Extance goes to Uni
By TMX Archives on 6th Apr 07
DERBYSHIRE-based Dakar Rallye hero, Mick Extance (pictured below), has been passing on his experiences of the world famous endurance race to doctors at Nottingham University.
The Optoma Loans Honda rider explained toBehavioural researchers at the university how he combines the skill ofreading the various instruments on board his bike for navigation whilstriding at high speed, and also the human aspect of what it takes tocompete and get the financial backing to enter the race.
Dr Alex Stedmon, a lecturer in Human Factors andErgonomics at the University of Nottingham explained why he invitedMick to talk on the subject: ''My work is the combination of psychologyand engineering so that if we understand how people behave in differentsituations, react in different ways and use information. Then we candesign things to support them more effectively.
''I am also researching Behavioural Research inTransport, in essence researching transport from the human performancefocus rather than engineering.
''Mick's talk was a really great illustration ofextreme motorcycle ergonomics, where human performance is associatedwith the stresses and demands of the Dakar and where issues such asfatigue, navigation, exercise, training and even being able to copewith whatever the Dakar throws at you all affect whether you cansurvive it or not. I say extreme because most of us don't do half whatMick does, but many of the things he talked about are still relevant tomainstream motorcycling.''
Mick said the group seemed to be really interestedin the subject: ''One person told me they knew nothing of the Dakarbefore my talk, but would now watch it next year. Others told me theyfelt that my speech was really inspirational and that I raised issuesabout motorcycling they'd not realised were important. Others said thataspects of navigation and rider performance would make interestingresearch areas.''