Motorway troubles

Antipasti

Antipasti

Antipasti

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I've only been riding since last July. I use my bike mainly to commute, but on the odd occasion I also take it up to Oxford to visit family. It's a ~400 mile round trip, mainly M4 and M5.

When I'm riding on the motorway, I always have a feeling of being drawn towards the hard shoulder. It takes all my effort to stay in the slow lane. If I try and lean right I find my self very unbalanced.

It's quite strange, as I'm fine on the short dual carrage way commute, and I have no problem on A roads.

I'm riding a 1997 VFR 750. Has anyone else experienced this, or am I just a wrongun??
 
Seems odd, but are there HGV grooves in lane 1 of that motorway that at causing you to tramline? Mind you, I'd have thought they would help rather than hinder.
 
I tend to do what i hate people doing in a car when on the motorway and use the middle and outside lanes as i find the tramline laid by lorries on the M4 M5 a pain, however I do the reverse journey quite a lot and although the m4/m5 are fun have you considered
A38 - exeter
a30- a303

then a choice:

a303 - frome then take the road north to trowbridge/chippenham
then a short stint up the M4 to swindon and a420 to oxford
or

a303 come off head toward devizes then on to swindon through swindon and on to a420 to oxford.

Just a thought a much nicer drive and not too much longer.
 
fish said:
I tend to do what i hate people doing in a car when on the motorway and use the middle and outside lanes as i find the tramline laid by lorries on the M4 M5 a pain, however I do the reverse journey quite a lot and although the m4/m5 are fun have you considered
A38 - exeter
a30- a303

then a choice:

a303 - frome then take the road north to trowbridge/chippenham
then a short stint up the M4 to swindon and a420 to oxford
or

a303 come off head toward devizes then on to swindon through swindon and on to a420 to oxford.

Just a thought a much nicer drive and not too much longer.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply.

That seems like a much more enjoyable ride. I will try this next time I visit, thanks. Although, part of me wants to force myself to use the motorways to try and sort this problem out!
 
Alternatively maybe it is target fixation. You are focussed on the hard shoulder so that is where you'll head!
 
Only used the motorways once for any real distance, and didn't notice this at all.

I would avoid motorways entirely though, they're so boring, they kinda make sense in a car but a bike that can overtake at will along a-roads has no place on the motorway imo :)
 
Luke said:
Alternatively maybe it is target fixation. You are focussed on the hard shoulder so that is where you'll head!
Click to expand...

Riders, specially new riders don't realise how important this is.

Where ever your eyes go, your bike will go. It's the eye line situation.

You go round a bend looking 3 foot infront of your bike at the floor to keep an eye out of holes, you will struggle to get a decent corner. Look up and around the corner, you will flow round like a drop of water running down a window pane. Unhindered, smooth and flowing.

So yea, maybe on the motorway, you are fixating on the fast lane, which is peeling you away from the slow lane.

Just don't think about it, fixate on where you are going, stay straight and see how it goes.

If it really doesn't help, I would take it to a dealership and see what they say.
 
As Luke and Agnes have mentioned, to me it sounds like it may be target fixation. As you're a new rider, you may not be used to traveling on the motorway and hence not having an open 'lane', i.e. the hard shoulder, to your left. You may be inadvertently be focusing on it, and in doing so, actually moving towards it. The more you realise you're doing it, the more likely you are to end up moving towards it.
 
N00b as you know here but... personally... for peace of mind... I'd drop the bike up to your local garage and explain/get them to do a once over.

I'd just want reassurance it's me going a bit loopy and not the bike! Last thing you'd want is to have an incident on a motorway!

Be safe mister and let us know how you get on :)
 
Luke said:
Alternatively maybe it is target fixation. You are focussed on the hard shoulder so that is where you'll head!
Click to expand...

Exactly, target fixation is bad mkay!!

You take a left hander a little quick and see a car coming towards you, you naturally want to look at it to help you miss it, worst thing you can do!
Look around the corner at your side of the road and thats where you'll go, taken me best part of 3 years and ~20k miles to be able to see cars coming towards me but not look at them!

As for the motorway thing, look well into the distance and most importantly relax, if you're tense you may find you're holding the bars at a slight angle. Dont be afraid to look around, change lanes etc
Do you have the same problem in other lanes?
 
Thanks for all the help, I think I've found the problem. As suggested I think I'm concentrating on the thick white line for the hard shoulder which is in turn making me ride to it. Then, when I can't seem to get off it I'm tensing up making it even more difficult.

I haven't tried the motorway again yet, but I have used dual carriage ways, keeping in mind what has been said above and I have found that I have a lot more control of where I'm going! Thanks for all the advice, I'll let you know how i get on the next time I have to use the M5.
 
Can't say i've ever had. You be looking ahead to where you want to go. By looking ahead and getting feed forward information, you eyes are automatically receiving feedback information for the area close to you.
 
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