Go Faster or Safer or Both

Adapted from “Bike U.K”  August 1997 and edited August 2025

“Speed”: It doesn’t matter what your responsible self says; speed is the essence of motorcycling. If you do not like speed, you should stick to different sports.

If, on the other hand, you want to use motorcycles not only as a transportation vehicle but also as a sporting/touring tool, you must understand speed. 180 Kph on a circuit may be safe, while 50 Kph in a village is surely extremely dangerous.

Speed per se is not dangerous; speeding is.

What makes speeding dangerous are two elements: the ability to perceive reality in all its aspects and an accurate self-evaluation of experience, skills, and strength. Testing speed riding without proper knowledge is not only foolish but also criminal for all road users.

So, if you want to embrace speed as your partner, you need to learn the sporting use of motorcycles. Speed should be our friend. The conclusion of the following article highlights an important consideration:

“If you’ve done your homework (improving riding techniques) right, you’ll be faster and smoother. More importantly, you’ll have a bigger safety margin. You can ride at the same speed with less risk or keep the risk the same and go faster. Whatever you do, remember you don’t know it all – no one does. Treat every ride as a lesson, learn what you can and, when you find people faster or smoother than you, check their level of self-evaluation and, if good, pick their brains and their skills.”

GO FASTER!

Sort your mind out. You will need this in top working order. Without it, you are just so many stone of bone, flab and sinew, careering hopeless towards a big accident. Every action you take is controlled by your mind. Think to yourself: what do I want to do? If the answer is “Go bloody fast regardless” then forget it. The right answer’s something like, “Ride as fast as I can and still live to be 80“. Tell yourself, aloud if necessary: “I am going to be aware of every single action I take on the bike“. You will get some funny looks, but not so many as you will get lying in a ditch. Most top racers spend the pre-race period calming their mind of every distraction, concentrating on the start and the run-up to the first corner. No one wins championships on pure aggression.

Sort your body out. Ever had that tight, cramped sensation between your shoulder blades? Blamed it on the riding position’?

It’s actually tension and if you are tens, you cannot ride well. You cannot move about smoothly on the bike, and every action is slower, jerkier and harder. The trick is to start relaxed, then you have a chance of staying that way, and especially if your head is right and you are riding smoothly.

Every few minutes when you are riding check if you are tensing up. If you get that knife between the shoulders, a stiff neck, or grinding teeth and locked jaws, back off, breathe deeply, hold a half-smile, and stay slower for a few miles while you work on getting smooth again. In the end you will go faster naturally.

Scan the horizon and get the reality in all its aspects. If you look just in front of the front tire you will wobble around and react to things after they have happened. If you look as far ahead as you can see you will follow a smooth, accurate line, anticipating and dealing with whatever happens in advance. Think of main and dip beam at night: the closer your patch of vision is to the front of the bike, the harder it is to ride smoothly. So, make looking further ahead your mantra, from U-turns in the street to flat-out roads. You will notice the difference straight away. The first symptom of tiredness is gradually focusing closer to the front wheel. Learn to recognize this and deal with it. A short rest now is better than running yourself into the ground.

Abandon preconceived ideas, assumptions, deja’-vu. Take the wide view. We are non riding on our imagination, on opresuntive ideas of what may lie ahead. We ride at what it is in front, on the back and around. Just looking miles ahead is never enough. You need some attention in reserve to check in all directions and keep you updated on anything likely to affect you. Think of it like radar in a low-flying plane. On the road you’ll be continually updating your mental reports on following traffic, side roads that could spill slow-moving cars into your path, road surface and feel, and a hundred other things. You’ll quietly be keeping tabs on your bike, too: fuel level, revs, gear, it is all going on in the back of your mind, only coming to the front when an alarm goes off. That’s it.

Now get riding and see for yourself how much difference it makes just looking further ahead than usual, staying relaxed, and monitoring your whole environment.

Meet Your Brakes. Brakes are not on/off switches. They are capable of being used as subtly as your throttle. When most riders try going faster, there’s a temptation to do it by braking later and harder. Often, the result is an unsettled bike going into a turn too fast, and the terrified conviction that there is no way you could go quicker. False ideas. Think: “Do I need to brake at all?” We have been conditioned to brake, turn, go, but it should be stabilize speed, turn, and go. The crucial thing is to arrive at the turn-in point at the right speed – whether you have had to brake, accelerate or keep a steady speed.

Sort your mind out. You will need it in top working order. Without it, you are just so many stones of bone, flab, and sinew, careering hopelessly towards a big accident. Every action you take is controlled by your mind. And mind is your best protector.

Think to yourself: “What do I want to do? “. If the answer is “Go bloody fast regardless” then forget it. The right answer is something like, “Ride as fast as I can and still live to be 80.” Tell yourself, aloud if necessary: “I am going to be aware of every single action I take on the bike.” You will get some funny looks, but not as many as you will get lying in a ditch. Most top racers spend the pre-race period calming their minds of every distraction, concentrating on the start and the run-up to the first corner. No one wins championships on pure aggression.

Sort your body out. Ever had that tight, cramped sensation between your shoulder blades? Blamed it on the riding position? It’s actually tension, and if you are tense, you cannot ride well. You cannot move smoothly on the bike, and every action is slower, jerkier, and harder.

The trick is to start relaxed, then you have a chance of staying that way, especially if your head is right and you are riding smoothly.

Every few minutes when you are riding, check if you are tensing up. If you get that knife between the shoulders, a stiff neck, or grinding teeth and locked jaws, back off, breathe deeply, hold a half-smile, and stay slower for a few miles while you work on getting smooth again. In the end, you will go faster naturally.

Scan the horizon and perceive reality in all its aspects. If you look just in front of the front tyre, you will wobble around and react to things after they have happened.

If you look as far ahead as you can see, you will follow a smooth, accurate line, anticipating and dealing with whatever happens in advance. So, make looking further ahead your mantra, from U-turns in the street to flat-out roads. You will notice the difference straight away. The first symptom of tiredness is gradually focusing closer to the front wheel. Learn to recognise this and deal with it. A short rest now is better than running yourself into the ground.

Abandon preconceived ideas, assumptions, and déjà vu. Take the wide view. We are not riding on our imagination or presumptive ideas of what may lie ahead. We ride at what is in front, behind, and around us. Just looking miles ahead is never enough. You need some attention in reserve to check in all directions and keep yourself updated on anything likely to affect you. Think of it like radar in a low-flying plane. On the road, you’ll be continually updating your mental reports on following traffic, side roads that could spill slow-moving cars into your path, road surface and feel, and a hundred other things. You’ll quietly be keeping tabs on your bike, too: fuel level, revs, gear; it is all going on in the back of your mind, only coming to the front when an alarm goes off. That’s it.

Now get riding and see for yourself how much difference it makes just looking further ahead than usual, staying relaxed, and monitoring your whole environment.

Meet your brakes. Brakes are not on/off switches. They are capable of being used as subtly as your throttle. When most riders try going faster, there’s a temptation to do it by braking later and harder. Often, the result is an unsettled bike going into a turn too fast, and the terrified conviction that there is no way you could go quicker. False ideas. Think: “Do I need to brake at all?” We have been conditioned to brake, turn, go, but it should be stabilised speed, turn, and go. The crucial thing is to arrive at the turn-in point stable at the right speed – whether you have had to brake, accelerate, or keep a steady speed.

Emergency stops are a lottery unless they are second nature. Most people spot trouble, hit the anchors hard and pray. If they lock up, that is it – down they go. Not really good enough. Although the front tire does 75-90 per cent of braking, the front/rear balance of every bike is different, and changes with weather, pillions and road conditions. You are searching for the point just before lock-up. You can only get that from long practice and, whenever you try extreme braking, plunging your head into a state of concentration where you focus on nothing else.

Read the road. You cannot be a fast, safe road rider unless can read the road, any more than you can be a top musician without being able to read music. It means taking every scrap of information from your environment, and processing it in terms of two main questions: What is going on? There is obvious stuff, like the car that might have seen you, jaywalking pedestrians, and lurking cops. You should spot these half asleep. However, get subtle, every piece of evidence has to be sifted, weighed and acted upon or discarded. “The price of peace is eternal vigilance”. Where does the road go? Do not ignore the obvious. Use road signs and markings that tell you what is coming up. But remember that there is plenty of flat-out corners festooned with warnings, and doggy hairpins with no signs at all. The trick is not to rely too heavily on any one clue. Wait for extra evidence and, if it does not appear assume the worst. And do not forget your best vision-friend, the Vanishing Point (the point where the right and left sides of the road appear to meat.) If that point gets closer to you,  back off and nd if the point is running away from you chase it.

Defensive Riding. Basically, assume everybody and everything is trying to maim you, and ride accordingly. Try to cultivate a state of mind where every accident would secretly be your fault for not seeing it coming. On a bike, there is no point being in the right if you have no legs.

There are situations where the fear takes over, panic takes control and action becomes reaction.

Situation One “Into a comer too fast, or corner tights.”This is a major sin, but there you go. You want to brake, but you will either lock the front and crash or sit up and plough straight on. Not good, especially on left-handers. Instead, lose what speed you can with the rear brake and take the only sensible choice you have: try to make the corner, steer, lean,  lean more.

Situation Two “Fast in, slow out”. Do you frequently enter bends slightly too fast, just about get through on a completely closed throttle, run wide on the exit, then convince yourself you were on the limit?  Slow in, fast out is the right one: you can go faster but first you have to slow down and learn to work the back tire, not the front. The idea is to spend as little time as possible on a neutral or closed throttle; once you get the hang you will find you can use lots of throttle mid-corner, so long as you use it smoothly. And, diesel-slicks excepted, if you are on the power, you will never lose the front. Which is good because front-end slides are usually terminal, and rear ones often aren’t.

Situation Three. “Riding in the rain” “Rain-I hear you cry-we thought this vas supposed to be fun”.It is,honest. Vet riding really tests how much you have absorbed the doctrine of smoothness and relaxation. If you ride tense, the wet will make you tenser, so you’ll be afraid to touch the throttle and brakes, so you’ll ride more jerkily so you’ll become less happy, so you’ll get more tense and so the cycle continues. If you are smooth you’ll find of grip, brake nearly as hard as in the dry and grin like a loon.

Situation Four “Get Your Knee Down” First, it’s got nothing to do with lean angle and little to do with speed. Inf act, with two bikes at the same speed, the guy with his knee down will be leant over less and stressing his tires less. So is knee-down the badge of the responsible motorcyclist? Not really. It’s a fashion-dictated craze with no practical application for the road rider beyond being an incredible buzz.

Situation Five: “I Am Going to Die!”  Car pulls out, piano lands in road, car in front changes lane, leaving .0002 of a second to deal with it. Why didn’t you anticipate it this time? Were you going so fast everybody thought you were far away enough?  Fortunately, even this desperate situation has a possible way out since you go where you look. Whether it is a car pulling out or a brick in the road, you seem to steer straight at it as if pulled by a tractor beam. It is partially because you are staring at what looks like inevitable disaster, and partially because it is impossible to steer anyway with the brakes on hard. Drag your eyes off the danger (and your hand off the brake, until you are sure you really want to commit yourself to stopping) and actively look for the gap.

Easy, isn’t it? That’s it. If you’ve done your homework, right, you’ll be faster and smoother. Your mates should see the difference because they will be chasing you. More importantly, you’ll have a bigger safety margin. You can ride at the same speed with less risk, or keep the risk the same and go faster.

Whatever you do, remember you don’t know it all – no one does. And the EGO is always there, persuasive devil, pushing all of us to disregard our good self-evaluation to chase an illusion of competence. Discover humility. Treat every ride as a lesson, learn what you can and, when you find people faster or smoother than you do, pick their brains. The ultimate compliment is when people start to do it to you.