Thread: xBhp Talk 2 : Sandeep Goswami aka Old Fox on Vision

A rather familiar sight on xBhp, Old Fox is the quintessential ageless motorcyclist. An aeronautical engineer by education, he is as much fascinated by the technology of the motorcyclist as by the techniques of motorcycling. Here he talks about the role of vision in the life of a motorcyclist and about ways in which the rider can improve upon what nature has provided him/her with in terms of eyesight.

Part 1

YouTube - xBhp talks : Sandeep Goswami aka Old fox Part1

Watch this on the official xBhp Talks page: xBhp : talks.xBhp.com


Part 2

YouTube - xBhp talks : Sandeep Goswami aka Old fox Part2

Watch this on the official xBhp Talks page: xBhp : talks.xBhp.com

sudeep sir, your knowledge and understanding towards motorcycling amazes me, every time i hear you. xBhp talk is the right way to get together as bikers (and not groups, as Sundeep sir said) and discuss the basic and ignored aspects of motorcycling in India. Your fresh cow dung smell experience and analysis of the situation then and there is an eye opener for me. This shows even the smallest details on road can be life saving and make a big difference as how you ride. Though I just wanted to know how practising thumb and font test exactly helps to focus more on road. does doing it again and again really can help a biker to react quick and sharply? the dog example was also very good as well. we tend to know all but we never dig in deep to really know the reason behind it and possibly over come the situation.

Thanks to sunny as well to come up with this concept. this will indeed create a fresh approach to how we ride and will improve riding techniques of many. and thanks god this was not mag exclusive otherwise many like me would have been unaware of such important talk.

Originally Posted by pulsater

sudeep sir, your knowledge and understanding towards motorcycling amazes me, every time i hear you. xBhp talk is the right way to get together as bikers (and not groups, as Sundeep sir said) and discuss the basic and ignored aspects of motorcycling in India. Your fresh cow dung smell experience and analysis of the situation then and there is an eye opener for me. This shows even the smallest details on road can be life saving and make a big difference as how you ride. Though I just wanted to know how practising thumb and font test exactly helps to focus more on road. does doing it again and again really can help a biker to react quick and sharply? the dog example was also very good as well. we tend to know all but we never dig in deep to really know the reason behind it and possibly over come the situation.

Thanks to sunny as well to come up with this concept. this will indeed create a fresh approach to how we ride and will improve riding techniques of many. and thanks god this was not mag exclusive otherwise many like me would have been unaware of such important talk.

Thanks for the good words. Am glad that you found the talk useful.

As for your question about the usefulness of eye exercises that I demonstrated, I have practically benefited from them. Also there's a direct link between quick comprehension of visual data and better eyesight. Both these exercises are in fact more for the brain than for the eyes. When you re-create a sharp and distinct image of the letter printed on that sheet of paper on a blank wall, it is your brain doing so and gets practice in short-term visual memory. Its vital for motorcycling. The rapid re-focusing is again about accustoming the brain to allocate more and more resources towards processing the visual and other sensory inputs while you're riding. If the eyes can manage to give quicker updates, the brain will process them quicker too and you consequently see more.

@Old Fox: Sir, I admire the 25+ years riding legacy of yours. I wish I can continue biking my life-long. I like the way you stressed on vision in the talkies. For the first time, I came to know that I'm a right-hander with left-eye as dominant. There's one very funny thing in my riding career. I had 6-7 accidents in a period of 6-7 years. In all of that, I crashed on my right side, and bike gets bruised. Now I never let those crashes dampen my spirit of learning better riding or, going on with riding. But just a curiosity, do you believe the crashes on my right side, is due to any hand-eye coordination problem?

Sandeep Bhai I have a few questions about the "Vision" talk.

I did the quick test to find out which eye is my dominant eye and it is clear that my LEFT-EYE is the dominant one. I also happen to be RIGHT-HANDED. Is it possible to "train" the brain to make the right-eye to take over the dominant role by wearing an eye-patch for a few hours as an exercise? Or is this just the way the brain is permanently (genetically mapped) wired?

I don't have any issues with hand-eye coordination that I have noticed so far but I am interested in realizing any benefits of having both hand and eye dominant on the same side.

Your thoughts?

Sandeep Sir, this was a great piece of information. Thanks for it. I read it on the magazine as well.

I never knew about this Ocular dominance and i guess that's the reason why some people's eyes are slightly off-center in photographs.

Also thanks for the exercises. I am sure the motorcycling community will benefit a great deal from it.

Originally Posted by JonnyRider

@Old Fox: Sir, I admire the 25+ years riding legacy of yours. I wish I can continue biking my life-long. I like the way you stressed on vision in the talkies. For the first time, I came to know that I'm a right-hander with left-eye as dominant. There's one very funny thing in my riding career. I had 6-7 accidents in a period of 6-7 years. In all of that, I crashed on my right side, and bike gets bruised. Now I never let those crashes dampen my spirit of learning better riding or, going on with riding. But just a curiosity, do you believe the crashes on my right side, is due to any hand-eye coordination problem?

Glad you liked and appreciate what I put forth in my talk. And thanks for those good words. No, I don't think there's a relationship between your spills from the bike and the fact that you have a dominant hand different from the dominant eye side.

Originally Posted by gsferrari

Sandeep Bhai I have a few questions about the "Vision" talk.

I did the quick test to find out which eye is my dominant eye and it is clear that my LEFT-EYE is the dominant one. I also happen to be RIGHT-HANDED. Is it possible to "train" the brain to make the right-eye to take over the dominant role by wearing an eye-patch for a few hours as an exercise? Or is this just the way the brain is permanently (genetically mapped) wired?

I don't have any issues with hand-eye coordination that I have noticed so far but I am interested in realizing any benefits of having both hand and eye dominant on the same side.

Your thoughts?

No GS, this dominant eye thing is permanently genetically wired. In fact in children who are left-handed, per-force manipulation towards making them right-handed creates issues elsewhere like the twitching eye, stammering in speech etc. In any case, the congruence in the dominant side just gives an edge over the others and that edge would matter only on the 'edges' of the performance boundaries of our dynamic activities. And people like you and me or most others we know rarely get even within striking distance of the edge.

And btw, i also have the same combo as you with a dominant left eye and am right handed - if there's any consolation in numbers that is

Originally Posted by pradeepa

Sandeep Sir, this was a great piece of information. Thanks for it. I read it on the magazine as well.

I never knew about this Ocular dominance and i guess that's the reason why some people's eyes are slightly off-center in photographs.

Also thanks for the exercises. I am sure the motorcycling community will benefit a great deal from it.

Glad that you liked it all and can see the relevance of it all.

OF Sir, I'm blown away, I'm literally blown away after watching the 1st video; everything, almost everything what you've said is BANG TRUE & I learned it all the hard way over these many years, some of them through my mistakes & some of them avoiding the mistakes.

From what I understand, this is B cube, breakfast ride isn't it? The eye sight thing is something I'd like to talk more as well as role of neural network & spinal chord in addition to brain. I'm seriously looking forward to bunk office to attend one such session in Chennai (lol)

Edit - Ok, just went through the second video & this "Dynamic Visual Accuracy" (not sure on last word) is again something I learned the hard way ; one of my learning was that "hey this thing didn't exist there before, but it cannot come there all by itself"; means, I notice something immovable substance that wasn't there a second ago. It was then I learned about riding with self-aware, aware of surroundings or rather like you said, "dynamic visual".

Awesome, really awesome, there're so many thing I realized I was doing without proper theoritical knowledge. It WILL be an excellent talk on these, so pls don't disappoint us, we southerns would also love to have BBB soon.

Very insightful mate - very very good talk.

Originally Posted by aargee

OF Sir, I'm blown away, I'm literally blown away after watching the 1st video; everything, almost everything what you've said is BANG TRUE & I learned it all the hard way over these many years, some of them through my mistakes & some of them avoiding the mistakes.

From what I understand, this is B cube, breakfast ride isn't it? The eye sight thing is something I'd like to talk more as well as role of neural network & spinal chord in addition to brain. I'm seriously looking forward to bunk office to attend one such session in Chennai (lol)

Edit - Ok, just went through the second video & this "Dynamic Visual Accuracy" (not sure on last word) is again something I learned the hard way ; one of my learning was that "hey this thing didn't exist there before, but it cannot come there all by itself"; means, I notice something immovable substance that wasn't there a second ago. It was then I learned about riding with self-aware, aware of surroundings or rather like you said, "dynamic visual".

Awesome, really awesome, there're so many thing I realized I was doing without proper theoritical knowledge. It WILL be an excellent talk on these, so pls don't disappoint us, we southerns would also love to have BBB soon.

Thanks Aargee. Am happy to share whatever I have learnt during my years on the road. The B-cube is 'Bikes, Breakfast and Banter', a concept wherein we get together for breakfast and talk biking.

The term is 'Dynamic Visual Acuity' and yes, its the thing to improve upon to get better and safer at riding or driving.

Originally Posted by Sandeep_K_Ram

Very insightful mate - very very good talk.

Thanks Ram. Good to see you on the forum after a long gap. Be around.