Re: How to control yourself from riding rash?

Thanks all for the help till now.

I have come home without crossing 70 km/hr today. After reading many comments here from the office, I have the following points to make -

1) Sorry for being unable to name the suggester but one thing I noticed is that I am engrossed in other thoughts all the time whether I am riding or not. I am a scientist by profession and thinking is my 'forte'. When I ride fast, my thoughts vanish and I concentrate on the road better. It may be one of the reasons, but I am riding fast from ages and when I was a kid I never thought that much.

2) One good suggestion I came across was to leave early. This would help at times.

3) The thought that someone would hit me from behind crosses my mind too often and I want to be the fastest on the road just to avoid this thing from happening.

4) Regarding being an irresponsible and dangerous rider for other commuters - I left riding motorcycle when I was 29.. but realised that I am driving way too fast and I may harm someone who would change lane without looking in the rear view. I then bought my second bike (Fazer - to answere a ques in this thread) and have been riding it when the weather is fine that is when its not raining.
The problem with me is that I am too concerned about others and this thread is just to avoid causing harm to anyone as I know that I am riding too rash now. I really dont care about my life. The only thing I pray is - If I fall, either I should rise unharmed or die. Dont want to cause burden to anyone by living in a wheelchair.

5) There are some other suggestions like - meet an accident and slow down. I dont think that would help me. I have seen nearly all the accidents on liveleak.com and there was a similar website called ogrish.com which converted to liveleak later.. these contain some gruesome accident videos. I dont enjoy watching them, just watch them to get an insight of causes of various accidents.

6) Would try meditation from tomorrow morning.

Thanks again for the suggestions. If I was to die today, you saved me!

Re: How to control yourself from riding rash?

That's an interesting and a disastrous statement at same time. It's typically adopted by Indian cinema hero while he smashes several dozens of bad guys with bare hands. Did you catch my drift?

I do agree on one thing though, riding at slower speeds usually opens door for random thoughts to creep in. Once I hit a Tata-Ace on the side in a slow moving traffic near IISc while thinking about my better half and fell down!!! I laughed, picked up the motorcycle & moved on.

Re: How to control yourself from riding rash?

You are depressed, that's all. People do that often when they are having some internal conflict. I too did that a lot, I used to ride really fast and often tried to hit a neighbor's boundary wall but my muscle memory worked magic. Finally an incident with two trucks made me change my riding habit, it also gave me a limp for good though I also have that anxiety that somebody would fender bender me. I developed this phobia from bicycling on the narrow NH37 where truckers and express buses' handyman would either piss, throw hot water or whack us bicyclists with a stick from moving bus for no apparent reason.

Re: How to control yourself from riding rash?

Bhai , Why think so much ? I ride while singing inside my sound-proof LS2 helmet - works for me. For me riding is unwinding -- whether its my wife's scooty or my 390.

And yes its the purist inside everyone of us which leads to complications. Do your thing and don't harm anybody - simple.

Like they say "I am responsible for what I say not what you make out of it"

Re: How to control yourself from riding rash?

[MENTION=47715]muztariq[/MENTION] slow riding (40kmph) is fun, try to practice it. It is like meditation improves self control & you will start feeling good (generous?) when you let other riders zoom past you. I enjoy riding at 40-50kmph even at the open straights of NH4. One more thing whenever you get this type of feeling of rash driving/riding try to remember your family (mom/wife/children) without you. If possible stick a family photo on the tank/speedo of your fazer. All the best!

Re: How to control yourself from riding rash?

It's all about self control . More the better . You can't change your riding style in a day . Daily analyze your area of improvement/control and try to change & implement it . Earlier I was a zig-zager showing no respect to lane driving and had a few really close calls that made me think 'life is important' and it's important to stay in one piece : ) . Now even if my 'lane' is crawling I never change . I control and stay in that lane only just to improve my area of self control . It's okay to ride little faster momentarily if you have a clear road ahead and you can sense your surroundings as safe , but not all the time . But yeah If you are going 80 KMPH to your local grocery store then it's a problem . Completely ignore those honking idiots trying to provoke you to go faster without raising your own temperature .

Best thing is to keep talking to yourself and control till it becomes your second nature . Force yourself to slow lanes or try to stay behind that slow moving car ; ) and see your self control grow. Respect each zebra crossing, each road sign/line and score yourself daily .

"mastering others is strength, mastering yourself is true power"

If you learn to control and keep yourself calm in our aggressive-road scenario and apply that control with other things in life, trust me, you will have such a peace of mind like you never had ; ) .

Re: How to control yourself from riding rash?

Channelize your 'CHI' flow like Kungfu Panda, fellas!!!

Re: How to control yourself from riding rash?

"Can't control your rash riding"?

Sell your bike. Do everyone a favour, including yourself.

Re: How to control yourself from riding rash?

Strange, nobody mentioned Music? Plug in to some soft and soothing classics from the 60s to the 80's and you will notice a remarkable difference in your riding habits. I have a specific playlist exclusively for riding.

Music, medition, workouts, earl departures - settle for whatever works in your favour. The idea is to keep the mind unstressed and relaxed, so that you enjoy the ride. Another interesting point I have observed - the more refined and smooth my bike feels, the gentler I ride. A rough, gnarly bike makes me a rash rider. That again, I would associate indirectly with my psychological perceptions. A smoother, refined engine makes my mind tuned for a relaxed and enjoyable ride, whereas a rough engine makes you irritable, and pushes you to ride rashly.

Re: How to control yourself from riding rash?

Thanks..

Thankfully I am rash with the ride sometimes but not with words.

You should stop speaking too. Follow what you advice to others.

Music/Earphones/Headphones are a big big no.

I am much composed nowadays..
Except one or two excursions per week. I am determined to bring that down too. Thanks all.

Re: How to control yourself from riding rash?

Ride in Delhi traffic you would be pleading to ride hard, because of so much traffic and red lights. Although you can go from one red light to another at 60-70 kmph.

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Re: How to control yourself from riding rash?

Buy a bullet. The old CI one. It will make you enjoy slow rides. Thats how i controlled my rash driving habits. My rx135 now begs to be revved hard. But she never gets to go more than 60kph in city. And when i am on the highway the pleasure which i get for a sprint to 100 is awesome.
Also riding fast stresses you a lot. You have to worry a lot many things. Just for once go on an open road with less trafiic and go slow.
Also tryng to get the maximum FE is a good number game. U get yourself to reach a number but slowly. This one helped me 2.
Enjoy your ride. Dont say you do not care about your life. How can a biker be depressed. You should seriously try leisure riding.
Music thing is good but be careful with the playlist.

Re: How to control yourself from riding rash?

Go on a ride to the mountains. And sit around and listen to nature's soundtrack.

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Re: How to control yourself from riding rash?

Depends on how you perceive the accident, and what you really understand from it. Used to be like the OP at a point of time; driving at unnecessary speeds for my own adrenaline rush. And then a few years ago, had a car accident travelling at 120+ on the highway. It was way late at night, no traffic or people on the road; and I didn't quite care about the speed. Next thing is I see a speedbreaker; with a tempo lorry slowly crawling over it ahead of me, and a bus on my left so can't really change lanes. Now, the tempo was good 50 metres ahead of me, and under normal circumstances, I could have braked well before reaching it.

What my calculations missed out was gravel. Smashed the brakes, yet rammed right into the lorry. Fortunately enough, none of the people in our car was hurt, the lorry had no damage except that its number plate fell off!; but the car was a wreck. The front of it was smashed all the way in till the windscreen. The windscreen did not break.

The car was in the workshop for ages, the cost didn't really bother me. Like I said, I was fortunate then for having every person involved escape scratch-free. What bothered me was- What if that was a bike or a scooter/ or a pedestrian? What if that was a dad on his scooter taking his child to school? The lorry was strong enough to withstand impact. Would they withstand it? Or would the innocent child (of the slow travelling dad) have died as a result of my rush?

I've never over sped since that day. That imaginary scenario helped me; it did not curb my confidence, I'd still race down on a track day, but it did change my way of thinking, and what I perceive of other motorists and pedestrians. Furthermore, I'd taught several people to drive since then, including my mother; and I should say, as beginners, most of them would not be able to avoid you if you come overtaking head on at high speeds.

Muztarik, stop giving yourself the excuse that you can't. This thread is your way of justifying it, to see what other members think of it. Stop letting that happen; stand strong and ride safe. Remember, anyone can twist the throttle and travel at high speeds- that doesn't show your skill; any Indian motorcycle is capable of 90+. What truly shows your skill is the art of riding safe- which includes giving way to other motorists/ pedestrians, use of turn indicators (even while shifting lanes), the use of appropriate speed, and cautious overtaking without zig-zagging all over the place.


Sorry for the long one; here's a potato.

Re: How to control yourself from riding rash?

Very nice spit fire. Also another way to avoid rash driving is adjusting the carb if done little bad, it be impossible to go over 70-80! More bad then not more than 40! After a while he will get accustomed to that speed and wont like to go fast at all.