Motorcycling

Another lady biker here and I can fully relate to what you are saying about the noise of an engine.  I love the sound of my bikes and I can usually hear what a problem is from an engine before I strip it down to investigate.  Engines have very distinct sounds that give bikes their personality.  No two engines are the same and I am particularly fond of air-cooled over water-cooled. 

Nice!  I have a a XT350 that is awaiting a full strip down and rebuild and then I am hoping to ride some green lanes on her.  Other than that I have a XJ600 which means the world to me.

I'm not a biker.  But when I see this thread I smile because the Jasper Carrot,  song 'funky motor', keeps going thru my head.

Would love to be able to ride.  But too much information quickly and requires quick reactions.  Both not my strong suit.  Love motorbikes though.  Ever since Streethawk.

moggsy said:

I hear they are waaaaay more scary to ride than a normal motorbike!

Trust me, there are a completely different experience! lol... I tried a couple last year and, the whole head-shake thing at around 20mph really made me uneasy - despite being a skilled and experienced rider!

As soon as I saw the signwriting on the sidecar I was thinking about escaping my current jobs and doing something similar using my Morris Minor. 

I rode a 3 wheel trike with my two children on the back. Cornering was strange to begin with. And one of the back wheels fell off once, which was a bit of a shock! 

My balance isn't great so I always feel wobbly on 2 wheels! 

That sounds quite marvellously eccentric!

My ex-husband's brother had a bike and sidecar. The story goes that the first time he rode it, he got to the first bend and went straight on, through a large hedge and into a field. Seems it didn't put him off.

I think I'd be too scared to try to ride one!

Yes, I think that may be true! My dad had a Norton motorcycle with a sidecar he built on the kitchen table. Until I was about 4 years old me and my siblings were taken out in the sidecar regularly. Eventually it got replaced by a Morris Traveller. 

The one above is used by a bloke who is a gramophone DJ playing 78s at parties and weddings! 

I hear they are waaaaay more scary to ride than a normal motorbike!

Very wise - I'm not brave enough to ride a proper bike but I wouldn't mind one of these: 

Didn't hurt tbh. I wear this hard-shell armor underneath a kevlar jacket.

Did that hurt? Good to see you were wearing proper clothing! 

Yup' It adds adrenaline to the adventure. I'm one of those riders who doesn't froth at the mouth over paintwork scratches, lol.

I shouldn't laugh .... but isn't that supposed to be half of the fun of offroading?

Wet mud faceplant, lol.

Martian Tom said:

I still have a hankering for a bike.  But I don't think I'd have the nerve for it now

I have no idea where you live but this is exactly where either approaching your local friendly riding school or IAM/RoSPA group wi=ould be very beneficial.

If you would like any further info, please feel free to add me as a friend and send me a PM

Moggsy & NAS38192...

You are certainly not alone when it comes to being able to handle the bike well but not the daily navigation of the living room furniture (I'm currently nursing a fractured hand after trying to use a step that wasn't there on the stairs at home).

Despite always have a small cut, rug burn, bruise etc from daily life, I can always put my bike within an inch of where I want it and keep it there.

It just so happens that (as you could probably guess from an earlier post) I am an Observer for IAM Roadsmart.  Without trying to sound immodest, I'm also very good at it (I won the local Observer of the Year award within 6 months of qualifying).  I have discussed my AS with my Chief Observer.  Fortunately, he is more knowledgeable than a lot of NTs on the grounds that he has 3 family members who are AS.  His point of view is that, at least in my case, the AS tendency to focus on small details etc and the way that I apply these tendencies to my Observing duties, they are only an asset.

It always amazes my Associates that I am able to pick up on the smallest details.  For example, I was out on a ride recently with an Associate (a lovely retired lady who has an A2 licence).  She has consistently mishandled corners and this is something that we have been working on,  On this last ride, we were travelling down a national speed limit road that had some lovely flowing bends.  She got trough these doing 50mph without a single brake light in evidence.  When we stopped for a cup of tea, as is the normal practice, I asked her how it went and she said that it was all fine except the corner where she went in a little faster than she was comfortable with.  I replied with, "you mean the second left that tightened up on you?"  She was flabbergasted that I could tell despite being 3 seconds down the road behind her.  I pointed out that she had tensed her shoulders and upper arms.  She accepted this but still couldn't understand how I could see that through her leathers, high-viz and backpack.

The point of this story is to highlight how we can use our traits to be better than the NTs.

To get back on topic, A lot of the increased balance/accuracy on the bike compared to off it will be down to such hypervigilance - we simply take in a lot more than your average rider and are able to process that and incorporate it into our riding plans etc.

Hyperfocus is probably true in my case as well. It's one of the many things I love about riding the bike - everything else gets pushed to the periphery and I can focus completely on me and the bike, as one :-)

There is an old Arab proverb "the wind of heaven is that which blows between a horse's ears". For me the wind of heaven is that which blows between  a set of chrome risers!

I think that's a fair question and I've wondered the same thing. Despite the fact my day-day concentration is dreadful, I go into hyperfocus when I'm riding. My mind empties and I can see everything happening in slow motion. Then again this could be the result of ADHD (which I haven't been diagnosed with). I'm quite good at handling the bike, but I am not overly clumsy in daily life. A lot of it has to do with confidence, I find.

So another intriguing question: does anyone think that being autistic makes them a better rider? I am hypersensitive for most senses, and find this is a problem for most parts of life, with the notable exception being when I am on the bike. I can smell spilled diesel a mile off (probably literally!), and suspect I am able to take in and process a lot more visually than many people, simply because I have had to get used to it in everyday life.

When my better half was studying for his m/c theory test, I thought it'd be a laugh to have a go at the practice test for the one where you're supposed to spot things on a film as they occur (hazard perception test? can't remember what they call it now). Bearing in mind I had been riding for 25+ years at that point. Well, I was mortified to see that I failed it by a mile. Because it was practice test software, you could view it again to see what you missed. The reason for my failure then became clear. The software has a "window" coded into it, in which the student is supposed to click the hazard. When I reviewed mine, the problem was that I had clicked the hazard alright, but before their window even started, so it wasn't counted. This is apparently to stop people just fast-clicking all over the place. I tried again, but the second time around, I waited a couple of seconds after I spotted it before clicking each hazard ...... and passed with flying colours. I don't think this is down to reaction times btw as I don't think mine are better than the next person's. I strongly suspect (based on comparing notes with friends) that part of the visual sensory issues are because I see in High Definition. This makes it far easier to spot things.

another interesting but unanswered question is how can someone who is as clumsy as me - usually wearing multiple bruises from trying to dodge through doors and around furniture, and missing the gap/not judging the edges of my own body - confidently put a bike through a gap barely bigger than the machine, and how can I balance it so well, when my own balance is pretty rubbish? The spatial perception problem really is relating to my own body only. I also drive a big, left hand drive car, and never have any trouble judging positioning in that either. I find this rather interesting!