That’s
the way a well-known song by the Doors starts. And when it comes to riding
bikes, it’s perhaps one of the most important, straightforward and self-evident
rules of the game.
Of
course, gazing fixedly at the patch of tarmac just ahead of your front wheel,
or at the rear end of the vehicle in front of you, isn’t good enough. You’ve
got to look as far ahead as is humanly possible. Naturally, you have also to
cast your mind forwards along with your gaze, so that you can read, analyse and
act upon any situation that you identify in the middle distance. Is that car
five or six vehicles up the road from you braking? Cover your brakes and get
ready to slow down or stop. In corners, follow that vanishing point: it can
tell you so much about the turn – if it’s tightening up, staying
constant-radius or opening out – allowing you to adapt your speed and road
position to negotiate the bend cleanly and be perfectly prepared for the
following straight and the next corner. And of course, the further you look
along the road, the earlier you identify any problems that may arise.
The video
above shows precisely what can happen if you overlook this basic premise of
riding motorcycles (and of driving any motor vehicle, really). The police
motorcyclist was obviously not paying enough attention and not looking far up
enough the road, otherwise he would have noticed the speed bump in the road,
slowed down accordingly in order to negotiate it and also inform the riders
behind him to slow down in turn. In my humble opinion the policeman was lucky
to get away relatively unscathed from the crash (in a longer cut of the video
one can see that the bike suffered extensive damage) – he could so easily have
been very seriously injured, or worse. He committed a stupid error that is
difficult enough to forgive coming from a common-or-garden motorcyclist, but
that is absolutely unacceptable from a police motorcyclist.
So next
time you’re out on a ride, remember: keep your eyes - and mind – on the road, the rubber side
down and Enjoy the Ride!
