Driving thoughts

[Gareth]

While practising, my mind often wanders. From Sunday morning came the following questions

• what's the difference between comfort braking and discomfort braking?
• when people mention a silent commentary, are they hearing the words in their heads or do they mean something else?

[Horse]

For me, relating to bike training, 'comfort braking' used to be when someone's brake light would show on the way into a corner but without any reduction in speed and - importantly - not being on the throttle. ie They hadn't reduced their speed to a point where they were comfortable opening the throttle. Potentially, if they have their foot already on the pedal, any panic reaction mid-bend could result in a stamp on the pedal, not great.

Discomfort braking would be characterised by the inner thoughts of "OhFarkThisIsGonnaHuuuuurt!"

Ok, so why do flammable and inflammable mean the same?

[Horse]

Oh I've never heard anyone do a silent commentary, are they common?

[vanman]

Comfort braking, light application without transferring any weight forwards, or if you like, mind comfort, oh dear I may be going a little too fast, no I'm not, forget it.
Discomfort braking, bend oh! where did that come from? too fast brake as hard as possible, take the bend then take the gear. Worked for me.
Non verbal commentary, phew that was close.
All three sadly down to poor observation.

[Horse]

Comfort braking ... down to poor observation.

Not always. I think that sometimes it's optimism, "It'll be fine", etc. and just not really and honestly considering what has been seen.

[jont-]

Comfort braking ... down to poor observation.

Not always. I think that sometimes it's optimism, "It'll be fine", etc. and just not really and honestly considering what has been seen.

Then it's not comfort braking, it's discomfort braking.

In my mind comfort braking is more doing it out of habit, not really taking any speed off and doing it perhaps because you haven't honestly assessed the bend and worked out it's unnecessary.

[Triquet]

Comfort braking is when you brake for traffic coming in the other direction. This is common practice round here.

[jcochrane]

Comfort Braking. Use of brakes when not required. Or if braking is required then imperceptible transitioning on and off the brake and easing pressure during speed reduction such that the car just slows with such smoothness and flat balance to be a thing of wonderment. A bit like sitting up on a bike to produce drag to slow down.

Discomfort Braking. Poor transition of applying or lifting off the brake. Also not smoothly releasing pressure as the car starts to slow (as would be done in threshold braking to produce a constant rate of speed reduction) resulting in a noticeable weight transference forward. (Not to be confused with smoothly managed weight transference to front tyres such as when choosing to trail brake.)

Silent Commentary. A mix of verbal and non verbal thoughts done in the head. Essential at all times when driving.

[TR4ffic]

Silent Commentary. A mix of verbal and non verbal thoughts done in the head. Essential at all times when driving.

I do quite a lot of Silent Commentary... In my head it sounds quite good! I find it provides focus ...'Look for the cross view', 'one towards', 'slow paint', 'mirror check - steady behind', 'cyclist - where there's one'...

I do it in my head because I'm rubbish at speaking it out loud..! ...it takes too long for the words to get from my brain to out of my mouth (I'm also rubbish at conversational chit-chat in social situations - It's just the way I am). There's also very little idle chit-chat in the car whilst I'm driving.

[Gareth]

I guess I think of comfort braking as (mostly) unnecessary, or possibly a light brush due to being uncertain (and slightly late about) when to lift off, and discomfort as feeling uncomfortable on approach, mostly down to more speed later and a lack of planning. Probably a continuum between the two.

I've said many times about my dislike for commentary if treated as a required part of driving, since I think it's a separate mostly unrelated skill. For me, commentary only makes sense out loud, and then mostly for the benefit of the listener, so it seems odd to be "saying" the same words in my head. I'd say muttered under my breath is pretty much the same as out loud, rather than silent. As a useful adjunct, when I'm dog-tired and struggling to concentrate, I think it can help focus on the one thing at a time needed to keep it safe.

Normally there're no words in my head when I'm not talking; I imagine a still pond waiting for something that feels wrong to ruffle the surface ...