Eyes Up - It's a Lot Like Life Innit?

Okay so anyone who has ridden knows that you are to look where you are going.  You will eventually hear someone say, "so if you look down, where do you think your bike is going to go?".  So what is behind this?  I have a hypothesis.

First of all many folks start driving cars before they learn to ride a motorcycle.  When driving a car people tend to look out a maximum of 20 ft in front of their bumper.  Beginning riders often carry this with them on their first few bike rides.  That is a big bad problem that must be corrected quickly.

You know that to take many of your turns if you go too slowly you will have a low-side and if you go too quickly you risk a high-side or wipe out.  Typically your bike has to go faster than you think you need to go to have the force to stick to the street through the turn. 

Here's my take:  if you are focused on the street below your brain will process the passing dash marks, lines, street etc. and determine that you are going faster than you actually are.  If you are looking out at the horizon your brain has a much wider field of vision, takes in more information and thus enables you to make a more correct judgment of the speed required.  This of course is only one of the benefits of keeping those eyes up.

To see this in action, get on a ferris wheel.  Look at the car below you and you will seem to be going faster than if you look at the car ahead or above you.  Take in more information, make a better decision.  Sounds a lot like life doesn't it.