The first advice that I was given back in the day was "if you think that you're going too fast for a corner, lean more. You've got more grip than you think you do, even in the wet." That advice definitely saved my bacon a couple of times early doors.
Sent from my SM-G900I using Tapatalk
The issue is not whether you do or don't apply brakes in a corner, or in a straight line for that matter.
It is the rate and speed that you apply the brakes that determines how much you stay in control and upright. A bike's suspension/chassis/tyres do not like sudden surprises. I've witnessed up close a few times riders in front of me high side out of a corner on track days because they impatiently 'snapped' the throttle open to full lock as fast as possible and wondered why the rear end dumped them. Same principle applies when braking.
Bikes respond best to smooth inputs. Smooth flowing motion is how I would best describe any change of input (steering/braking/accelerating). The 2 or 3 stage braking method WORKS. Even through a corner you can apply more braking leading into a lean than many would expect and this can be incrementally continued through the corner.
Pritch's $1.00 worth of grip analogy sums it up perfectly.
Happiness is a means of travel, not a destination
Agree with that as long as tyres (pressures) are good. Lean in more, don't button off, and smoothly accelerate out.
A technique of read the road conditions to pick a line to suit road contour beforehand (vanishing point), slow bike a little going in, here I typically use engine brakes as both my older twin bikes are great for that where sports bike brakes are applied if too hot pre-entry. Look at exit and roll out smoothly with engine power works for me, at times get away with no lean by tilting the head, depends on corner.
Going in too hot certainly happens, but panic braking on an angle is a bad undesirable and dangerous mix.
"If you ever need anything please don’t hesitate to ask someone else first.”
Anyhoo don't forget to add to calendar 19th May, 27th July, and 31 August.
World whisky day, International whisky day, and Scotch whisky day.
Nice piece of bait there. Gore people always need two fingers in their nostrils (due to smell of Mataura) so it will only be one finger braking ( and you do not know where that has been), so I suggest bloody dangerous practice, Gorgons should not ride motorcycles or make wishy washy comment ... especially if their name starts with a C.
Um, the 5 finger death punch .. I come from Mataura, but can live with that
"If you ever need anything please don’t hesitate to ask someone else first.”
Anyhoo don't forget to add to calendar 19th May, 27th July, and 31 August.
World whisky day, International whisky day, and Scotch whisky day.
Well worth practicing for panic braking - on a clear empty straight road.
Stage braking requires some self control to resist the urge in a panic situation to just 'grab a handful' of the brake lever in one action squeeze the dear life out of it. This creates a shock to the whole bike's composure and could send you straight into skidding or a stoppie. Neither of which will do stuff all to reduce your speed. Certainly when leaned or wet it will dump you.
The better way is to;
first apply a gentle squeeze- just enough to smoothly transfer the bike + rider weight towards the front wheel and to firm up the forks, which will in turn press down on the front tyre and increase the size of the contact patch. This is just for 1.0 to 1.5 seconds (depends on how little time you have before impact!
Second stage is increase pressure on the lever i.e. squeeze harder - but still not maximum force if you can resist the urge. Now the front tyre really starts to GRIP, very important that, and what you really need instead of skidding.
Third stage - full tit squeeze on the lever. , a second or two later and you can now go for broke and squeeze the hell on the lever. By now the tyre has reached it's maximum ability to GRIP, the bike has some degree of composure. This is what ABS does but by giving the lever progressive steps you help the ABS do it's job even better.
When I first experimented doing stoppies this is just what you needed. Get the forks compressed into a 'stiffy' and the front tyre spread for maximum grip before the big squeeze.
Another way to explain it would be if your measured how much effort you applied when squeezing the brake lever at 1 for the lightest of touches and 10 absolute hard as possible. Then you would squeeze lever a second each at say 3, then 6 then 10.
Happiness is a means of travel, not a destination
i'm going to have to go ahead and disagree with you there. ABS is a direct result of failing to train drivers/riders in progressive braking (what you describe). and the innate woman reaction of panic braking.
it functions best when you "grab a handful" - the computer then maintains traction-point braking to decelerate you maximumly, while still giving you steering and shit.
not that women use that steering as they're too busy driving into shit. (target fixation)
someone tell me i'm wrong... g'wan.
You're wrong Akzle, MD has it sorted.
If you snatch the brake and lock the tyre up you've induced a skid, yes the ABS saves your arse but you're also now taking longer to stop. The method laid out by MD works well if practised by a decent rider, for those who don't give a monkeys about practising emergency stops...oh well there's the ABS to fall back on.
There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)
Bookmarks