The interceptor - Royal Enfield

RIDING TIPSLOOKWHEREYOU WANTTO GO! t e x t by ad a r s h sa x e n aThis is perhaps the one line that youwill hear over and over again fromseasoned riders all over the globe.Each and every time you take yourbike out, this is exactly what you do to go inthe intended direction. You might or mightnot be aware but this is how it works. Ridinga motorcycle is perhaps a chain of eventsthat most riders perform sub-consciously.You ‘look’ to identify what lies ahead in yourtrack. You accelerate if there are no obstaclesor brake if there are any. Let’s try and understandhow we can use this to improve ourriding.The trick is simple; as simple as the headingof this article: “Look where you want togo” or as you will eventually realize that “youwill go where you look”. To ride a bike, we useour hands and legs but what we really needto train to become a better rider is somethingthat lies between the ears—our eyes!Start slowly, look ahead to register whatlies in front of you and your bike. With thisyou will be able to identify if there are obstaclesthat you need to avoid. Now choose a pathor line that avoids these obstacles and look inthe direction of this line. This may not be toomuch of a task when you’ve got a straight roadin front of you but can be tricky when you’reriding a set of corners and you need to changedirection of you bike.When you need to tackle the corners, youwill need to look dead ahead as well as a littleto the side as you change directions. Leadingup to a turn you may have to do severalthings like braking and downshifting buteven as you do this ensure that you look inthe direction where you want to go. This willhelp you in judging the corner. When you lookin the direction of your selected line throughthe corner, your body will perform the actionsthat are required for the motorcycle to moveexactly on that line and in that direction. Onthe other hand, looking at an object not in theline will disturb your motion path and youwill end up riding towards it.A lot of us also ride our motorcycles ingroups and with fellow Royal Enfield club riders.On rides like this you should try to avoidriding too close to one another. This way notonly do you have enough space between theriders but this also helps every rider to lookahead towards the intended path and not directlyat the rider in front.Practice this one thing while riding. Rememberto look ahead, pick your line and lookat this intended direction neglecting objectsthat you want to avoid. Thus remember whileriding:Look In the direction where you want to goat the line you want to follow through acurveAvoid Looking in the direction you don’tplan to go and obstacles like speed-breakers,potholes which are not inyour intended path Looking at the patch of road right infront of your front wheel30