Conditions are the environment you ride in. They include the weather, the road state, your bike’s state and your state. Conditions change the risk, and when the risk changes, so should you. The weather is no secret, yet many drive in the rain at the same speed they do in fine weather, just by habit. They want business as usual in unusual conditions. We say heavy rain “causes accidents”, but the real cause is not recognizing conditions. Don’t ride as you normally do when the world isn’t as it normally is.
Conditions change the rules
On a motorcycle, you act and the world reacts by the laws of physics. As you ride, you learn these rules of the feedback loop: how far to lean on a corner, how long it takes to stop, how much to brake, etc. When conditions change, the rules of riding change, sometimes drastically. If it rains, it takes twice as long to stop without skidding, so double your follow distance to keep the same risk. When conditions change, it is a whole new feedback loop. Conditions change the rules of riding, not just what you do but the whole action framework. This is why it is so hard. It is like playing a game of checkers that suddenly changes into a game of chess with quite different rules. This section helps you to:
- Recognize when conditions change, and
- Adapt your behavior to compensate.