Makes perfect sense ... and in fact that's probably a more common reaction to anxiety or stress than is an aggressive response. Acting aggressively has its own set of unknowns, whereas a cautious approach is an attempt to operate within the parameters of knowns.
* * *
No, I don't want to be like my cat. His name, by the way, is "The Fuzz." Pretty original, huh?
* * *
My ride today:
A sum total of 382 miles. Some really pretty country, too. No pictures, sorry to say.
I had a moment of anxiety, speaking off ... coming down highway 87 from the upper-most peak of red lines on that map, the road was four lanes divided through the mountains. I went into a curve with more speed than I'm comfortable with (I was probably doing close to 90 mph). I managed to navigate the curve by throttling down and countersteering. I suspect the bike had a lot more to give in terms of leaning and countersteering ... but it still created a brief moment of panic that served as a learning experience for me.
The wide open spaces in Arizona (and the whole of the western U.S. for that matter) give people the sense of needing to go very fast. 90+ mph is not uncommon. Unfortunately, I tend to think I need to keep up. So I push the bike hard. It'll do 100+ without trouble, but my skills aren't up to that, so I must be more cautious. I must operate within the parameters of my set of known skills.
No comments:
Post a Comment