David L. Hough > Quotes

“Motorcyclists, like pilots, put the priority on avoiding accidents rather than attempting to survive accidents. The energy is focused on doing everything right, rather than on surviving the crash. That’s a significant difference that motor vehicle safety experts in the U.S. seem unable to grasp. The NHTSA approach has always focused on crash padding, rather than on driver skill.”
― David L. Hough, More Proficient Motorcycling: Mastering the Ride

“If Doc can’t let it go, you can always remind him that statistically a human is more likely to die from a hospital error than from a motorcycle ride.”
― David L. Hough, More Proficient Motorcycling: Mastering the Ride

“A driver who has no interest in motorcycles, and isn’t expecting to see one, may not comprehend a motorcycle regardless of how conspicuous it is.”
― David L. Hough, Mastering the Ride: More Proficient Motorcycling

“It’s critical for motorcyclists to understand how motorists prioritize what they see around them and how much they have to prioritize. Drivers handle this huge task by prioritizing into these categories: 1. potential threats 2. strong emotions 3. personal relevance 4. everything else (e.g., shopping list, text message, GPS, radio)”
― David L. Hough, Mastering the Ride: More Proficient Motorcycling

“Scary as it seems, the best tactic for swerving is to stay off the brakes and hold the throttle steady, conserving all of the available traction for steering.”
― David L. Hough, More Proficient Motorcycling: Mastering the Ride

“it is more difficult to judge the distance of lights in the red spectrum.”
― David L. Hough, Proficient Motorcycling: The Ultimate Guide to Riding Well

“Clever riders take a break during the first half hour of a fresh rain to allow time for the surface to regain traction.”
― David L. Hough, Proficient Motorcycling, 3rd Edition: The Ultimate Guide to Riding Well

“At a street speed of 40 mph”
― David L. Hough, Proficient Motorcycling, 3rd Edition: The Ultimate Guide to Riding Well

“The delayed apex line maximizes traction, helps guide you away from potential collisions, and gives you a better view around blind turns. If you like those priorities, consider adopting the trendy delayed apex line yourself.”
― David L. Hough, More Proficient Motorcycling: Mastering the Ride

“Sage advice about curves is go in slow, go out fast.”
― David L. Hough, Proficient Motorcycling: The Ultimate Guide to Riding Well

“it’s not only a matter of controlling the motorcycle you’re riding but also controlling the situation around you.”
― David L. Hough, More Proficient Motorcycling: Mastering the Ride

“The rider of a lightweight dirt bike may use a planted boot to help control the machine in a slide”
― David L. Hough, Proficient Motorcycling, 3rd Edition: The Ultimate Guide to Riding Well

“Rider training instructors often suggest that a rider should be looking twelve seconds ahead, or the distance he or she will be covering over the next twelve seconds. That doesn’t mean you should be focused only on what’s happening at a point twelve seconds ahead. Instead, you should focus on everything that’s going on within that twelve-second zone.”
― David L. Hough, More Proficient Motorcycling: Mastering the Ride

“The delayed-apex line maximizes traction, helps guide you away from potential collisions, and gives you a better view around blind turns. If you like those advantages, adopt the delayed-apex line yourself.”
― David L. Hough, Mastering the Ride: More Proficient Motorcycling

“It’s pretty obvious that when bikes and cars try to occupy the same space at the same time, the motorcyclist gets hurt a lot more seriously and more often than the driver. And when bikes and trucks collide, motorcyclists are often injured fatally.”
― David L. Hough, More Proficient Motorcycling: Mastering the Ride

“1. Anticipate what’s going to happen.”
― David L. Hough, More Proficient Motorcycling: Mastering the Ride

“point your nose—rather than just swivel your eyes—in the direction that you want to go. For whatever physical or psychological reasons, the act of turning your head helps aim the motorcycle in that direction.”
― David L. Hough, Mastering the Ride: More Proficient Motorcycling

“What if the road slants off to one side? The veteran tactic is to counterbalance the motorcycle to keep the tires perpendicular to the road surface.”
― David L. Hough, Proficient Motorcycling, 3rd Edition: The Ultimate Guide to Riding Well

“Contrary to those pseudo-serious Loud Pipes Save Lives stickers, noise basically annoys people and demonstrates that you are impolite and self-centered.”
― David L. Hough, Proficient Motorcycling: The Ultimate Guide to Riding Well

“The system is a drill, or set of steps, that is accomplished in sequence when approaching any hazard: 1. Select course 2. Look behind, signal, adjust speed 3. Change gear 4. Look behind again and signal again 5. Use your horn 6. Look behind again 7. Maneuver and accelerate”
― David L. Hough, More Proficient Motorcycling: Mastering the Ride

“less experienced riders look closer to the bike with a more fixed gaze, while skillful riders look farther ahead and frequently change their focus.”
― David L. Hough, Mastering the Ride: More Proficient Motorcycling

“Riding Practice Here’s an exercise you can practice to gain some experience crossing edge traps. Be sure to wear your crash padding just in case you haven’t quite absorbed the correct techniques yet. Ride a figure-8 path over different edges, concentrating on positioning your motorcycle to cross as close to a right angle as possible and using a bit of throttle to drive the front tire up and over. Yeah, it gets harder as you move down the list. • A wood 2 x 4 or 2 x 6 that’s at least 6 feet long • A low curb • A stiff garden hose • A large-diameter rope that’s at least 10 feet long”
― David L. Hough, Proficient Motorcycling: The Ultimate Guide to Riding Well

“The obvious tactic for avoiding alcohol-precipitated crashes is to avoid riding after drinking. And that’s a decision you have to make before your judgment is impaired.”
― David L. Hough, More Proficient Motorcycling: Mastering the Ride

“Early action is always better than frantic reaction. It’s not clever to hurry toward trouble.”
― David L. Hough, Proficient Motorcycling, 3rd Edition: The Ultimate Guide to Riding Well

“As I have become more experienced and more mature”
― David L. Hough, Proficient Motorcycling, 3rd Edition: The Ultimate Guide to Riding Well

“A skilled rider should be able to operate the throttle and front brake simultaneously.”
― David L. Hough, Mastering the Ride: More Proficient Motorcycling

“Two ways to increase your anticipation time are looking farther ahead and reducing speed in busy situations.”
― David L. Hough, More Proficient Motorcycling: Mastering the Ride

“In order to help you remember that, here’s a little ditty you can recite to yourself before you ease out the clutch: “He was right, dead right, as he sped along. But he’s just as dead as if he’d been wrong.”
― David L. Hough, Mastering the Ride: More Proficient Motorcycling

“squeeze the clutch during a quick stop, so you can concentrate on the brakes and keep the engine from locking up the rear wheel.”
― David L. Hough, Proficient Motorcycling: The Ultimate Guide to Riding Well

“Novices start out with the physical skills of mastering the clutch, throttle, brakes, and balance. Veterans understand that motorcycling is really more of a mental process of scrutinizing the situation, evaluating the hazards, and deciding what to do with the motorcycle.”
― David L. Hough, Proficient Motorcycling: The Ultimate Guide to Riding Well