Originally Posted by PeteHski

Pretty much all that you mention above are mostly subconscious actions for me. I did a fairly challenging timed century ride on Sunday and the only thing that I consciously noticed about my bike was a little bit of excessive drivetrain noise in the lowest rear gear (like maybe the low limit screw was slightly too tight). Apart from that niggle, my bike was pretty much invisible in a positive way, like an extension of my body. Leaving me to concentrate on pacing, hydration, fuelling and the group dynamics. There was one guy flapping about erratically in the group I was riding with, that I consciously kept away from! Some of the road surfaces were very poor, so that was on my conscious mind at times too. But not really the bike itself.

I think a lot comes down to what is conscious thought vs subconscious auto pilot? Most of the bike interaction happens subconsciously as it does with driving. That's one of the reasons why learning to ride or drive is difficult from scratch as everything has to be learnt consciously, which is a much slower process. Once an action becomes subconscious it is effectively performed automatically with a much faster and precise reaction. Like your example of cornering on the bike. I would think all that happens subconsciously in the moment. Or are you really thinking about all those individual factors in real time? I would bet not.