The motorcycle’s speedometer measures your speed. Your eyes determine how fast that speed feels.
You might feel like you are sitting completely still while reading this. Relative to your desk, you are. Relative to the Sun, however, you and the Earth are traveling at approximately 67,000 mph. The Sun is also carrying the entire solar system around the center of the Milky Way at roughly 540,000 mph. None of this feels fast because you have no nearby stationary reference against which to perceive the motion.
Speed is always measured relative to something else, and our perception of speed depends heavily on the movement of objects through our field of vision. That is why 100 mph on a wide, empty highway across the desert can feel slow, while 100 mph through a crowded parking lot feels completely insane. The number on the speedometer is the same, but the amount of visual information, and more importantly, the speed at which that information is processed, is dramatically different.
On the open highway, distant mountains barely appear to stand still. The road is wide, the horizon is far away, and there are very few nearby objects entering and leaving our peripheral vision. In a parking lot, cars, curbs, pedestrians, signs, light poles, and painted lines move rapidly across our visual field. Our brains interpret that visual movement, known as optic flow, as speed.
The motorcycle does not know which environment it is traveling through, but the rider’s nervous system absolutely does.
Your Eyes Are the Primary Input
Our eyes are the primary tools we use to gather information on a motorcycle. Hearing, balance, and physical feel contribute to the process, but vision tells us where the road goes, where the motorcycle is positioned, what the surface looks like, what other vehicles are doing, and what problems may be developing.
If we are using your sense of taste to gather information on a motorcycle, things have gone horribly wrong.
Humans’ visual perception evolved around walking and running speeds of no more than 18 – 20 mph, not sustained travel at 60, 80, or 180 mph. Riding a motorcycle asks our brains to gather, interpret, and respond to visual information far faster than ordinary human movement requires. If we want to travel at highway or racetrack speeds, we must train our eyes to collect information early enough for the brain to process it and the body to respond.
This is one reason inexperienced riders often describe speed as overwhelming. It is not always the speed itself that creates the problem. The rider is often looking too close, staring too long, or collecting information too late. By the time the brain understands what is happening, there is little time left to make a calm decision.
The world begins to feel as if it is rushing toward the rider because, visually, it is.
Riding the OODA Loop
U.S. Air Force Colonel John Boyd developed a decision-making model known as the OODA loop while studying aerial combat. OODA stands for Observe, Orient, Decide, and Act. The model describes a continuous cycle through which we gather information, place it into context, choose a response, and execute that response. The person who can move through the loop more effectively is better prepared to manage a rapidly changing environment.
Motorcycling is one continuous, constant OODA loop.
Observe: Place the eyes where they can collect the information required at the speed you are traveling.
Orient: Understand what that information means relative to your position, direction, surrounding objects, and intended path.
Decide: Select the appropriate response. Brake? Steer? Accelerate? Change direction? Do nothing?
Act: Make the physical control input.
Then immediately begin the process again.
A rider who looks too close delays the observation stage. A rider who fixates on one object for too long interrupts the flow of new information. A rider who sees the problem but lacks practiced habits may become stuck between deciding and acting. Every delay consumes distance, and distance disappears quickly, proportionally to speed.
At 60 mph, a motorcycle travels 88 feet every second. At 80 mph, it covers more than 117 feet. At 100 mph, one second carries the motorcycle almost 147 feet down the road. Slow eyes can burn through an astonishing amount of pavement before the rider ever reaches the controls.
Distance and Movement
Effective vision is not one-dimensional. “Get your eyes up” is good advice, but it is incomplete. We need to consider both how far ahead we look and how actively our eyes continue gathering information.
Visual distance must be proportional to speed. The faster we travel, the farther ahead we must look to give the brain enough time to observe, orient, decide, and act. But distance alone is not enough. Our eyes must also keep moving so that we continue updating our understanding of the environment.
Consider the difference between riding at 100 mph through the desert and moving at 20 mph through a crowded parking lot.
At 100 mph in the desert, our vision must extend a long way down the road. We need to identify changes in direction, pavement conditions, intersections, animals, and other hazards early because we are consuming distance so quickly. Yet the environment may contain relatively little information, allowing our scanning to remain deliberate, slow, and controlled.
At 20 mph in a busy parking lot, we do not need to look half a mile ahead. Our immediate operating area is much smaller. But our eyes must move rapidly among cars, pedestrians, curbs, shopping carts, and possible escape routes. The motorcycle is traveling slowly, but the volume of relevant information is extremely high.
Looking far ahead in the parking lot while ignoring the immediate environment is not good vision. That is how we run over the nice old lady crossing in front of us.
These examples bring the concept into focus (pun fully intended). Good eye use requires us to adjust both visual distance and scanning activity to the environment. We must look far enough ahead for our speed while moving our eyes quickly enough for the amount of information surrounding us.
Low Eyes and Slow Eyes
A rider can have low eyes, slow eyes, or often…both.
Low eyes gather information too close to the motorcycle relative to speed. The rider sees the corner, apex, stopped vehicle, decreasing radius, surface problem, or corner exit, but sees it too late. Because the available response time is short, the situation feels faster and more urgent than it needs to feel.
Slow eyes may look reasonably far ahead but remain fixed on one object for too long. While the rider stares at an apex, pothole, vehicle, or reference point, the motorcycle continues traveling through space, and the rest of the environment continues changing. The eyes are open, but the observation stage of the OODA loop has effectively stopped.
You can do a good job of looking far ahead and still have a bad time if your eyes stop moving. You can also scan rapidly and still feel overwhelmed if every scan remains only a few feet in front of the tire.
The goal is not to stare farther. The goal is to gather useful information earlier, keep updating it, and give the brain enough time to turn that information into smooth physical action.
Great Vision is a Moving Target (OMG the Puns!)
Great vision is never truly mastered because the correct eye movement changes continuously. Speed changes. Conditions change. Corners tighten and open. Traffic appears and disappears. Elevation hides portions of the road. Grip changes. Every new environment demands a different visual strategy.
World-class riders still work constantly on their eyes. During the opening laps of every session, they are building visual references and increasing the distance and speed of their visual process. Their advantage is not that they possess superhuman eyesight. Their advantage is that they have trained themselves to place their vision earlier, move it more efficiently, and process the resulting information faster than the rest of us.
They travel around the OODA loop better than you, me, and their competition
This is also why the motorcycle can feel painfully fast on the first lap and completely manageable several laps later without any meaningful reduction in speed. The rider simply began collecting information earlier and faster. Reference points have become familiar. Decisions require less conscious effort. The motorcycle has not slowed down, but the rider’s perception has caught up.
Faster eyes create more time. More time produces better decisions. Better decisions allow smoother control inputs. Smooth inputs preserve grip and maintain options.
Practice Everywhere
We can practice getting our eyes up and moving every time we ride or drive. Find a straight, familiar highway with no traffic, intersections, or immediate hazards, and begin by pushing your vision as far ahead as possible. Start counting the white dividing lines as they enter your visual field. This establishes a long visual lead and keeps your eyes actively gathering new information.
To recognize low eyes, begin with your vision extended far ahead while counting the white dividing lines. Then gradually bring your visual focus closer to the vehicle. Notice how quickly the clearly defined lines begin rushing toward you and turning into a blur. That transition occurs when information is arriving faster than your brain can comfortably process it at your current speed, and it happens much farther ahead than most riders expect. That is low eyes.
Now repeat the exercise to recognize slow eyes. Push your vision back toward the horizon and resume counting the dividing lines. Briefly hold your attention on one line longer than normal, without sacrificing control or awareness. Notice how much distance disappears before you return your vision to the horizon and resume counting. At 60 mph, you travel 88 feet every second; at 80 mph, nearly 117 feet. A single second of fixation consumes an astonishing amount of pavement while preventing your eyes from collecting new information. That is slow eyes.
One exercise reveals what happens when we stop looking far enough ahead. The other reveals what happens when our eyes stop moving. Together, they demonstrate why effective vision requires both distance and movement: get your eyes up proportional to speed, and keep them moving proportional to the amount of information around you.
The lesson becomes obvious very quickly: when your eyes drop or stop moving, the world speeds up. When your eyes rise and continue moving, the world slows down.
Slow the World Down
The motorcycle’s actual speed matters. Physics does not disappear because we feel comfortable. Braking distance, available grip, cornering radius, and kinetic energy remain very real.
But our ability to manage that speed depends on when we receive information and what we do with it.
Speed feels overwhelming when the eyes deliver information too late. It becomes manageable when we see things early, orient accurately, decide calmly, and act smoothly. That is the motorcycle rider’s OODA loop, repeated hundreds of times per minute.
Get your eyes up proportional to speed. Keep them moving proportional to the volume of information. Do not stare. Do not allow the motorcycle to arrive before your brain does.
Keep your eyes and brain ahead of the motorcycle.
The motorcycle may be moving fast, but when your eyes stay ahead, the world begins to slow down.
– Chip Spalding