"Zen" can be defined as a total state of conscious awareness, body and mind. With apology to Robert Pirsig for cribbing most of the title to his book, safely operating a motorcycle is as much a mental challenge as it is a physical one.

I took my first Motorcycle Safety Foundation course in 1985, and at that time they were teaching the S.I.P.D.E. method - an acronym that stands for Scan, Identify, Predict, Decide, Execute. Although it has fallen out of favor with the MSF since then, replaced with techniques that are thought to be easier to remember, it stuck with me. I firmly believe it has saved my life more than once.

Here is how it works:

Scan: "Scanning", in a nutshell, is constant looking, and it creates situational awareness. Constant scanning of not only what is ahead, but also what is behind in your mirrors, especially while stopped. Your eyes should always be moving, which brings you to the next step.

Identify: This will be the moment you stop scanning. The car in the driveway with its reverse lights on, the traffic stopped ahead, the small rock in your travel path, the emergency vehicle coming from behind. Identify situations that could be hazardous.

Predict: What is most likely to happen? This is the risk analysis step. Every situation is different - how fast, what direction, available traction, escape routes, any variable that you can think of. Prediction leads you to the next step.

Decide: What is the best course of action to deal with the hazard? We'll use the small rock in the road ahead to illustrate this step. In scanning, you identified the rock in your travel path, and have predicted that it will remain there, and that on your current path, you will collide with it. Now, time to decide: swerve, stop, or collide? You may also have predicted that no hazard exists - for example, you identified the car backing in the driveway as you were already passing it. This still brings you to the last step.

Execute:You decided to swerve around the small rock, and now physically execute the manuever. Alternately, if you predicted no hazard exists, you then execute a return to scanning.

In practice, all five steps commonly take place in as little as a second. If you think about this as you ride, it will quickly become a mental habit that will soon require no conscious thought at all. Even 25 years later, I still like to periodically run down the steps in my head. It is easy to do as I think back over the countless times it has saved me from injury or even damaged motorcycles, and I would encourage anyone I know who rides to do the same.