Kevin Schwantz Suzuki School - Visual Skills

Text: Kevin Schwantz, Lance Holst • Photography: Kevin Schwantz, Lance Holst

Whether you're riding on your favorite road at a relaxed pace or lapping Road Atlanta at speed on a Suzuki GSX-R1000, more than 90 percent of the information you take in and process is visual. How you look at things as you ride determines nearly every action you take on a motorcycle. And that's why the Kevin Schwantz Suzuki School's first lesson is in visual skills.

The first thing we want you to do is look where you want to go. It sounds so basic, but especially in panic-provoking situations, it can be your greatest undoing. Your mind tells your body to go where you're looking, whether you want to go there or not. Don't fixate on what triggered your panic. Peel your eyes off that mid-turn patch of gravel and look for a clean way around it.

Look Ahead


A byproduct of this is that you also have more time to process the information. Think about your reaction to finding a flattened possum in your path one second in front of your wheel. A sudden, panicked steering input is your best hope of missing it, but it's just that - a hope. Now give yourself five seconds to react, and suddenly all these much better, more controlled options open up.

Keep 'Em Moving
It's also important to keep your eyes moving (scanning) rather than fixating on a single point. If your bike is in motion, it's important that your eyes stay in motion. The minute your eyes fixate, you start falling behind where you should be looking.
