Honda-SOHC
Other Stuff => Misc / Open => Topic started by: kaceyk2 on June 12, 2011, 08:00:13 PM
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Guys, I know this may seem a tad strange, but I am being totally serious, and request your experiences to add to my own in this matter..
It concerns accidents, accidents on motorcycles that involve something strange happening...
The "slowing down of time to an almost stop" and the ability to be able to see many possible "Futures"
More, the ability during this strange phenomenom to be able to "choose" one of those "Futures"
(Usually the one that will do you the least damage)
If this has ever happened to you, will you tell me about it please? and if it hasn't, or you dont know what I am talking about, please just ignore.
I am trying to collect as much evidence as possible, and am at odds with "scientific types" on another forum who claim it doesn't happen.
Thanks.
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Kacey, i have had a couple of accidents one quite bad , the bad one was really strange in the fact that there was what seemed to be about several minets of thoughts and life experiences that flashed through my head, but in reality it all happened in a fraction of a second as the accident was taking place, while all this was happening i threw the bike on its side doing about 60mph and then every thing went blank, and i woke up about an hour later badly injured
i think the brain works at a speed not yet recognised as posible , this is probably some kind of survival thing, and now think of it laying my bike and me down probably saved me
Pete
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Thanks Pete, thats exactly what I was talking about, I am glad you were Okay!
For some it seems to go further, like in that "nano-second" of "time stop" some folk have seen many possible outcomes (depending on how they curl up, whether to let go or not etc) and have "chosen" an outcome that gives them the least damage..
I believe that is what happened to you laying down the bike (before it went dark)
magic, thanks.
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Being ancient i have departed company from my bike too many times to remember and whilst i can not remember visualising different scenarios i can say that on some occasions i have clung on for grim death to see a car drive over where i would have been and also thrown the bike away with some force to watch the tank seat and bars get creamed under a car, in all cases had i taken the other action serious injury would have occured
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The brain is able to speed up massively in stressfull situations as a survival tactic, which is probably shared by all mammals and is as a direct result of the action of adrenaline on one's system. Different people react in different ways when their life is threatened, some freeze, some act and of course these various actions are appropriate to different situations. We only get to hear about the actions which were successful.
I am very surprised that some people are sceptical about this. My understanding is that this is a very well documented and universal phenomenon known well to the scientific and medical community.
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Oooooooooooh that big hit of adrenaline when something scares you is really powerful and you can feel it subside throughout your body afterwards, makes everything work faster.
It always facinates me when I hear somebody that's watching a computer do something and describes it as amazing when in comparison to their brain it's functions are fairly rudimentary but just carried out at speed. It's limited by it's programming and just remembers were it left everything that's relevant.
Relevant to this thread though, I raced motocross for a while and the skills I learnt from doing this seemed to give me significantly more options/understanding on road bikes when things got close to going sticky side up. I just feel that you build up a bigger library to scan through when it all gets a bit scary.
Saw a road accident years ago of two other vehicles (I was walking and not under threat) and could all but replay it in slow motion indicating that visual is captured somewhere.
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Ah Florence, I just read some "scientific" experiments... here is what they did. I believe it was a "flawed experiment" They got some people and strapped these things on their arms, what these things did was display numbers that flashed quicker and quicker, the Idea being in "normal time" they would flash way too quick for anyone to be able to read.
Then, they got these folk and dropped them from a great height, but dig this; onto a safety net
The folk that were dropped had to look at their wrists to see if they could read the fast numbers.
But of course the folk that were dropped were never really in fear of mortal danger, they knew they were ultimately safe. So, when they reported back that time did not "slow down for them" and they could not read the quickly flashing numbers, the scientists concluded that it doesn't happen !!
I understand the adrenalin thing, dont get me wrong, chemical changes in the body do have powerfull effects, but that (to me anyways) still doesn't explain how in that "nano second" of time stop, some folk see many possible options of what to do, can see them all played out, and choose one that will cause the least damage. It's this "seeing future events" thing that has me totally intrigued..
I just got sent a book, in it an air force pilot describes how taking off from an aircraft carrier one day, at the very last moment of "Throttling back" he knew something was totally wrong.....
As the aircraft left the carrier at much less than the required speed, he details the next eight seconds.
The next "eight seconds" involved such life saving complexity, that it took him 45 minits to relate it.
Imagine, what must have happened in eight short seconds to take 45 minits to explain it?
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Pilot is a classic case of intense training for coming eventualties and managing a potential crash situation.
Recently the guy (was it chesley? somebody) that put the airliner down on the Hudson river NYC after a double bird strike took out both engines and even during unpowered decent, could've been dark also, was doing things like closing under-fuselage vents to prevent the aircraft sinking after the water landing and saving all passengers/crew is a good illustration.
Read about another large passenger plane flying atlantic and had a "miss-fuel situation" (ran out to you and me) and had to glide into an island. Of course the nature of it is that you only get one go at this controlled crashing.
I know they have slightly longer than a nanosecond but each and every decision/action would have to be pretty well spot on to make it work.
Pip pip.
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That Atlantic one wasn't a "misfuel" it was a numpty putting the wrong fuel pump on a Rolls engine when replacing same causing a massive fuel leak and the pilots the followed the book instead of thinking about it.
The island they glided to was Ireland!!
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Had only one serious bike crash (knock-knock) and it was amazing how calm and objectively one reacts on realizing 'you're not gonna make it'...
And while reacting to the threat your found yourself in, you're fascinated about being so calm, checking out your odds, deciding what to do and re/acting appropriate to that, like you have all the time on earth to solve your thing there...
Had 'time freezing' experience during the very first car crash I got into many years ago (mind that we drive RHS).
Entering an intersection, car comes from left, stops right in front of me, no where to go...
Like in those high-speed camera footages, I still remember how the side wall of the other car slowly folded in, the bonnet of mine crinkled up till the hinges snapped, wiper arms whirling off... then very slowly the generator control gleamed up, felt like 5 to 10 seconds till also the oil check lit up just as slowly... next was the hard push of the seatbelt...
But its not always the same, a few yeares ago an opponent comming vehicle pulled into my lane on a country road, saw her comming, knew its gonna happen, next was darkness due the airbag deploying followed a harsh pull by the seatbelt... no further visual memory on this...
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Years ago I was plodding along on my D7 Bantam and a car pulled out in front of me (Triumph Herald). time did slow down for me, it was amazing, I was catapulted up and over the car, it seemed like an age, I was looking down at the car roof slowly going by under me. Things got back to normal speed when my head hit the ground on the other side and I slammed into the ground on my back though. A very odd experience.
Cheers
Den
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The miss-fuel I read about (some time ago and slightly vague) I think was from Canada and stated as booking fuel in Kilos / delivered in lbs so less than half full payload, thought it went into assencion? and described as real seat-of-pants stuff with aircraft not airworthy after event.
I guess any air emergency would put you on the spot a bit!
As Florence stated there are the cases that go wrong from the reactions made though, Concorde-Paris and Kegworth-UK so all the reactions may not be correct.
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Thanks guys these are excellent real life accounts, just the sort of thing I was looking for..
It is a very odd and strange phenomenom, and very interesting, I guess it shows a very much unexplored and not at all understood part of what the human mind can and does do.
thanks.
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Would be interesting to know how this works.
Is it only related the adrenalin rush?
All senses are fully sharpened, nerves and brain 'overclocked' at peak capacities...
One might experience slightly similar 'time stretching' while avoiding an 'almost accident'...
This 'function' does make sense for survival, I think it kept our ancestors alive due preventing being overwhelmed and seized by panic during attack of a predator or while hunting already 2 million years ago.
Probably partly the 'kick' some seek in bungee jumping and such...
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That's an interesting point you make there ST1100 about bungee jumping, I guess even though you are not making any decision to control it the effect is severe enough to convince your senses that you are seriosly at risk and so trigger that part of brain activity.
I raced for a while a 250 Yamaha motocross bike and had a reasonable control, tried out a friends 500 Honda a couple of times and the bike was way more violent than my experience and seemed to keep me in a almost constant state of impending peril. Exciting though.
I guess if you practice something enough it becomes more of a core response, possibly leading to a further search over and above that which you feel comfortable controlling to put you back into that thrill area.
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Oh, I am not convinced about bungee jumping being the same to trigger these events, it may do, I have never done a bungee jump yet, but If I did, I would seriously look at all the kit and have to convince myself that I was not going to die or I would not do it.
I think this may give the same result as the scientists dropping folk onto a safety net.
In the real life accident scenario, your brain has all those memories of folk who have died on motorcycles, all those mates, aquaintences, friends of friends, all those folk who rode out and didn't return..
In my personal case, having worked in an extremely busy Suzuki franchised motorcycle shop in the seventies, my brain has unfortunatly got case histories of hundreds of fatalities stored on its hard drive.
As I am sure most folks here has.
That given, I think when we suddenly find ourselfs in a seriously life threatening unexpected accident scenario where time stops and choices of action are played out in front of our minds eye, maybe in that "nano second" our brain is also "accessing" any possible knowledge (like our memories of other folks accident scenarios) that may help... but at a rate that we cannot access at "normal" times?
The awareness of minor, seemingly, trivial details, like how many scratches there were on the cars roof as one "flew" over it, and the colour of the primar underneath those scratches, is extremely interesting...
One would think that in another life threatening situation the same would happen, but the police are always saying for example, that folk who have been mugged ( and feared for their lives) or beaten up, stabbed and shot even, are notoriously bad at giving even an average description of the person who did it....
Sometimes even if the culprit is put right in front of them in a line up......
yet there were definately four scratches on the roof of that metro, and it had been resprayed because under the scratches it was blue and not green, I noticed this as I "flew" over at 70mph, in the middle of an accident that I thought was going to get me to meet granma sooner than expected . ....
Its really weird?
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I'd state that also we motorcyclists are 'junkies' ;)
This method of transportation definitely occupies your mind and activates those particular areas way higher, as the one of the 'averange cager' coasting along in his steel-cuffin...
Seems we're permanently 'loaded' with some dose of adrenalin, enabling us of maintaining a way larger overview of the scenery ahead, scanning and identifying possible sources of danger and set the evasive maneuvers within fractions of a second.
Remember when starting riding I was (mentally) fully exhausted after like one hour or so, as there is so much to watch out for and compute...
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I do think the brain is quite incredible and capable of many things that could be even too subtle for us to recognise as a skill.
Went by bike into central london last week and thinking about it accepting that you're operation of the bike is well embedded then all the other things in addition soon stack up like navigation (no sat-nav) prohibited lanes, no-turns, one way, re-routes, speed limits, monitoring cameras, parking zones (didn't want to pay) all other vehicles, pedestrians, surfaces/grip etc, started to rain and has high-grip that stops half way across roundabouts, It just makes me laugh when I'm told that women can "multi-task".
In all seriousness, many people are doing things that are a huge workload for the mind but do appear normal as part of a daily function, I guess that when you get to that Oooh bugger we're in trouble here moment then you do cease all the other stuff you were doing so plenty of processing capacity is available. Then It depends what you have in your own little library. Piece-a-cake really for us bikers.
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It just makes me laugh when I'm told that women can "multi-task".
No intention in sounding 'sexist' there, but I think that fems do 'tick' different by evolution.
While hunting males had to maintain focus over a longer period, and not getting distracted by things like '...oh, now that's a nice daisy here...' or to grow second thoughts when starting the attack on the cave-bear going like '...you really think this is good idea...' '...OK, lets talk it over...'.
I think that also things like teamwork, sense of orientation as well as the ultimate realization that the individual is just a small, totally unimportant 'fart' out there and everything else in this world is so much stronger, more dangerous, etc...
Observing fems in traffic or such, I fail to see 'parallel processing', more a shuffle change of random issues, each fully occupying...
Its like second No1 'traffic', second No2 'did I leave the stove on', second No3 'what will I buy at the mall', ... second No20 or 30 'traffic' again...
Keep in mind that this is just a theory, grown out of daily observations, and no rating of 'good' or 'bad' given... just 'different'...
I've also the impression that a motorcyclist is a way better car-driver as well, way more foresighted, fluid, dynamic, higher general awareness, spatial perception, etc... also a more 'relyable partner' in traffic...
So riding does train general skills and reflexes.
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I think one of the main differences between men and women manifests itself in the interest value of shopping.
If I want a pen, I will go into the very first shop that may sell pens and ask outright "got any cheap pens?" if the shopkeeper says "yes" and he isn't lying, and they are cheap, and he proves instantly that the pen works, I buy it and go.
However. Mrs Kaceyk2 does something different,
She goes into the stationary shop, checks out every pen, makes a mental note, then leaves without any pen. She then goes into every shop she knows that sell pens and does the same.
Then she peruses all the shops that MAY sell an occasional pen.
Then all the shops that are not likely to sell pens but that may surprise her with an unexpected writing implement.
Then, and only then does she make a shortlist of the most adequate and cost effective pen.
having got her shortlist, she re-visits those lucky establishments, to re-check her findings.
while this is happening, I have lost the will to live again, and have gone to the only cafe in town where you can still have a brew and a ciggerette, but have to sit outside on the naughty boys bench.
When mrs kaceyk2 has reviewed her original shortlist, made a couple of revisions to the list, and thoroughly investigated every pen on the shortlist, she may then possibly buy one OR decide she doesn't like any of them enough to buy one today, and we will "see what they have in town on Saturday"
IF, and I say IF, it is my lucky day mrs.kaceyk2 will join me at the cafe with a small paper bag in her hand that contains a pen.
It does not end there, as all the way home she will fiddle with the pen and inspect it in an almost disaproving way, and then ask me "do you think it's OK?"
I have never answered these sort of questions with anything other than "yes, of course, i think it's a beautifull pen, such a lovely colour that suits your clothing and matches your eyes, and looks ever so comfortable to use"
"No sweet, of course I am not 'just saying that'"
Sometimes,
When mrs kaceyk2 arrives at the cafe with (or without) an item like a pen, and I ask her if she wants a coffee, she says, "yes a quick one because I have seen some shoes that......"
Gentlemen, I give you Mrs. Kaceyk2's shoe shopping exploits: No, really , you can f, in well guess just how bad that gets for your selfs. Actually, I bet there is no Guessing involved.
But apart from that:
Four hours in TK max + three in british homestores/marks and sparks + Two more wandering round clares accessories, Must be worth at least four "goes" on the lady bumps, but to expect us to show any interest in perusing clothes or shoe shopping , I reckon has to count as "extras"
In the 1970's , If I remember right, it was easier, If the girlies did do shopping, then it must have been done in secret, If they wanted a lift to or from the pub, they brought a helmet, if they wanted a drink in the pub, they bought you one too.
They fed the jukebox whilst you played pool, and asked what music you wanted on.
Something has obviously "gone wrong"
I don't solely blame programs on the telly like Sex in the city, but have noted how this program over-emphasises the importance of shoes.
And that can have disasterous consequences for those poor souls expected to stand around and watch the female of the species trying to aquire what she believes may be essential to her continued happiness.
If there was an advert on the telly that said "man shoes" "come and peruse all of our man shoes...at the biggest man shoe shop in your area" we would avoid it like the plauge, not because we feared it may have "village people" conotations, but because if the boots we have are Okay and not leaking or the sole doesn't need gluing on again, then why the hell do we want any other footwear?
Usually, if I polish my boots they are Ok again. Once a lace snapped, and I thought I would have to go all round town, looking for new footwear, but fortunately I made do with a length of green garden twine for a few weeks. I was quite happy with the green garden twine, it was strong and ultimately replaceable, AND I had a big ball of it...
But O no, mrs.kaceyk2 decided one day (whilst we were out food shopping in Asda which is bad enough)
that she would have "a quick look around town while we are here for some boot laces because you need some"
These are the sort of tricks girlies play, going into town for one thing, and then surprising you with a "while we are here I will just"
Needless to say, I went to the cafe with the naughty boys bench outside and sat there for a couple of hours waiting for a pair of bootlaces to arrive that I didn't want that much in the first place, for me it was a simple equation,
How happy am I with the green twine, divided by hours I dont want to spend looking round shops where i might be required to give opinions ad hoc on girlie items, Times the amount of bootlaces I may be required to measure to see if they were long enough, multiplied by the shops I am not allowed to smoke in, X the lack of caffeine lost during the hunt for unwanted bootlaces.
I think you may have got me started................
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Ooops, apologies for that Kacey obviously a deep seam of shopping observations to be mined there.
Perhaps take a computering device to the cafe and give us more of your thoughts while waiting for Mrs K.
I'm not sexist but it sets me off when I hear what's become a standard phrase of "men can't multi task" I do think this is born of male treatmant of women but it's the fundamental inaccuracy of it to an engineering type mindset that cheeses me off and I just want to respond with "ever tried to ride a bike in a busy city".
I do like the differences vis-a-vis male/female as I wouldn't want to go out with a bloke!
That's a funny word in isolation as well "bloke".
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However. Mrs Kaceyk2 does something different...
LOL! Yeah, also then the ways one experiences time can change dramatically... :D
But that's what I meant in men's target focus origins in prehistoric hunting...
...it sets me off when I hear what's become a standard phrase of "men can't multi task"...
Ah, that's only 'propaganda', just the same as the always ongoing '...men only have the one thing on their minds...' whilst in reality its exactly the opposite... ;)
Being passenger in one vehicle piloted by a 'multi tasking' fem, can grow to a quite worrying experience... the silent 'there is a stop sign...' can also stretch into endless seconds...
And lending a vehicle to such, likely results in an expensive and long visit at the car-body shop...
And what absolutely blows my fuse, is the fact that fems just always have to SLAM car doors shut with all physical force avail... >:(
Like the thing is their natural enemy, and therefore must be destroyed...
Those seconds, while the sound of abused material is echoing through the garage, can as well stretch painfully long... :(
Try the very same at home, walk into the kitchen, open the fridge door 90 degrees and WHAM!... so eggs and other stuff detonate on the refrigerator plate at the backside...
But in this lack of 'parallel processing' might be the reason of the low number of females riding bikes.
And those who do, mostly seem to have some kind of an 'issue'...
Car driving females again always claim that their afraid of motorcycles...
Inquiring with 'why, for crying out loud?' you'll mostly hear that they 'always suddenly dart by out of nowhere'...
If you then draw the chain of evidence that they wouldn't be an 'out of nowhere' nor 'a suddenly' if 'she' would care to check her rearviews at least occasionally, cause a motorcycle is well noticeable there at you're six already at a distance of way over 2 clicks behind you...
So either just another sample of 'lack of multitasking'... or motorcycles do exist in a different continuum...
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The pen buying scenario is my mother-in-law's mode of shopping - having finally decided which pen to buy she would then convince herself that it was cheaper the previous day, but buy it eventually. The following day she will announce that she bought the 'wrong' pen, on the basis that either it is of inferior quality, or a different one would have written better, or 'it won't last' or some such failing. Predictable, irritating, consistent, and given that she is 82 and has always been thus, unlikely to change.
But on to more dramatic things - I am of the opinion that moments of acute danger do focus the mind, and it is replayed later in slow motion(provided you survived I suppose). I had one such 'moment' on a Norton Commando many years ago when I overtook a Hillman Imp (said it was a long time ago) on a straight but narrow lane. I had just passed the car when the back wheel hit a patch of ice and the thing went into a sort of tank-slapper. Basically I held the handlebars straight, and the rest of the bike went from side to side. I still remember considering all the options, and jumping off started as favourite, but was pushed into second place by the thought of being run over by a Hillman Imp. Oddly, I also remembered I was only third party insurance as well, which is not normally something you consider in a very alarming situation. I also remembered every piece of writing about bikes and skids, and eventually (microseconds that felt like hours) later, I shut the throttle and the whole thing snapped straight again and I carried on. Probably more luck than judgement, but the actual amount of information processed in the incident was astonishing.
You can also build up to speed, those of you good enough to have read my book will know I was a traffic cop for some years (I retire a week on Monday so will be able to speed with an even easier conscience from then on) - during a decent chase you would perform a staggering number of calculations in the heat of the moment. A friend of mine was driving when we chased an XR3 up a narrow alleyway with concrete slat fencing on either side. It got away with mucho damage and sadly we couldn't follow it through the gap it had got through. (They were caught a few minutes later but that is by the by) Anyway, we had a video camera in the car which showed speed and stuff, and my driver had gone up the alleyway at around 35 mph for maybe a hundred yards, no problem. We reversed out and didn't go over 2 mph in reverse as there was no more than 2 inches either side of the wing mirrors on our car. I don't think you could recreate that accuracy at speed in a test situation as the adrenaline would not be there.
Same driver, different passenger, lost it in a bend on another occasion and found themselves heading irrevocably out of control towards a jeweller's window which had concrete posts in front of it to stop ram raids. Passenger assessed all the factors, and calm as you like turned to the driver and said 'Brace yourself Shiela' which at least meant they were both smiling as the concrete bollards tore the gearbox out of the car and destroyed the front of the jeweller's shop.
The airliner that ran out of fuel due to lbs/kg mixup is this one by the way - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gimli_Glider (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gimli_Glider)
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That's a a good find RupertB, I new I'd read it originated from Canada but it was some time ago.
Bryanj, there is a fuel leak one in the wiki list going into the Azores.
Kaceyk2, the pen shopping would probably happen for Mrs K in a nano-second, but with your super processing powers it appears to happen in slow motion. You probably smoked a nano-fag and drank a nano-coffee in fractions of a nano-second really, just slooooowed it down in your mind!
Interestingly on the aircraft front I read something about (I think) that Qauntas A380 that blew an engine, in that even the normal crew were overloaded with failure info/alarms and had to use other experts onboard to help interpret the data coming at them. Isn't that combined nano-thinking?
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Couple more things - some almost on topic too! - Aircraft wise the Gimli one is one of the most amazing, plus the recent one on the Hudson following the birdstrike, as that one hapened with so little time to spare or consider alternatives, and also this one: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Airlines_Flight_232 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Airlines_Flight_232)
Slightly on-post now - at the risk of sounding a total anorak, which I am not usually, I did a number of years on Air Support in my County during which time the Matthew Harding helicopter crash took place http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/35069.stm (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/35069.stm)
The pilot was far better than the reports indicated apparently (I knew a number of ex-services people who had worked with him) but the report reckoned he reached a point of mental overload where too much information was coming in for him to process and he had a sort of logjam. He was also in sole charge, and under pressure to complete the job on time, so had commercial pressures on top of operational difficulties. You will find a similar effect happening if for example you go from good driving conditions to bad (into a sudden hailstorm or cloudburst for example) and you start to find that the car radio and the conversation you were having become almost disorentating and highly distracting. First sign of overload is when the pilot/driver goes quiet. Good indicator of danger and time to shut up and let them concentrate. And turn the radio off. Without those extraneous distractions which do not affect your physical ability to9 control the machine, I reckon the brain has the ability somehow to accelerate your awareness and reaction and judgement speed.
Look at it this way - the mental processes which motorcyclists tend to have to manage are limited - unless you have a Gold Wing you are unlikely to be listening to a CD or cooking a meal while travelling - so your mental juggling continually deals with a finite number of issues more or less. But in a crisis or emergency of some sort you have to deal with them very very fast - the hyperspeed effect, and an extension of normal effects into extreme territory - when for example a minor skip of the back wheel becomes a slide, or heavy braking becomes a locked wheel. You know what has happened but maybe not why, and it is outside your physical experience. On four wheels you have more distractions which are not part of the driving process - music, hands-free phone, kids fighting in the back, and that irritating constant whining noise I seem to get from the pasenger seat. Oddly the wife never hears it, but she is always in the car when it occurs. Never worked that one out......
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It is kind of rambling around the original post but interesting anyway, I ran a rally prepped car for a while and to share some non first line stuff during competition we duplicated both horn and washer buttons on the navigators foot rest as it's harder to hold push-in button under exciting conditions.
Always amusing when you took a passenger and anywhere near frightened them they'd be mentally treading on their brake pedal accompanied by either horn or windscreen washing.
Maybe more relevant, spent years using non-antilock brakes in cars and conditioned myself to release them when they locked but when I drove a friends car fitted with anti system we played around with it a bit and I couldn't bring myself to just hit the brakes and hope. Even with best attempts from high speed I still tried to control it below locking point indicating to me that a learned response can still work under pressure.
Of course old bikes have anti-lock anyway, you just can't squeeze it with enough force to lock the tyre!
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Ah, getting back on topic, I just spotted this, and funnily enough, yesterday the postman brought me and mrs kacey this very book, someone had sent it to us.. how odd.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/6926500.stm (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/6926500.stm)
Someone else mentioned they had seen a tv show where topfuel dragsters have claimed they can recite the alphabet twice in the five seconds it takes to do the run...... off to investigate finding the source for that one. Hmmm..
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the mental processes which motorcyclists tend to have to manage are limited
Totally agree, when adding 'new toys' like intercom, stereo, PMR radio, GPS (that one in particular) one has to take it easy for a while, as those are an irritation and distraction at the beginning; ignoring that fact is simple overestimation of your own capacities thus calling for disaster to happen, especially the GPS can grow to a stress-factor... one have to learn on how to sort the 'priorities' while on the move with all that stuff...
Practiced with the Garmin in the car on known routes for a while, just to get properly used to that thing before nailing it onto my touring bike...
GF declared me being out of my mind when using it for doing groceries and such... after the first real bike use (2 weeks France) she committed how good it was practice with that thing at first...
Riding occupies way more of your senses then things like driving a car.
If your head holds i.e. 5ltr, you'll need about 4 while riding, but only like 3 for driving a car...
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The one when driving that really gets me is how the people blithely joining the motorway expect a 53 foot long 8 foot 6 inch wide 44,000Kg behemoth to leap into the middle lane instantaneously just so they can undertake it it and piss off into the distance!!!! And i have developed this new style of driving that comes with old age:--
If the other vehicle is not indicating its intentions, its not comming my way so i can do anything i want!!
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...how the people blithely joining the motorway expect a 53 foot long 8 foot 6 inch wide 44,000Kg behemoth to leap into the middle lane...
Oh my... has this ignorant idiocy spread out to the UK already...? >:(
When riding on a two way m/way and this happens while you're aside the trailer of the semi, you're going to experience another time-stretching...
Nailing the horn-button, dowshift and whack it... even with 100hp avail those semis suddenly stretch 'infinite' while you observe the gap ahead between tractor and safety rail growing narrower...
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Kaceyk2, that's an interesting link on the bbc site.
It shows that many people have different perceptions of their own experiences and perhaps the good/bad balance causes a differing acceptance of time appearing to be slowed/speeded.
I guess if you subconciously judge/accept time as being related to what you've experienced then any event that gives you a very intensive visual/physical report would natuarlly be equated to a longer time period by your normal state thinking. If this were true, then if we attach more importance to the events we could accept the time as being of secondary consideration and so feel that we have distorted it in our mental record.
I think those words record what my mind was saying.
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St100 I believe, that as far as arctics and motorcycles are concerned it actually started in the UK!
K2-K6 , glad you found the link interesting, I got the book sent to me by a friend the same day as i found the link to it??? Time actually stopped.
As it we experience time speeding up as we all get older, and unlike in our youth, when there was endless time to do things, now for a lot of us there is less.
For much of my life I have actually worried about this, and formulated a bit of a plan, the plan is called :
"The naughty boys club" and I always knew I would start one when I was older, for a variety of reasons.
For instance, If you won the lottery or knew you had a terminal illness, how many of you have thought, "well I would just have a big blow out, after all why not?"
The other thing I noticed as an observation on life is that Pensioners never seem to get into trouble much in Court if they have been misbehaving, in other words you can get away with a lot more if you are older.
So, my plan was before it got too late, to start a "naughty boys club" of similar minded folk who would also not "go quietly into the night" and "stretch -out" remaining time on earth, not in front of the telly with cheeses and biscuits, but with adventures . According to this book, that will actually give us more time.
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I experienced the time-slowing-down phenomenon when faced with the option of hitting a stone bridge parapet by wrenching the wheel left, or hitting the on-coming 40ft lorry with 2 tractors on the back, I can still remember thing "Oh sh*t, at least the bridge is stationary" I hit it so hard the roof of my Alph 75 creased, but if I'd hit the truck I'm damn sure I wouldn't be sitting here typing this!
On the other side i.e. "naughty boys club" that must surely go some way to explaining why Last of the Summer Wine was so popular and managed to run for 25 years. I think a lot of us approaching 'older age' identify with Foggy, Compo and Clegg as being of the "life isn't a rehearsal, you only get one shot at it" mentality, I know I certainly do which is why I'm still riding :-)
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I agree in principle of the naughty boys club in that you should do something more for your own interest as someone else is unlikely to provide that for you.
I have over more recent times to better exclude the things I definitely don't want to do that would waste my time and reduce the space to follow things that are more enjoyable.
There are some simple things in that I try if I have to pay for parking to use places that are open ended i.e. pay for what you've used as opposed to fixed time so that if you either want to run over or get it wrong then you have to pay for the next hour and not a fine and time/thoughts being really pi**ed about it.
Do things like only buy bread from my local bakers, try to use support local businesses when they can offer me what I want. I like these things and the family get to eat really nice bread.ti
Negotiated with my last job about hours. Was usually out of hours by thursday and didn't have overtime, they consented to do one week in 4 days and be on call each friday. that felt like a good balance to me over the week and allowed me to get all sorts of things done on a friday leaving weekends more clear for interesting stuff.
I think you have to pinpoint firstly the things you really don't want to do and chase down ways to alter that, then go after the stuff you value more in the time you've cleared.
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I thought I better point out, I am not at the last of the summer wine age just yet!! just looking ahead in advance.
making a list of stuff you dont want to waste your time doing is an excellent Idea, so here is my list, it is provisional though and I reserve the right to alter it at any given moment.
Kaceyk2's list of stuff he doesn't want to waste time on doing:
(1.) Shopping.
(2.) Anything to do with shoes.
(3.) Waiting for stuff. ( or competeing with fat welsh girls in jumble sales)
(4.) Mowing the lawn, it just grows again anyway.
(5.) Cleaning stuff that isn't shiny. ( that includes, me, the house I live in and mrs kaceyk2)
(6.) Telling the people in Mac donalds that I don't want a "meal deal" just a big mac and large fries. (this wastes loads of time)
(7.) Keeping an eye on the graveyard. ( If it's going to happen it will, and besides, I have labelled all the items in our house that can be used as weapons)
(8.) Commenting on television programs, I can save four hours and sixteeen mins per day by not doing this.
(9.) Sleeping, this wastes 3/4 of my day for no gain.
(10.) Imagining that one day I may win the lottery, I won't and this wastes a further 1 hour 11 mins per day.
(11.) waiting patiently for mrs. Kaceyk2 to suggest girl on girl action, again three hours per day I could spend more productively.
(12.) Looking through the television guide for something worth watching, 1 hour and fourteen mins per day wasted in vain.
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You are so out there at times....................................! ::)
I'm also a few years off LSW age, but things like the bath tub episode shows we really do regress once past a certain age, and that's probably no bad thing, the fact that one day we will no longer get embarrased about being off the wall kind of appeals!
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Oh.. back on topic a moment, wonder what went through this guys mind in the 6 secs it took to do quarter of a mile. http://www.i-am-bored.com/bored_link.cfm?link_id=61028 (http://www.i-am-bored.com/bored_link.cfm?link_id=61028)