Query Approved.

Absolutely simple, this. Just concentrate on the road, and the other vehicles. That SHOULD keep you safe and sound! Thinking can be left when you are either:

1. Idle;
2. Not doing anything which can potentially "harm" you, if you know what I mean.

You must be really upset to go crash, even though your mind was involved in something else.

Primarily, when we are riding/driving, its quite common for the mind to deviate at times. But the one thing that is responsible for us continue riding is our sub-conscious brain.

You might have noticed, that even though your thoughts are someplace else, you still navigate through obstacles, overtake, reduce speeds at breakers etc. This is because your subconscious manages all that!

It happens to everyone. I once reached Shimla, from a little after waknaghat (around 25 kms) and was somewhat surprised when I got there! As because my mind drifted into some thoughts (albeit not depressing and I continued cruising). Strange, but true.

Elaborating my first statement, i believe that you might be majorly engrossed in some thing bugging you, to such an extent that you might have got your eyes off the road or perhaps failed to spot and obstacle so and hence crashed!

Nor this is mental trauma neither it is un-natural.
It is just a state-of-mind when you are there but still absent from place.
In our day-to-day situations we come across many things which keep dwelling in our mind making us unconcentrated and thoughtful, it may be personal, proffesional or social. Kind of day-dreaming you see! Though a bit complex.
Its just that, in any riding or driving situation you should keep your thoughts AWAY from you. Take it this way, enjoy the scenic beauty whle riding, stay alert for any movent or action in ur surrounding and whenever anything dwells in your mind, give a jerk and say I have whole night to think about it, or save the though till you reach your destination.
Or best way, give these thoughts a visit while ur in bed, that ill do good to you.

Shanz
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^^^ truly agree your point Kurt. One has to concentrate your mind on what you doing.... multiple things in mind is not good. Specially when they are something serious. Its better to relax rather than ride in these conditions, as even a small crash can be fatal at times..... so whenever you are engrossed in something which is affecting your mental ability, just park your bike, take a break, drink water calm down and then ride. Its better.

Ride safe bro

I felt concentration lapse (sometimes - but quickly restores) when I ride through familiar roads or roads used quite often - like to office routes. Other cases, my Mind says to me ' Be careful !'

this can happen if you are cruising at a constant speed on a boring stretch of road.one thing that works is not to fix your eye at one spot.keep moving your eyes watching the road,the traffic,scenery,signboards.it will keep you from diverting your mind.

It happened to me in Ladakh ride.
My only Crash till Date.
Was pre-occupied with some personal issue.
I was at speeds of 90+ in the ghats.
I was riding down the Fotula Top.
All of a Sudden I crashed.
Reason I Braked really hard
Reason for braking - Not known till now.
Luckily survived the crash with a Broken indicator Cover & few scratches on the fairing.
My Knee Guard broke.
I simply got up & Left.

Down the Ghat there was a truck coming who heard the sound of the crash but did not see any vehicle coming in his way till he came to me.
He was down 2 turns when he heard it.
He says no vehicle overtook him for the past 15-20 min.
That means I was having no vehicle in the vicinity - a possible reason for braking.

So it can happen to any1.!!!

Thanks for the approval Mod and for your helpful suggestion Well +1 to that, it had happened to me on a stretch at both the times and at a constant speed too .Though i have been to mussourie and simla on ma steed and lack of concentration can lead to end of life on hills.I very well managed there but from quite few months i am habitual of this Thinking while Riding thingy.I try to concentrate too but thoughts again. This is what happening

Thanks for your replies , i will try to be more attentive towards my ride .

@Bestofrivals: You might think of this as weird but trust me, the more long rides you do, the more you tour, the common this becomes. And with this your sub-conscious would be more developed to tackle such a situation.

Strange but true

Bud, I don't know what to say, IMO, you're a threat not only to your family but to everybody on the road & their families. I would rather say, better not ride than be sorry. Sorry to say this, but no offence meant.

@Kurtrules - Pal, I couldn't agree more with you. This is very well said.

Here's my little 2 cents on this. To all readers, if you like to skip the theory section pls feel free to conclusion section

The Theory - There're 2 ways of through which we think in our daily life, one is the through the brain & other through spinal cord. The first one is simple, the brain takes the decision (mark this word), the other is doing the routine for which the spine does the job. To illustrate, I would say, the routine activities such as brushing, bathing are the routines carried out by the spinal cord. So how does this compares with driving/riding?

Normally when someone learns to drive initially, the decisions are taken by brain because this is not a normal routine, for example, the action on clutch, brakes etc. So the brain takes sometime to understand these routines & then hands it over to spinal cord. Once this is done, as you said, the brain keeps thinking on something while the spinal cord takes charge of your driving/riding. Looking overall picture, this may look normal, however, this is very dangerous because the spine cannot take decisions, its still the brain that takes decision. So when someone rides through the spine, by the time, the spine realizes that the brain's intervention is required AND if its not too late, then an accident is avoided. This is not only applicable for people who ride/drives, but very much for everyone, especially when on road.

Conclusion - When someone rides/drives, they have to think right through the brain to take decisions at every second on the road, such as,
1. If there's sufficient space between two vehicles to get through
2. Analyze the current speed of vehicle & judge if the overtaking can be done successfully
3. Notice signals, potholes, cattles, people, cyclist, children

My personal favourite quote (from the movie Gone in 60 seconds) - "Always remember, the car is you, you are the car"

I agree ,actually i am planning for a long ride in coming month,Thanks

@kurtrules -its Bestofrivals but bestofarivals sounds good

Sorry aargee but i am here to get something positive rather than a reply saying "don't ride" because i don't want to make it my phobia i agreed to kurtrules' last reply of more touring and more riding will help it for sure.

Nicely put. But I guess you meant Medulla Oblongata (MB), as Spinal cord don't host memory. MB is where the involuntary reflexes are stored (and subconcious memory). This is why you hit brakes just at that milli second you sense a problem.

For someone who are interested more can take a look at below link - this is regarding "Eye see trouble coming before the brain notices"

Eyes see trouble coming before brain notices - life - 06 September 2009 - New Scientist

Well, you need to take it more seriously than what it sounds. By the way, don't ride here doesn't means to refrain from riding, but to take a break when you feel out of focus during the rides/drives, be it long or short.

Just think about this, you drive with several thoughts on your mind & all of a sudden you knock down a child walking on the road, trust me, you'll never get out of the trauma for several years, not to mention about the public agony. Its easy to get away with any amount of fine (forget the imprisonment for now, that's another story), but your conscience will kill you when you see every single child.

I know this is not a positive thought, but I'm talking as realist. Just have these thoughts before every ride, I'm sure you'll improve yourself in the forth coming days.

Well, I could be wrong to some extend as I'm no medical student, but this is totally from my observation about people on road & talking to accident victims. Anyway, thanks for the link. But one thing is for damn sure that certain activities that we do we don't think over, it just keeps going as a parallel activity when brain works in background.