Practicing Emergency Braking

[FROSTY:Me]

I've been thinking about this a bit --yea yea frosty get a life.
ANYHOO- I think the thread title is all wrong. it should be PRACTICE BRAKING-ANYTIME ANYWHERE.
If i seem a tadd obtuse its that if you are able to brake effectively in different conditions and situations then you are preventing it becoming an emergency.
Even the situation suilite is talking about when its all crushed down and the only front shock left is actually the tyre.--It still aint an emergency. YOU are still fully in control of the situation.

[Okey Dokey]

I've been thinking about this a bit --yea yea frosty get a life.
ANYHOO- I think the thread title is all wrong. it should be PRACTICE BRAKING-ANYTIME ANYWHERE.
If i seem a tadd obtuse its that if you are able to brake effectively in different conditions and situations then you are preventing it becoming an emergency.
Even the situation suilite is talking about when its all crushed down and the only front shock left is actually the tyre.--It still aint an emergency. YOU are still fully in control of the situation.

"Practice makes pefect" they used to say. Or "Prior Preparation Prevents Piss Poor Performance" (6 Ps) nowadays.

[Skyryder]

http://www.webbikeworld.com/Motorcyc...aking-tips.htm


Skyryder

[R-Soul]

Pitching forward would increase weight on the front wheel with which to add even more braking to that no?

I also use alot of engine braking to scrub speed too, surprisingly effective, do it in the car as well, all limbs might as well lend a hand to savin' your ass. It's all about turning kinetic energy into heat, be it through the brake, clutch, or radiator/fins, and if your brakes should ever fail for some bizarre reason, the engine and clutch are all you've got.

No - stopping rotation of the back wheel if its in the air would cause a rotation of the bike in general about the front wheel- not a pitching onto the front wheel.

Also, while you are correct in saying that what braking does is convert kinetic energy to heat through friction - it is essentially converting it to heat through friction OF THE TYRES ON THE ROAD. Not just general conversion to heat. Ultimately what stops you is the tyres grip on the road, all the kinetic energy must be lost going through this bottleneck. If there is too much friction going on, the tyres lock up and rolling (effectively static) friction becomes dynamic friction (which is a smaller coefficent of friction and prvides a lot less friction force).

If the back wheels are on the limit of their friction capacity (either because you are braking hard on thr back brake, or because its just about to lift off), then adding engine braking to slow it even further will result in it locking up and reucing its friction cpacity.

Having said that, engine braking has the tendency to regulate itself back to rolling friction (as oposed to you regulating the back brake). So probably jamming the gears down while applying stabilising back brake would be the best - sugilite can you confirm?- a lot to think about while regulating the most important (by some way) front brake. Which is why practice is critical I guess.

Prolly best to just focus on doing the important stuff the best you can.

[R-Soul]

In my opinion again it depends on the bike/situation. But as a rule I'm downchanging through the box as Im slowing down.
To me its a case of --Ok what happens next??
My available options increase by having the gear you are in more or less matching your road speed.
Its all cool stopping in X meters but if the next thing is a bike stalled in the middle of a busy road then arguably your in just as much danger

That is true- you might initially have the plan of stopping before the car, but then change your mind to go for a gap or something and might need some power...

I suppose it all depeneds on the situation.

[R-Soul]

This bit explained four stage braking quite well:

"To understand four stage braking, think of a rider coming up to a set of lights. Stage One is the force with which he applies the front brake when he sees the lights turn orange some way ahead, in other words, lightly.

At Stage One, the rider is applying the front brake to the point where the brake is just on and slowing the bike down very, very gently to roll to a stop.

Stage Two is the force the rider would use if he was a bit closer to the lights when they turned orange, and he had to make a normal, smooth stop at the lights. So, Stage Two is the firm pull used to bring the bike to a firm, but quiet stop. The rider applies his front brake to Stage One (friction point) before going on to apply to a steady force at Stage Two.

Stage Three. Our rider has dithered about whether to stop for the orange light before deciding he'd better. By this time, he has to stop quite hard to stop. So he applies the front brake to friction point (Stage One), then onto a firm pull (Stage Two) before applying pressure with a strong pull at Stage Three.

Stage Four. The rider very unwisely decides to run the orange only to find, just before he reaches the lights, that they turn red. In this serious situation the rider needs all the braking he's got. So he applies the front brake to friction point, moves onto the firm pull of Stage Two, then to the strong pull of Stage Three, before giving it all he's got at Stage Four."

[DangerMice]

Before my tow rope incident I didn't really have any idea just how hard you could brake without locking it up. I *thought* I did, but I realise now I was wrong.

I've been practicing a fair bit since then, and yeah, have locked the front, and the rear, a few times finding that limit, but at least I have a much better idea where it is now.

Oh and don't laugh just because I'm on a scoot and only doing 60kph! Buses hate me just as much as you guys lol.