fixation? Methods can surely be devised to do this in a parking lot. I think this would add a new weapon to your safety arsenal.

Now before everyone starts blasting me, please note I'm not in any way advocating target fixation. My point here is that if doing it causes major trouble, then there is an opportunity to learn something new about controlling your motorcycle.

 

[Aluisious]

Since the newbies are chiming in, as a mere 2-year rider I'd like to throw in a slightly different point of view.

When I hear stories about target fixation, I have the impression that it doesn't affect me as much as it does others. While I do practice looking through turns, sometimes a close road hazard is very compelling and I pay attention to it while still managing to avoid it and stay on course.

So how about practicing your ability to survive target fixation? Methods can surely be devised to do this in a parking lot. I think this would add a new weapon to your safety arsenal.

Now before everyone starts blasting me, please note I'm not in any way advocating target fixation. My point here is that if doing it causes major trouble, then there is an opportunity to learn something new about controlling your motorcycle.

It is possible not to hit what you're looking at, if that's what you're suggesting.

 

[AOW]

im an expert. as far as im concerned.

too fast for conditions.

case closed.

why?

you didnt know the road. RIDE the road several times before hotdogging it. period. and dont tell me you werent hot dogging it or you wouldnt have single crashed without any outside help on a sunny day going upfreaking hill.

calm down. slow down. learn the route. do it several more times.

then hot dog it.


couple hundred hours of riding twisties dont mean squat if you crash without outside help. next time might be cars involved. if i sound mean good... cuz if you would have died your parents would have been more pissed.

I would like to add rider fatigue as well. 4hrs of twisties eats up a lot of calories and big time muscle energy. You were overdue for a sit and relax session.

 

[russ69]

You panicked, quit riding and jumped on the brake. You should have just kept riding even if you were in the dirt but I'm sure more lean angle would have gotten you through the corner. If you blow an apex and end up wide heading for the dirt shoulder just keep going and ride the dirt for a while no biggie.
The mistake happened long before then, you apex-ed too early and that put you wide.

Thanx, Russ

 

[rodr]

It is possible not to hit what you're looking at, if that's what you're suggesting.

Yeah something like that.

 

[Z3n]

Right now I have a question for the veterans - how do you train and MAKE SURE that you never, ever, target fixate on the wrong thing at the wrong time? I mean, I'm ok 99.99% of the time, but is there a trick to fully eliminate that last 0.01% of the mistake, when the going gets fast?

I dunno if I'd really consider myself a veteran, but I've got some advice:

Another piece of the puzzle that's worth mentioning is to avoid riding tired. If you're out for 5 hours on the twisties, break them up a little. Stop. Drink some water, chow down on some beef jerky or something, and take a break to look around and enjoy where you are. Maybe take some pictures, maybe just sit back and enjoy the sun/view a bit. The more tired you get, the more prone you're going to be to freaking out or messing up.

 

[scratch]

Right now I have a question for the veterans - how do you train and MAKE SURE that you never, ever, target fixate on the wrong thing at the wrong time? I mean, I'm ok 99.99% of the time, but is there a trick to fully eliminate that last 0.01% of the mistake, when the going gets fast?

Practice looking at where the road disappears in your line of sight. Practice in a parking lot, spinning your head around to look where you want to go, making u-turns. Point your head (nose, eyes) at the vanishing point. Edit: Keep your chin up, and point your chin where you want to go.

 

[Mawg]

One bit of advice I would add is that if you do see something that merits attention, learn to observe it but not focus on it. I.e, use peripheral vision to track the object that's pulling at your attention but keep your focus where you want to go. This way you can still dodge the problem (broken pavement in your case, which you still want to avoid instead of tracking across it, if possible) while keeping everything pointed the right way.

As far as that last little percent of the time...it's a matter of discipline. I've found it to be critical that any time I start to fixate, I spend a bit of my $10 attention bill (in Keith Code terminology) on de-fixating, on making sure that I still track the object of fixation but actively get my focus where it needs to be. Like anything else in riding, such has to be practiced enough so as to be the automatic reaction, and in my case, fortunately so far it has been. There were a couple times when I was much newer where I was simply lucky enough to have just enough road left when this kind of thing happened but I hadn't learned the above ideas yet.

T

 

[louemc]

I was on the front brake hard the instant I got off the gas, but the whole thing happened within several feet and a fraction of a second. Hard to say but I think if I had another 2-3 feet of pavement I might have been able to stop in time. The point is target fixating and braking was the wrong move in that situation. Like I said, the turn itself wasn't any harder than others, but somehow that piece of missing pavement on the right edge really caught my eye. (And I've seen plenty of broken/missing pavement thru out the ride...)

You didn't have anything to stop for, it's not a question not stopping.

It's all about focusing on the clear line, and the mental discipline to do that.

Luckily you had a very minor dump/get off, I ride (and maybe you have as well) roads that if you went off that edge, the next stop is hundreds of feet down as you repeated impact a rock face. There is no room for error, no forgiveness, at times, you got great forgiveness that time. Now don't press your luck. Pull Your head out of Your ass. This is a thinking game.