I am an idiot on descents. You would think that hailing from flatland I would respect a good downhill. If you want to be good at any wheeled sport I think at some point you have to learn to accept speed. Skiing too.

If you ride in traffic, fast or slow, and surviving....there is a lot of thinking going on at the time. You just can't recall much of it later (if you are like me). Until I started watching my own film I really had no idea how much thinking was actually going on. I can account for every little detail of every ride now and have even put together a couple of "how-to" videos. I have even changed my riding style substantially after reviewing my own footage and others on the web. Watching my videos has actually made me a lot safer. Sometimes I notice something and note that I will never do THAT again. Other times I see a gap that I would never have noticed while riding - a gap that presents itself almost every ride.

For instance in this video at (1:06) I make a sweeping move left across the double yellow way across two opposing lanes for no apparent reason to anyone who does not ride like this. But in every video, at this location, even filming my buds, we all make that move here. Because, vehicles stopped at the red are blocking my view of cars crossing on the green from the right. So moving way left does a whole bunch of things: I have a much better view of cars entering from stage right, I am much farther away from the entry point which gives me, and them, more time to react. I have several escape routes even if there were cars in the opposing lane - I can keep veering toward the left curb and ride in the gutter, or turn left, or bail to the sidewalk, or go straight and split stopped traffic contraflow for a bit, or swing back to the right behind a crossing vehicle. But if I stayed on the double yellow I would probably have to lose all my momentum (i.e., stop) before I could see if anything was crossing.

See what I mean. One simple move and all that thinking is going on^^^

Busting it in traffic and surviving reminds me of playing baseball. I was a pretty good third baseman. When in the field, I certainly didn't wait to hear the crack of the bat to start thinking about what to do with the ball. Right after the last pitch I start the process - what inning, how many outs, who is on base, where, are they forced to me, second base, and/or home plate? What if the guy on second steals third? What if the guy on third takes a huge lead off the bag. What if the ball gets hit to the field on the fly, or on the ground. What do I do if hit to first, second, short stop, me at third - pop up or on the ground? EVERY pitch I go through this sequence. Same on the bike. Every problem, every light, every car, every danged thing is what-if.

Long story short - you are doing more thinking than you think. And you can quote me