From: couyant@convex.com (George Couyant)
Subject: Re: How do I teach the wife to descend?
Organization: CONVEX Computer Corporation, Richardson, Tx., USA
Date: Tue, 08 Sep 1992 00:29:23 GMT
X-Disclaimer: This message was written by a user at CONVEX Computer
              Corp. The opinions expressed are those of the user and
              not necessarily those of CONVEX.

> From: baxter@epcot.spdc.ti.com (Mike Baxter)
> Subject: Re: How do I teach the wife to descend?
> >
> >	On the other hand, maybe I'm just fortunate to have not endoed my 
> >brains out by now.  What do some of you others think?  George?  Mike?  Come on, 
> >I'm a young guy...let's have some experience talking...:)

	Wanna swap?   ;-)
> >
> >Dave
> 
> Are you calling me old!  Hey, I'm only 18 days short of being 23 years young. 
> Anyway, I ride by feel.  If it feels right, then thats good.  If I feel the 
> ground, well then thats bad.  I have been asked how I do some things on my bike
> only to hear myself say "Idunno!"  I like to think it's natural talent. :-b

	Ok Mike, so what you're saying is that it just happens.
	Talent?..maybe...I've seen it in rare cases...more often though it's 
	due to attitude, attitude, attitude, practice and finally attitude.

	If you think you're going to crash, you will... It sounds corny
	and you've heard it a million times, but it's true. Amazing how we
	riders forget it....I know I have heaps of times..and crashed my
	brains out. If I have an important race (..and they all are at my
	age..) I spend a lot of time the day before visualising myself
	getting through bottomless bogs, up impossible hills, over monster
	logs etc... AND I have a heap of fun doing it. I often lose myself
	in the day dream and make all the hand actions and noises...By the
	time I go to sleep, I've had hours of practice (with no injuries
	either!). According to the experts, the human mind can't tell the
	difference between deep visualisation and the real thing ..As far
	as I'm concerned, it works.

	But, it's a catch 22 situation, in that in order to visualise
	proper technique, you need to know what proper technique is.
	I won't go into it here 'cause I want to talk more about other
	things.

	How well do y'all (that's what ya get for working for a Texan
	computer company..) read your environment when riding? And I don't
	mean the birds and flowers...The main input is sight..right? Your
	brain makes decisions on sight input. If you let your brain do its
	job efficiently, you're more than half way there. You need to
	continually flick your vision between the track just ahead of you
	and the track ahead. A long time ago, I used to run a rally car
	and had a real problem with things just appearing in front of me.
	By "things" I mean corners, cattle, roos, bog holes, ruts etc...I 
	learnt that I just wasn't looking where I was going. I trained myself 
	to dart my eyes around everywhere, not just ahead of me. You don't
	really need to look for long for your brain to register. In fact,
	you don't even think of what you're looking at. Leave that to
	your brain to figure out. Just give it plenty of input.

	Try darting your eyes around you when you're driving. You'll be
	able to spot all sorts of things and have plenty of warning. I've
	often had people scratching their heads and swearing I have a
	sixth sense when driving or riding....nup, I just look. Oh yea,
	don't move your head too much, just your eyes.

	Does anyone out there train and build up their eyes?  Look out
	Couyant's out in left field I hear you say...How quickly can you
	change your focus from infinity to 3 feet in front of you and back
	again? Takes a while doesn't it?  I used to have a long piece of
	string set up at home with little beads along it each spaced about 6
	feet apart. You look down the string with one eye and continually 
	focus from the first bead along to the last. All you need is a few
	minutes with each eye every day to make a big difference to how
	effectively you can see. It makes a *big* difference to how well
	you can ride.

	Back to attitude....We often go for a day ride where we'll drive
	for an hour or two to a riding place, unload the bikes and go for
	it. I've found that I can get into the groove of riding early by
	putting on my riding nylons before I leave home. Sounds dumb but I
	notice that I don't need the first few km's on the bike to get
	into the swing of riding.

	Above all, riding's fun! Approach it that way and it'll always
	satisfy.

	Cheers
	George Couyant

From: kens@hplsla.hp.com (Ken Snyder)
Date: Wed, 9 Sep 1992 21:21:27 GMT
Subject: Suggestions for what bike to buy wanted
Organization: HP Lake Stevens, WA