Everything you wanted to know about braking...

....in pdf format.

Sorry if it's a ginge, but wft. A study done by some Canadian group
in Jan 2004 about motorcycle braking, and how to best make an
emergency stop. Link posted in another forum, but I thought you all
might be interested.

http://www.fmq.qc.ca/pdf/amorce-freinage_eng.pdf

"The objective of this research was, based on the appropriate tests,
to recommend a standard procedure for a
successful emergency stop. This sequence would cover the ideal moment
for closing the throttle, for application
of the rear brake, for application of the front brake and for the
pertinence and the timing of using the clutch."

Flame on.

 

....but were afraid to find out the hard way.

Ta for that.

 

Mike Barnard brought next idea :

Which is exactly the way I aim to do it and as I was taught many years
ago.

1. Shut throttle, simultaneously raising body up into to the wind for
extra control and drag.

2. Rear brake on first as quickly as possible.

3. Followed by front brake, then ease off on the rear just enough to
prevent it sliding out.

Pull clutch in at earliest opportunity, where it doesn't interfere with
item 2 or 3.

 

Harry Bloomfield wrote

Me, I can't stand the bloody things, try hard never to do one is my
motto. I can't honestly remember the last time I had to do one and as
far as I remember it was anything but a co-ordinated coming together of
theoretical knowledge.

 

I've done two in earnest. The first in my early years when a woman with
two kids all holding hands started dashing across the road against the
lights right in front of me. She changed her mind too late, but with
the three of them strung right across the road they were a hard target
to miss. I did manage to miss them - I went across sideways on tail
sliding, but managed not to loose it. It was a heart stopping moment
and I decided to learn how to best make a proper emergency stop,
without nearly loosing it.

Last time was a few months ago where I was just going too fast in heavy
rain and terrible visibility - basically my own fault. Traffic in the
far distance had stopped and I failed to notice the fact that they were
at a stop (unusually - no brake lights on). I went in with both wheels
on the point of locking and eased off at the very last second to enable
me to steer down along the luckily clear near-side of the stopped
vehicles.

You don't have the time to think about it, you have to be well enough
practised that you can do it without thinking.

 

Harry Bloomfield wrote

I really do disagree. It takes about a second, second and a half to
bring a bike to a stop from when a hazard first identifies itself as
such at 30. That is a long time to be thinking.

But you do do it without thinking. Which is why, half way through when
you have reached the stage where you are just sort of sitting there
waiting for events to unfold you notice you have changed down two more
gears than your road speed calls for and you change back up again. All
on auto.

 

I don't want to be anywhere nearby when you loose it, tyvm.

 

Harry Bloomfield said...

If I tried to memorise that and put it into practise I'd crash into
whetever it was I was braking for. I'll carry on doing it the way I have
for 28 years, cos I'm obviously doing something right without even
thinking of it.

 

steve auvache explained on 07/06/2006 :

I don't quite follow your reasoning....

In a real emergency, you don't have time to do much if any thinking.
Better to have your auto response take over and do the right thing,
even if part way through you find there is a better way to respond and
can then modify how you respond. It is the initial milli-seconds which
are crucial.

Well not quite. One is a response to an immediate danger where the only
priority is to loose speed as quickly as possible without loss of
control, the other just an inconsequential error of judgement of no
importance.

 

Lozzo wrote :

What needs to be memorised? It is natural sequence.

Your foot goes to the foot-brake and starts braking whilst you are
still closing the throttle, once the throttle is closed you can then
make use of the front brake.

 

Muck said...

And women say men can't multi-task.

 

Amateur. I can do 4,000,000,000 things wrong a second.

 

Like an aircraft landing on a carrier then, keep the throttle
open all the way to a complete stop?

OTOH, mentioning closing the throttle as part of the brake
sequence might be just slightly ridiculous.

 

[snip arcane braking method]

On a sportsbike, exactly - there's very little point in fucking around
with the rear brake, because under optimal braking at the front end,
the rear wheel won't be touching the ground.

 

But the study, if you actually bother to read it, showed that use of
both brakes _did_ reduce mean braking time on a sportsbike. The theory
being that the rear wheel is in effective road contact for at least
part of the time, except for those people who are sufficiently skilled
to hold the bike in a virtual stoppie for the entire braking distance.

--
_______
..'_/_|_\_'. Ace (brucedotrogers a.t rochedotcom)
\`\ | /`/ GSX-R1000K3
`\\ | //' BOTAFOT#3, SbS#2, UKRMMA#13, DFV#8, SKA#2, IBB#10
`\|/`
`

 

Ace said...

I wouldn't say I was skilled at holding the bike in a virtual stoppie,
I'd wager it's been more luck than judgement that's kept me from locking
the front when braking hard.

When I first got the Gixer I had to recalibrate my braking altogether.
Never use more than 2 fingers, and never slam the brakes on too hard or
you'll either go over the bars or lock the front. I panic braked once on
a local dual-carriageway, thinking I was still riding something like the
9R. A car pulled out to overtake as I was bearing down at 125ish, I hit
the brakes hard with a big handful and embarrassed myself as the rear
wheel came right up in the air. The bike was at almost a stop in next to
no time, with a gap of about 50 metres between me and the now pulling
away overtaker. Had I been on the 9R I'd have still ended up on his back
seat with the bike in his boot.

 

There are plenty of road surfaces and conditions where the front wheel
will lock before the back wheel lifts, in which case useful extra
braking can be obtained by using the back brake as well as the front.

 

Just bang it on - unloading it is neither demanding of skill nor
necessary.

The point is that very few people are skilled enough to apply the
absolute maximum braking to the front which would be needed to 100%
unload the rear, so there's a potential for the rear to add a small
but significant contrubution.

I'm often puzzled by this fixation people seem to have with locking
the rear wheel. Locking the front can be nasty, I agree, although not
always catastrophic, but frankly I don't give a damn if my rear wheel
locks. In braking terms, a locked tyre is almost as effective as a
not-quite-locked one anyway.

--
_______
..'_/_|_\_'. Ace (brucedotrogers a.t rochedotcom)
\`\ | /`/ GSX-R1000K3
`\\ | //' BOTAFOT#3, SbS#2, UKRMMA#13, DFV#8, SKA#2, IBB#10
`\|/`
`

 

why would I do that? This is Usenet.

"prove it to me and I still won't believe it".

Personally, the thinking time to faff around with declutching, putting
the rear brake on first, then the front, would be more than any
advantage over just giving it a big handful of front brake.

 

of course - my statement above should be taken in the context of
riding on relatively smooth, dry tarmac.

As stated in the past though, I've experimented in hard braking in the
wet, using warmed up sticky tyres (Rennsports), and although I'm by no
means anywhere near the "riding god" level, even I can get the back
wheel off the ground without locking the front.