Mind Games 1-3
Nov 1st, 2008 by Leo
What do you do on a boring ride? Whatever you do you shouldn’t do what this guy in the video is doing. But…sometimes there are just too many cars, or the traffic is too slow, or the route too boring to really keep your interest – so what can you do to stay focused and maybe even hone your riding skills during a commute? Here are my three:
#1 “Look at me go!”
Sometimes I’ll entertain myself by trying to judge exactly how fast I’m going (I mentioned this on another post), and then take a quick look at the speedo to see how I’m doing. Professional racers (unlike me) have a really good sense of this. They can hit an exact speed every single time in the exact same place.
#2 “Look ma’ no feet!”
See how long you can go in local traffic without putting your feet down. Your riding should otherwise be “normal”, no stopping a hundred feet before the light and crawling there; stop at a normal spot keeping normal distances from cars and crosswalks, and choose your route in such a way that you can get by without feet. This takes both luck and skill.
#3 “Throttle control”
You know the rule: “Whenever you crack the throttle open, you then continue opening it smoothly and evenly.” This is so foundational that the way you find the best line in a turn (on the track) is by finding a line that allows you to keep the throttle rule (smooth even application of the throttle). The theory behind this rule has to do with keeping a 60-40 (to the rear) weight distribution… But for our purposes here the goal is to do this at moderate speeds on your commute. Whenever you crack open the throttle continue opening it smoothly and evenly (until you need to slow down). You’ll have to figure out the details yourself, but in order to do this you can’t stay in the same traffic pattern, you’ll have to move around because you’ll be speeding up and slowing down. If you do this right, it can make you safer in traffic – if you do this wrong you’ll just have a whole bunch of annoyed drivers behind you.
Anyway, those are my three, what do you do to entertain yourself on a not-so-challenging/interesting ride?
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I love #2. Keeps me entertained.
I sometimes see just how tight of a space I can squeeze my bike through while splitting lanes but only at stop lights – not at speed. I’m talking paddling the bike and leaning it to just scrape by a pair of mirrors etc. I guess this is more of a Cali luxury hobby. People are generally pretty cool about it. I’ve had plenty of drivers pull in their mirrors or move for me when they have no obligation to do so.