Downshifting during emergency stop

That's boggled me. What difference would hydraulic brakes make to
whether you stall it or not?

 

Do some shiney happy yummy bikes have servo assisted brakes?

 

As I've got to have a riding test on the 20th I shall re-clarify the
matter again with my instrctor in the 3 hours before the test.

 

Ah, I see what you're getting at - no engine = no vacuum = no servo.
Some BMWs do, but I believe the servos are electric rather than vacuum
operated. ICBW though.

 

If you've time to fart around downshifting, it's not really an
emergency stop.

On every emergency stop i've done, ive had just enough time to
downshift /once/ then the rest of the time was hard on the brakes and
concentrating on not locking anything up and making sure the bike is
dead upright.

Alternatively, If you know you've realistically no chance of stopping,
i'm looking for either an escape route and/or a soft landing spot away
from armco/road furniture.

Cheers

Paul.

 

Having said that, if it's not a voluntary action then it may well not
affect the emergency stop. I find that I sometimes change down, depends,
on what? I don't know.

It's like skid control, you find yourself doing it, but it's not until
after the event you realise just how close you came to binning it, and
get the shakes. Well, I do anyway.

 

Muck wrote

I don't, well not since the start of this year certainly and I have to
confess it is more than a little worrying.

I'll give you a frinstance: A couple of days after I got the GS I was
out and about exploring it and had the pleasure of finding a muppet in a
cage on my side of the road whilst going round a bend. I just rode
round him and continued on my way, no fuss, no mad adrenaline rush, no
hysterics, no internationally agreed hand signals for I am about to pull
a wheelie, none of it, I just got on with my ride. This is not the me I
know and love. I worry that it could be a sign I am growing up.



--
steve auvache
750 VT Shadow (something for the weekend)
Bindit 600 (was lost and now is found)
GS500E (small but perfectly formed)
mongvan (dehydrated)

 

Pip wrote:
snip

snip

Nice.

Have to practice that next time I'm out on the CBR. Up until now every
emergency stop practice (and ohshit it's a 90 degree turn) had the rear
lifting so there was no point using the rear brake. [1]

I'm sure I'd read about the technique somewhere but this is a lovely
description of how to put it into practice.

[1] As opposed to the the BMW which requires both brakes on full.

 

I'd say that you really need to be going down the box in case it
suddenly changes from being a full on emergency stop to shed as much
speed as possible then bang it open and rip through a gap.

 

You didn't read the original post. I didn't have to think about
downshifting, so the thinking time was nil.

 

Always the danger of banging it down too many in a panic and making
things worse.

At least with the back brake you can let it off to regain traction, or,
like me you can downshift too many times on gravel and have the bike
sideways until the engine could rev up.

Mr Corden uncharacteristically turned the air blue as he thought i'd
lobbed it

P.

 

Same as I was taught. They said the emphasis was on stopping ASAP, and
didn't care even if you stalled it as long as you stopped in time,
hence paddling to the side and sorting the gears later.

As pointed out IRL, better to stop without stalling and be in a gear to
give you traction to take evasive action after the stop.

As I said to Muck, If you've had time to brake as hard as possible and
still step through the box in a more or less orderly fashion, then it
wasn't that much of an emergency.

Rgds

Paul.

 

I read everything and understand nothing

I'm on about time to execute the downshiftS, when you'd potentially be
better off using that time elsewhere. Emergency sort of suggests time
is of the essence.

Cheers

Paul.

 

I like your thinking. I do come down the box ordinarily, otherwise i'd
never get away from the lights

Cheers

Paul.

 

It was of the essence, believe me. Kawasaki + blue Ford Transit don't
mix.

Unless I was skidding sideways I don't think I could find anything
else more valuable to do with my left foor and left hand. Apart from
salute or flap my arm about, I suppose.

 

No BGN didn't.

That brings me to my next observation.

Say I'm going from motorway speeds to stationary (not in an emergency)
should would run down the gearbox until in 1st. I mean, into fifth,
drop in clutch, into 4th, drop in clutch...? That's how I do it, but
I wasn't trained to do that. Actually, I don't recall being told
anything about downshifting, really. The other bloke I did my test
had some mutterings about it, but they skipped gears with me as I was
already driving a car.

 

Stuff like that I can remain calm with, it's the sudden sideways thing
half way round a corner that does it for me. It may be since my ditch
surfing moment this has been occuring though.

 

True, having a back end that's wagging about all over the place doesn't
help matters. It may well look cool though.

I've had a sort of random foot twitch when more than half way round a
corner once. The effect was fun at full throttle, even on a Bandit 600.

I've resolved to give up swearing from this week for some reason.

 

I did the theory, but not the video. 3 years ago last Feb. That's scary.
--
Catman MIB#14 SKoGA#6 TEAR#4 BOTAFOF#38 Apostle#21 COSOC#3
Tyger, Tyger Burning Bright (Remove rust to reply)
Alfa 116 Giulietta 3.0l (Really) Sprint 1.7 156 TS S2
Triumph Speed Triple: Black with extra black bits
www.cuore-sportivo.co.uk

 

Thought you might have done

Don't worry. Most of mine are, even when sober.
--
Catman MIB#14 SKoGA#6 TEAR#4 BOTAFOF#38 Apostle#21 COSOC#3
Tyger, Tyger Burning Bright (Remove rust to reply)
Alfa 116 Giulietta 3.0l (Really) Sprint 1.7 156 TS S2
Triumph Speed Triple: Black with extra black bits
www.cuore-sportivo.co.uk