5 Experiments to Reanimate Your Motorcycle Commute

DanF9 | Aug 15, 2025 — Daily commuting is where attention goes to die of pure boredom. The same traffic, same annoying traffic light that's always red when you get there, same clueless driver doing 20 under in the passing lane.

It's time to re-volt! Channel your inner mad scientist and bring some life back to your corpse-like commute. Welcome to the Roadside Lab, where yours truly attempts to turn the gray trudge into a series of playful experiments that keep you alert, amused, and road-reinvigorated. By the end of it, I'm sure you won't know watt hit you!

Lab House Rules:

• Pick 1 game per segment. Layering all 5 at once turns your skull into a popcorn machine.
• Be a "good" roadside scientist. If traffic density climbs, downshift the difficulty. The experiment is awareness, not exhibition.
• If a game adds risk, skip it. Keep your speed legal, and your ego tame. Like every mad scientist, I'm trying to walk a fine line between scientific revolution and creating an aby-normal monster, so bear with me here.

Experiment #1: Predict the Future

Hypothesis: The more you develop your observational skills to predict potential hazardous events or rotten driver behaviour, the more likely you are to avoid them, and ride safer.

• Protocol: Clock rolls: "Next hazard: that Civic two lanes right will merge right into me." Or "delivery truck brake check in 3…2…"

• Why it works: Your brain stops sightseeing and starts modeling. You extend your attention cone from "right now" to "right after now," which is where most dumb stuff lives.

• Score it: +1 for getting the hazard class right (merge, brake stack, surface change). +2 if your timing’s within three seconds. -5 for breaking mirrors.

Just remember to keep your eyes up and stay calm; you’re summoning foresight, not Braapthazar the road demon.

Experiment #2: Improve Yourself

Hypothesis: One must imagine Sisyphus jacked. Having all this time on your hands is the metaphorical boulder you keep pushing up the hill. If your perspective shifts to improving yourself—whether it's your shifts, braking smoothness, balance at slow speeds—you'll turn just keep racking up those gains, minus the hubris.

• Protocol: Focus on 1 area of improvement at a time. Become obsessive about it, but don't let it become a distraction from everything else going on. Bake a good habit into your muscle memory, like knowing exactly when to shift from 1st to 2nd with zero headbobs.

• Bonus round: Start or finish the ride with a slow race in the parking lot, or a few tight u-turns. They'll (eventually) boost confidence and get the mind-body connection going.

Experiment #3: Have an Escape Plan

Hypothesis: Commutes to work typically happen during rush hour. As such, being sandwiched between cars isn't where you'd often prefer to be. Inference? Become Houdini. Keeping track of the nearest escape, while proactively paying attention to your surroundings, is a sure-fire way of staving off "I didn't see you there" situations.

• Protocol: Choose the nearest idiot (or potential idiot) within 5 seconds of you. Literally anyone you notice using a phone. Ask questions like: If they spear my lane now, or if what’s my gap? Are they coming up a bit too fast behind me, while I'm at a stop? Plan the escape and position yourself to be in the optimal spot to execute. Rotate suspects.

• Common upgrade: In slow-moving traffic, add "and if that fails?" for a built-in Plan B you’ll hopefully never need.

Experiment #4: Tell a Story

Hypothesis: Storytelling has the benefit of involving you with your surroundings, as you take inspiration from them. It instills everyday events with a sense of importance, keeping you mindful and in the now.

• Protocol: Pick your story. Documentary? Narrating the goings-on will sound like you're voicing a nature documentary about some asphalt-roaming wildebeest. Musical? Practice your singing chops or operatic inclinations; because the shower isn't the only place for such things.

• A note of caution: You might have the urge to turn yourself into the villain of the story. Do or don't, but maybe think twice about acting out the evil plot twist.

Everything doesn't need to be about overloading your nervous system with traffic data and becoming the best possible version of yourself. Sometimes, just turning the boring into something fun is enough.

Experiment #5: Interrupt the Routine

Hypothesis: "When routine bites hard, and ambitions are low," doing something different makes things feel new again.

• Protocol: Pick a pitstop. Change the route. Visit your favourite cookie shop. Literally, anything beats the routine if it's turned into an object of dread. If you don't mind taking the long way to or from home, this one's for you. Heck, even if you like taking the short way, I bet there might just be another route that much quicker, just waiting for you to find it.

• Pro tip: A detour can sometimes turn into an adventure. If you can swing it, treat yourself to a day off here and there. It'll sometimes remind why you even got into riding a motorcycle in the first place.

Post Your Lab Notes

The whole point of the scientific method is openness to peer review. What experiments did you predict that actually happened? What surface "plot twist" did you catch before it bit? Which pitstop rekindled your passion for riding before the 9-to-5 drained your soul?

Pin your findings here. The Roadside Lab is open, the beakers are clean, and the lightning is ready to strike. IT'S ALIVE!!!