Eye Control
All motorcyclists—and perhaps the craziest of car drivers—need to master balancing on two wheels. Simply put, the practice of keeping our eyes up provides the balance required to perform both high- and low-speed maneuvers.
Somewhat related: when flying an airplane in cloudy or foggy conditions, pilots rely on their instruments (the artificial horizon) to keep their wings level and the plane traveling in a straight course. Without that reference, a pilot would never fly “wings level.” Since both aircraft and motorcycles lean or bank to make turns, there’s a similar concept in motorcycling. Proper eye control means “looking up” at the horizon while using peripheral vision to handle the small maneuvers and course corrections.
What we need to avoid is what we call Unintended Target Fixation. This happens when a rider sees something on the road—like a pothole—they don’t want to hit, but ends up focusing on it anyway. Inevitably, the motorcycle steers toward that target. Our eyes are the first body part that controls the motorcycle. Your eyes and head lead the intended direction of travel, followed by your shoulders, arms, hands, and handlebars. Knowing where to focus is extremely important—especially when riding through curves. Let’s go into a few more details on how proper eye control makes us better riders, both on our course and out on the road.
Nowhere does the benefit of proper eye control become more obvious than during our slalom exercises. More often than not, students focus directly on the pylons we’ve set up to form our 9 x 2.5 m and 10 x 2.5 m slalom courses. As their focus shifts down to each pylon—one after another—balance and control are lost. Our best riders have mastered the skill of keeping their eyes focused up while using their peripheral vision to steer the handlebars through the turns.
The rider on the left in our example is demonstrating “Unintended Target Fixation,” which removes the point of reference required for balance. The result? A foot down to prevent the bike from taking a nap. The rider on the right, on the other hand, is using proper eye control—and making it look easy. Notice how keeping the horizon as the primary focus and using peripheral vision to navigate the slalom helps with balance and control!
Our counter-steering exercise has riders negotiating a higher-speed 3 x 12 m slalom. This is performed at a constant speed in either high second or low third gear. As you might guess, eye control here is vital. Your focus should always be at least three seconds ahead of your motorcycle. As you exit each curve, your focus should move smoothly along your intended path—followed by your shoulders, arms, and handlebars to steer the motorcycle. When riding through a set of pylons, your eyes should already be focused on the next set—a full 12 m ahead.
Motorcycle accident studies, such as The Hurt Report, have stated:
“In single-rider accidents, rider error factored in two-thirds of the incidents, with typical errors being slide-outs and falls due to over-braking or running wide—often because of excessive speed.”
We’re willing to bet that many of those “running wide” examples were caused by riders who entered a corner too fast and then fixated on an object they didn’t want to hit—resulting in steering off the road. Classic Unintended Target Fixation.
Eye control is discussed throughout our course, as it’s one of our Four Essential Skills. During our Braking in a Curve exercise (mid-morning on Sunday), eye control is the key to success. In this lesson, we simulate a situation where a rider, while in a curve, suddenly needs to make an emergency stop.
Within a curve, we can’t use the front brake the same way we would when traveling in a straight line. There’s a concept called trail braking, where a motorcyclist gradually releases the front brake while cornering. Trail braking is an advanced technique that we discuss but don’t practice in this course. Instead, we first square the motorcycle up before applying firm front brake pressure for an emergency stop.
This exercise is easily accomplished through proper eye control. As you enter the curve, your focus should be at least three seconds ahead on your intended path. When the signal to stop is given, the very first step is to take your eyes off that intended path and focus on a safe area straight ahead. This naturally rotates your shoulders, arms, and handlebars out of the turn and toward safety. Essentially, this is eye control using Intended Target Fixation—the opposite of the “unintended” kind. This movement straightens the motorcycle, allowing you to apply maximum front brake pressure safely.
As you progress in this wonderful sport of motorcycling, you’ll appreciate how important knowing **where to look—and where not to look—**can be on the road. These eye control skills, combined with the lane positioning awareness of a seasoned motorcyclist, will even make you a better car driver.
