TOPIC:

Classic case of target fixation.

Do you think he ever learned to ride a bicycle?
Funny, I just figure that riding a two-wheeler (even a motorized one) comes naturally to people.

"It's a lot heavier than a moped" ...

I think staying up comes naturally if you have a sense of self and balance. Some people are just naturally unbalanced...and not in the good way.

Add all those darned "complicated tasks" on top of balance and you've got a "recipe for disaster" (and guess who's the chef of doom).

I work with a high school girl who went to take the msf course a few weeks back. When she complained about how complicated it all was, they supposedlygave her a Vespa (which, in itself, seems like a bad idea if you're going to license a person to ride any class, let alone the fact that they'd even *have* one to BEGIN with which seems unfathomable to me)...and she dumped that.

She's not inherantly uncoordinated...She's just the kind of person that panics and she blanks and freezes up when she panics.

Post edited by: Virii, at: 2007/07/18 20:28

That's a heckuva deal, Virii.

I had ridden a bicycle for a lot of years as a kid before getting a motorcycle. I also knew the basics of a manual transmission so transitioning to a hand clutch wasn't that difficult although I killed it (my KL250 in 1980) the first time I rode it.

Locally, I heard of a woman from town that broke her foot taking the MSF course this spring. Having gone through it myself two years ago, I can't fathom how that happened.

"If at first you don't succeed, skydiving may not be for you!"

That's good humour.

I'm just a little confused as to how thats a classic case of target fixation, I can see how target fixation might have caused it, but he didn't look like he was really going to turn, more like he forgot where the brakes were?

Well, he starts in the weave cones, gets off course, stares at the semi and runs right into it. Classic. He was so fixated on what he didn't want to hit that he drove right into it.

That's my understanding of target fixation.

looked more like a panic to me, when things started to go south, he wasnt sure how to stop

Virii wrote:

. . .I work with a high school girl who went to her . . . Vespa . . and she dumped that.

She's not inherantly uncoordinated...She's just the kind of person that panics and she blanks and freezes up when she panics.

Reminded me of when I let the high school sweetie of the day learn to ride my bike. I thought it would build cool points.



I got off the idling RD350 and stood off to the side kind of in front so she could see me smiling.



She pulled in the clutch, put it in first, and reved it up to what sounded like about 2k above redline. And held it there.

The engine screamed in protest.

I stood there awestruck at the sound of 2-stroke twin gone berserk.

She couldn't have heard me if I aad said a thing.

It's amazing how quickly the thought of "maybe this isn't such a good idea, after all" fills the void panic creates.

At about the same time you have reached this point in the story, she rolled off the throttle.

All while still holding in the clutch.



Thank God some people have presence of mind.

Added:

She went on to learn to ride.

She bought a bike (small bore Honda, I think) and rode it for a number of years, while in college at the University of Michigan.

And eventually became a medical doctor.

Kind of sad we went separate ways.

She's married with two kids.

I ride motorcycles.

But it's nice to know I played a small part in her sucess story.



Post edited by: KaZooCruiser, at: 2007/07/19 12:16

BSKZ650, It looked to me like he knew exactly how to stop a bike. Simply run it into the biggest immovable object in sight. Ed