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Braking: |
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Motorcycle courses teach stopping quickly but they don't teach how to stop HARD. And by HARD - means a true panic situation where you want to stop NOW. The keys to a truly HARD panic stop are: |
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1. Simplify |
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Forget about using both brakes. It's too much to coordinate.
Concentrate on the front brake since under HARD braking, the front does all the stopping. |
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Forget about trying to gear down as you pull in the clutch lever. And setting yourself up for something *after* the stop is just not a good investment in concentration or time in a true panic situation which has far too little of both. |
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It's great if you pull in the clutch lever (it'll keep the engine from stalling) but don't worry if you don't. Get stopped and you won't care that much if the engine is stalled.
Conversely, don't get stopped and a stalled engine will be the least of your concerns. |
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Bottom line: Concentrate on ONE thing only -- which is squeezing the front brake lever. |
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2. Learn to do a near stoppie (rear wheel in the air under braking). |
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The harder you brake, the harder you can squeeze. This is the secret.
The key to HARD braking is starting with easy pressure and, as the front tire loads up, rapidly increasing the braking pressure. Learn the feel of how fast you can increase the braking pressure. |
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Most people squeeze too hard TOO SOON.
Their front tire hasn't got enough weight on it yet and skids free.
Jabbing or grabbing at the front brake almost always overwhelms the tire IN THE BEGINNING so it quickly breaks free and skids. The result is a fraction of the possible braking force before the bike goes down. |
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| Learn to squeeze in conjunction with the front tire load. Practice with a bike you can afford to drop (good reason to buy a used bike as your starter). There are a couple ways to practice. One should just try a graduated squeeze with the goal to end hard enough to lift the rear wheel. |
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If the rear wheel doesn't lift, then start the same squeeze pressure but keep increasing your ending squeeze pressure.
On dry pavement and a modern sportbike with sport (i.e. sticky) tires, your rear wheel will lift well before the front will let go. |
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Once you're successful you'll probably have discovered three major things: |
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| 1) How fast you can increase the squeeze pressure (very fast) |
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2) How hard you can squeeze at the end (very hard) |
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| 3) How fast your bike will stop (fast enough to make you worry about going over the handlebars). |
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On cruiser style bikes the front wheel still dominates but the rear contributes more than on a sportbike.
So work on the above but also experiment to see if adding in the rear wheel is worth the extra complexity. |
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