Email the Author
You can use this page to email Neil Keleher about Balance Exercises for Motorcyclists.
About the Book
I've been riding a motorbike for twenty years and it is only in the last few years that I've really began to understand the real basics of cornering. And it's not so much about controlling the bike as it is controlling your body.
The better you can feel and control your body the easier it is to control your bike.
I've been a yoga teacher for only slightly less longer than I've been riding but perhaps what has been most important for helping me to improve body awareness (and help my students do the same) has been studying and practicing Tai Ji. In general I apply what I've learned in Tai Ji to help my students learn to feel and control their center of gravity. And this is one of the keys to learning to be a better biker.
The better we can feel and control our own center and the bikes, the easier it is to corner with confidence because we can feel what we are doing with our body and we know the affect this will have on the bike.
You might think that you don't have the ability to learn to feel your body. And that is part of what I've spent the last few years on improving, my ability to teach people how to feel and control their body. It's been extra challenging because I teach in Taiwan and my Chinese sucks. And so I've learned how to explain things simply and clearly and how to help my students improve gradually.
Biker yoga won't change you into a better rider overnight, but it will help you become a better rider gradually. And the cool thing is, like learning to ride, and actually riding, the journey can be interesting. Instead of touring the countryside you'll be touring your body, learning to feel it and control it so that you can better feel it and control it while riding, without having to think about what you are doing.
In this way learning to feel and control your body is like learning to ride a bike. You eventually learn to do all the things that go into riding without having to think about it. You can then focus on what you are doing, riding.
About the Author
Hi, I'm Neil Keleher
I’ve been a yoga teacher for about 20 years.
I have a degree in systems design engineering from the University of Waterloo.
Prior to that I served for five years in the British army as an armourer.
As a yoga teacher I teach my students how to feel and control their body. In this context I’m like a driving instructor for your body.
One of my other hats is “indexing specialist”. One of my current ongoing projects under this hat is designing an easy to use indexing system for Chinese characters.