Increased Confidence

[Doorag]

I'm not sure why, but recently I feel that my confidence on the bike has really improved.

Maybe it's

• the fact that I'm at about 20K miles of total riding experience now, or
• the fact that I've taken some advanced riding classes, or
• the fact that I've recently done a mod that makes the bike ride better (or maybe I think it handles better)
• the fact that I've decided to keep the FZ6 for the winter (and buy a MacBookPro instead)

Whatever it is, I feel a lot more in control of the bike and aware of things going on around me.

It's kind of like the day at a new job when we come in to work and realize that we actually know what we are doing and feel comfortable and not like a 'noob' anymore.

However, with all of this newly found confidence, I'm trying to be aware the pride comes before a fall and that I should be extra vigilant.

Have any of the more experienced riders here had the same experience?

 

[alexis]

Nice to hear that m8. but from my experience it not always good to have good confidence as a rider, not due to your skill but your surrounding.

Ive been riding for 10 years and still don't want to believe that i can push my bike that extra step.

Proverb of the day: BE CAREFUL FROM ALL THE OTHER F*CKERS THAT ARE DRIVING BECAUSE THEY NEVER GIVE US RIDERS THE RIGHT ATTENTION.


Sorry for my language but my worst fear ,is the stupid reckless drivers in the road that cause accident.

Drive safe m8

 

[Have2BeFree]

Yup - had the same feeling - just before I crashed. Now I feel like noob again. It's good to have skill and confidence, just be careful.

 

[necrotimus]

Knowing you can do something is what builds confidence. For me going on the deal's gap trip and pushing myself and the bike past where I normally ride day to day greatly helped my confidence levels. I knew when I got back home that I had a healthy reserve of what I and the bike could do if I needed it. So I think a lot of it comes from pushing yourself and the bike further than you normally need to so whatever your normal riding is becomes easier. You also have a lot less of the voice in the back of your head going oh **** oh **** because you know you can dig deeper. To put it in terms of a lot of the books you have more credit to draw on. In my opinion classes, trackdays, practice, or just riding more difficult roads (even at decreased speeds) will increase your confidence (and skill) because you know you can do more with the bike. If I go back to the dragon or do a trackday I know I won't be nearly as confident on the bike as I am everyday but you have to push past your comfort zone in order to become more comfortable.

In my opinion making a change to the bike or changing bikes will have a very minor if any effect on increases in your confidence or making you a better rider. The bike may give you a better and safer ride but you are still operating with the same skill set when you get on the changed bike. ABS brakes on our bikes would be great and would keep a lot of us from ever having accidents because of locking tires but they won't make you a better rider. Applying the brakes without locking them is a skill, knowing how far it takes you to stop is a skill, accident avoidance is a skill. Better suspension, better brakes, or more horsepower are not skills. Will they make you faster, stop shorter, or be able to increase your lean angle? Yup but not a single one has made you a better rider. I look at it this way two riders both with no experience buy bikes at the same time one an FZ6 one an R6. After a year they switch bikes. Without the R6's perks the guy now on the FZ6 has problems galore because he has come to rely on them. So who is the better rider the guy who can ride anything with two wheels or the guy who pisses and moans about the short comings of the bike.

Practice and pushing your limits safely will have a greater real effect on your confidence while performance upgrades which may increase confidence may result only in a placebo effect. So in my opinion practice first upgrade second.

 

[Kriswithak]

All those things would certainly have helped!
I'm not a hugely experienced rider particularly compared to alot of the people on these forums but a certain amount of confidence is VITAL to riding the FZ6 and all bigger bikes (I'm pretty small so its especially true). If you can't trust in your bike and ride with that trust then you will always be fighting against it, and it won't be fun, it won't be enjoyable, and you'll never really be able to appreciate the bike or your own abilities.

That being said knowing the line between confidence and over-confidence (which alot of people above me have mentioned) is important.
My first riding intructor told the group I did the course with "When people learn to drive they learn to take unacceptable risks, if you want to survive as a rider, you need to learn not to"

Main thing it to be constantly aware and learn from your mistakes, if something scary or bad happens and you sit down and say "How could I have avoided that, what part of that was my fault" then you will be a good rider. If you 100% blame the other person you'll end up never learning and being scrapped off the ground somewhere because someone did something stupid, they should never have done, and you didn't allow for that stupidity!

This being said pushing the limits is certainly one way of learning, you just need to be mindful when doing it, rather than letting that awesome adrenaline rush take over

 

[Doorag]

Yup - had the same feeling - just before I crashed. Now I feel like noob again. It's good to have skill and confidence, just be careful.

I have crashed already, so that's out of the way. Hopefully I learned my lesson. I'm a 40-something dad of three so I don't go flying around like I would if I were 20 so that should help a bit.

 

[RJ2112]

I have crashed already, so that's out of the way. Hopefully I learned my lesson. I'm a 40-something dad of three so I don't go flying around like I would if I were 20 so that should help a bit.

It's usually when I think I know what the bike is going to do, that I find out I have been asking for more than is reasonable.

Through whatever nefarious means, I seem to crash about every three riding seasons. This is usually also somewhere in the time that I have just stopped 'pushing' the envelope. Not unusual for me to keep pushing for the edge of the envelope; and to leave myself no margin at all. Almost all of my accidents have been single vehicle, and all but one were from stuff I could have controlled.

The quote about old pilots, bold pilots, but NO old, bold, pilots applies.

Training, and paranoia are your best friends riding on the street.

 

[cv_rider]

After 2yrs and 10k miles to my riding career, I feel confident that I can handle the bike and probably could pull off an emergency quick stop, but I still feel anxious riding. So many potential road hazards, I don't think I could ever feeling confident like I do in a cage. According to the famous HURT report that cataloged motorcycle accidents, I'm now entering the most dangerous year of riding (more than 2yrs experience, less than 3). Likely explanation is that you have mastered the mechanics of riding and you're not longer lugging around because of basic fear of being on two wheels. So speed and risks increase, and you go down. How many years do you have, Doorag?

Partially related: I'm determined not to have a single vehicle accident. Those should almost entirely be in my own control. If I'm smart enough and safe enough on the street, I should be able to avoid it. As a result, I never push the envelope as a method to gain confidence. That in itself is an increased risk.

 

[abacall]

Partially related: I'm determined not to have a single vehicle accident. Those should almost entirely be in my own control. If I'm smart enough and safe enough on the street, I should be able to avoid it.

Not always. Don't forget those times that there's oil/debris on the road, animals, mattress, chair, semi tires, or what have you can sneak up on you.

Back OT. I think it's great that you've become aware of the increase in confidence and how it may effect your safety. I've reached a similar place, 20K, 2.5 years, much raised confidence. I believe it has a lot to do with seat time and constantly monitoring and (safely) raising limits. That's a good thing. Even better, remembering that no matter how good of a rider you are (or think you are), you can still get taken out in an instant. In the end we are all taking on serious risk every time we saddle up, so wearing proper gear is imperative.

Ride safe, ride aware. Life is short, so remember to have some fun too.

 

[FZ1inNH]

It is good to gain confidence in the bike and your skills. Please don't become over confident and injure yourself. We can all learn something new every single ride.

David, you're ready for the new FZ1.

 

[stryken]

This is something I posted in another thread a couple weeks ago and it seems to apply here...

"Funny thing about confidence, we are supposed to ride to build our confidence, without confidence it you can't truly enjoy riding but too much of it and you may not ride again."

Its sort of a catch 22

 

[cv_rider]

Not always. Don't forget those times that there's oil/debris on the road, animals, mattress, chair, semi tires, or what have you can sneak up on you.

I'd say that all those hazards but animals are avoidable if you are careful enough. If there's a mattress blocking the road around a blind corner, you should have been going slow enough to stop by the time you saw it. Animals are a bit of roll of the dice - seems hard to be defensive enough to minimize that risk, other than avoiding riding at dusk through bad areas.

 

[wrightme43]

Just in the zone somedays man, is how it strikes me. Somedays just feel righter than others. LOL

Hoping you enjoy yours as much as I do mine.

 

[stryken]

Just in the zone somedays man, is how it strikes me. Somedays just feel righter than others. LOL

Hoping you enjoy yours as much as I do mine.

So true, There are days when I fell like I am on rails and other times on the same road I am wobbly as can be. Being in the zone plays a huge factor for sure.

 

[Philippe1985]

I have crashed already, so that's out of the way. Hopefully I learned my lesson. I'm a 40-something dad of three so I don't go flying around like I would if I were 20 so that should help a bit.

I'm 24 and I'm riding for 3 years now(1,5 years with a yamaha diversion and the rest with the fz6). And I did have a honda nsr 50 from my 17 till 19.
And I still have the feeling that I'm a noob. I just can't let go all the bad things that can happen when riding a bike. If someone with more experience would ride behind me, he/she would certainly tell me that I have the wrong way of taking corners or whatever. It's really time for me to follow an advanced riding course.
And my riding style is very gentle. I think I use mayby 35hp from the bike's engine.
So I can't foretell how my riding style will evolve when I get older. I ride like I'm old now already.
I just can't feel comfortable when riding faster than allowed. Same thing with the car. But when I go karting, then I really push it to the limit.
We used to have a pocketbike circuit where I go karting, but since there happened a lethal accident they stopped running that pocketbike circuit, so I never got the chance to do that. And I had proposals for getting the fz6 on the circuit at francorchamps(the f1 circuit) but I did not wanted to get the risk of hurting my fz6. I think I will have to buy an old sportsbike afterall.