Psychologists talk about something called (if I'm remembering correctly) 'unconscious competence.' Thats where I want to be. Being on the bike means far more to me than bothering my head about which direction to turn the handlebars. Ride the bike, test your limits a wee bit and it just happens.
As an example of that - as a youngster I was pretty cautious on a bike. My friends did all these skid turns. I didn't, partly because I had a big 'old man's' bike, partly because I was scared I would fall off and partly because I was worried about what it would do to my tyres. Possibly the main reason was that I never rode it enough to become good enough.
Since returning to cycling almost 2 years ago now I've had no accidents, apart from clipless moments, but have had several near misses. At least 2 of these involved spectacular evasive manoeuvres, with some skidding, one ending up at right angles to where I started, but without falling off. Now I don't have a clue what I did, but I was just ridiculously pleased to be alive, and somewhat surprised at what I had managed to do.It certainly didn't involve thinking things through, it was all intuitive, built on practice. It also gives me a bit of confidence in my own ability in a tight spot.
I think that spending more time on the bike, getting a feel for the limits on different surfaces and conditions really helps with that kind of split second subconcious bike control you talk of. I think messing about on muddy trails slipping allover the place has helped me a lot with bike control. Little things like if the rear starts to skid, releasing the brake near instantly and catching it quickly without even thinking about it, or when you try to turn without enough front grip and rather than turn harder, plough the floor and collapse into a heap you know the limits better and subconciously. Those evasive manoeuvres you refer to imho as you say just down to your brain being well practiced, you probably couldnt manage the same bike control conciously even if you prepared for the manoeuvre.
