The last book I read that was as intriguing and intellectually provocative as this one was Douglas Hofstadter's great "Godel Escher Bach" and I suspect if you're the type of reader who didn't really "get" G.E.B. you probably won't like this book either.
The rest of you, read on. :)
This book is (obviously) about motorcycles, but it's also a unique, cross-domain book, covering psychology, the interaction of humans and machines, the co-evolution of humanity alongside our (also evolving) tools, and how our bodies and brains adapt and adjust to our tools to the point where they become physical and sensory extensions of ourselves.
As such this book intersects with many, many subject domains, extending far beyond just motorcycle riding: biology, evolution, neurology/neuroplasticity, physics, cognition/epistemic humility, mindfulness, meta-awareness. And I'm only scratching the surface.
There's also a fascinating strategy layer involved in motorcycle riding, where the rider can consider (and consider his level of consideration of) things like:
* differentiating between theory and practice and overburdening ourselves with theory when we shouldn't.
* meta-awareness while performing a sport. For example: balancing subconscious gut feelings with superimposed conscious critiques from the self-aware part of the brain.
* planning things like training and habits, so that we can improve/maintain our skills, improve our ability to learn, and then accelerate our improvement in a virtuous circle
These are foundational insights that can be used in all sports, in all life domains.
For example, in tennis, a sport I play regularly, it's difficult to put away a sitter, it's all too easy to "want" to hit it hard, to "want too much" to put it away, which causes the player to overcook the shot, not watch the ball carefully, and then make an unforced error. Somehow, the player must not want it too much and must remain in a relaxed, calm state, and must strike the ball with relaxed, calm form. It's a weird mix of non-emotion and non-ego that happens at that moment, and if done correctly, the entire process is effortless and easy. Too often, though, it's not.
This is an unusual book, but if you can think across domains, you'll be able to mine this book for tremendous insights you can apply to any other area of life. Well worth reading and re-reading.
Book notes:
Part 1: It's a miracle that motorcycling works at all!
Parts of our brain as aftermarket accessories (cerebrum, neocortex).
Heading inside a situation, hypothesis-constructing about a situation and what could happen.
The nature of speeds that human beings are accustomed to thanks to evolution, and the (vastly faster) types of speeds we're exposed to in the mechanical age on vehicles like motorcycles or cars. How this can be a problem if we don't have foresight and a conceptual framework to understand what can happen at high speeds. Worse, we are risk-blind: what a human doesn't know can't frighten him!
The concept of a mesocosm: we were produced in an ancestral mesocosm which enabled us to conceptually understand the speed of walking or running or the danger of climbing up a tree, but we're not prepared for riding a motorcycle at 50 miles an hour with kinetic energy far higher than our ability to perceive it. Motorcycle riding (and for that matter most of modernity) is outside our mesocosm.
Humans are highly programmable beings: we can do many things, but we do very few things very well. Contrast with animals that have more rigid programming or collections of instincts that lack flexibility, lack the ability to add or adapt programs. We have the ability to acquire programs and then self-optimize those acquired programs by practice and strategy/planning.
Fascinating history of the evolution of two wheeled vehicles: the insight to place the wheels in line with each other rather than across an axle (like in the already-invented chariot), resulting in the "Drais bike" which later developed ungeared pedals, which required an enormously large front wheel, leading to the bizarre looking "pennyfarthing" bicycle (a sort of evolutionary cul-de-sac), a design that later became unnecessary once gears/drivetrains were invented. Then the bicycle went back to a design of identical sized wheels in a line with each other.
Bicycle riding as an action program, and then he integration of a bicycle with a man producing more than the sum of its parts, much like a man and a horse. A matrix-patrix relationship, a matrix with a partner (patrix) system with its own matrix.
Producing flawless actions without conscious how-to knowledge, program acquisition without insight. Turning corners for example on a motorcycle, which involves countersteering, something we do without realizing it.
Part 2: Mind and gut
Parts and workings of the brain, the brain is a strangely constructed organ. Limited channel capacity of the conscious mind, less limited channel capacity of the unconscious mind. The cerebrum as a "wonderful latecomer."
A ball toss is a key example of unconscious mind activity that is heavily interfered with when the conscious mind (or a coach) intervenes.
The "ideal line" and cornering strategies.
How our brains want to look close to where we are rather than further upfield: see for example the coaster experiment, where a rider tries to ride over a coaster on the ground or a 3x5 card on the ground and they can't because they're looking too directly at it rather than looking further ahead.
Decoupling one's gaze from a focus on the road, looking around. Huge metaphor here for awareness/meta-awareness in life.
Mirror neurons, movements with automatic adjustment, "thoughts are forces." But then riding without enough meddling of the cerebrum which causes you to ride to spontaneously and be unaware of risks.
We have trouble visualizing threats that we can't see and we choose a weird risk composite in the face of non-visible danger that we mentally imagine. "We are more likely to do something very strange: to ride just a little bit more slowly because there might be an obstacle there, but going still far too fast if they're actually were an obstacle there."
Self observation as a disturbance, self-awareness and verbalization as hindrances, the influence of an audience or a coach on self observation, producing self-consciousness and poor performance.
From "Zen in the Art of Archery," "it shot"... The mind doing something but without thinking about what you have to do or considering how it is to be done. We disturb our physical performance by self-conscious awareness, by too-strenuous desire. See also overcooking a putaway in tennis.
Automated activities like riding a bike being disrupted by conscious activities or an experience of heightened risk. Self-blockade, creeping blockade, where the conscious self causes harm by freezing or tightening us when we are doing things producing greater risk.
Part 3: The Question of Karl V
(Karl V asked whether the horse was part of the rider or the rider a part of the horse.)
The concept of integration of the human and the motorcycle, or a human and a tool.
Different ways to express this feeling of integration: like an extension of my body, a part of myself, being one with the machine.
Tools as the exclusive province of human beings, making tools versus honing tools versus producing tools to make other tools, etc.
Where is the boundary between a person and the tool? If you use a tool awkwardly you have not developed very much integration with that tool. Also, where is the interface? It is at the extension of the tool, not of your body. See for example a musical instrument, a chisel, a cello.
Interface displacement. Thinking of tools as organ replacements, or artificial organs, like a prosthesis.
How someone will be skeptical of this interface and its location, and his belief set will actually limit his ability to perceive it and therefore use the tool skillfully. Belief sets are self-fulfilling!
Integration in motorcycling. Static friction versus sliding friction. Distinct evidence experiences: you can have immediate insight into a situation even without prior experience in terms of when you're about to slip or fall ("evidence experiences").
An extensive discussion of sliding slip angles and drifting, and contact patches, "Kamm's circle" (a bowl with a marble in it) to show the resultant force of lateral and forward or backward acceleration at the same time.
Moving from being "cargo," like a person who doesn't really know how to ride a horse, to being a "component," a skillful rider who merges with the horse. Likewise with a motorcycle.
Reaction time tends to be faster in your own territory, in places you're familiar with, also your mental preparation can speed up your reaction time as well.
Using the deep subconscious self to help your integration with a machine or tool. The subconscious can lead to significant improvements in performance after a plateau, you can have minimally fatiguing riding, and experiencing flow. However, flow can also be dangerous because you can lose your context for what risks you're facing ("uncontrolled flow").
Finally, back to self-observation of the person performing an activity, and how it can be detrimental. However, self-observation has a certain role in self-control.
Part 4: What's left for the head to do?
"A very long list!"
Forming hypotheses, for potential dangers for escape routes for things that could happen.
The act of constructing hypotheses puts the rider in a position to perceive the relevant details. Events can be better perceived if they are expected. Eliminating the element of surprise of a threatening situation.
Impaired hypothesis construction, due to fatigue, overflowing happiness, or (worst of all) anger.
Hidden dangers of self perception. Seeking realistic perceptions of oneself. One example here is lean angle and its limits, and how motorcycle riders, especially beginners, don't believe that a greater lean angle is possible. This is another example of human beings being stuck in their Paleolithic mesocosm and trying to adapt to a mechanical modern age. "He who rides in fear of the lean is living dangerously."
Monitoring the self-image, monitoring one's attitude towards risk, monitoring one's flow state.
Training and relapse. Training intent.
Objective self-criticism versus object criticism (blaming your gear or external factors like the weather, that other driver, etc., and not taking personal responsibility or personal ownership of the circumstances). This is a particularly important idea: you want to avoid blaming your equipment or blaming other people when (usually) the fault lies in you.
Learning to be properly self-critical, having a readiness to criticize one's actions. This is a matter of motivation, and it implies using specific techniques for setting objectives and mental training.
Using the error counter, mounted on the left hand grip. Clicking the error counter every time you do something that isn't how you would prefer to do it. Tracking your error rate. Every error is the seed of a potential accident.
Mental training. Gaining the psychological ability to handle everything associated with a task. Developing a high level of certainty about the course of events as well as certainty about the rider's (or tennis player's) concentration. Developing an effective means of self support, to break down self-doubt and build up self-confidence. Achieving the appropriate degree of relaxation.
On the balance between excessive self-esteem, and lack of confidence or even fear. Having a subjective perception that is close to objective reality.
Gradual recovery of self-confidence and self-esteem at different stages of development.
Levels of relaxation to foster proper motivation and attitude, and vice versa.
Specific acts of mental training: track visualization, interface displacement, mental preparations of complete action programs, identifying possible escape routes / finding gaps, mentally preparing to increase your lean angle, potential crash scenarios and what you might do.
Conceptual aids used for the purpose to elicit certain feelings like relaxation or sensitivity. Examples: "sit in the bike, not on the bike" or "imagining your arms and shoulders full of sand and then feel the tension slowly sift out like sand in an hourglass."
Setting training objectives and supporting them. Having an intent to learn and a training goal in mind, and seeking to change specific behaviors. Holding your objectives in the form of preemptive reminder stickers or note cards, using these to overcome ingrained behaviors or actions that are undesirable (self-talk or swearing on the tennis court, having your backhand break down under moments of duress, etc).
Part 5: Objectives: give them a try
Looseness:
Hold the grips loosely
Drop your shoulders
Let your head fall toward your chest
Loosen your abdominal muscles
Sit deeply into the motorcycle
Keep your mouth loose
Keep your chin loose
"Don't brake with your teeth"
Use your "play face"
Consciously pause between breaths
Avoid a fearful posture
What to do during rain and rainy conditions, how it shortens your gaze, how it causes you to tense up, limits visibility, hydroplaning risk etc
Rider and road objectives:
Look far ahead
Look up while braking
Look deep into corners and curves
Look beyond the next corner or curve
Linger on the outside, use a late turn in, use a late Apex
Think about corner exit speed
Keep your head level in the lean
Riding posture:
Toes in
On the balls of the feet
Elbow slightly bent
Head high, neck extended
Chest out
Inside knee forward on corners
Push with the inside hand, keep outside hand loose
Keep knees on the tank
Practice objectives:
Practice applying the front brake hard and briefly until wheel lock (1/10 of a second)--this is to get a feel for traction and grip and the ability to stop under an emergency, and to become familiar with what the bike does under heavy braking.
At constant 60 kmh, shifting up and down through the gears. This gives you a feel for the bike itself.
Downshift and brake simultaneously
Practice very tight u-turns and very tight circles at slow speed
Lean lean lean!
Always be aware of an escape route
Constantly monitor flow
"Now I am invisible" as a warning/mantra
Jump up before the crash, head above the obstacle
Track errors / error counter