RIDING TECHNIQUES: Braking No.1

Part One - The art of stopping

There are only two ways you can affect the motorcycle you are riding. You can change its speed, and you can change its direction. These two actions should not be confused because, although they occasionally (and I mean very occasionally) overlap, they are two totally separate issues.

Changing direction obviously relates to turning a corner, but before you get to the corner, chances are you will have to do something to the speed of the bike - and this usually involves braking.

One of the biggest mistakes people make about braking is thinking it is a cornering skill, when in fact the brakes are really only useful when travelling in a straight line. Riders also often come to me saying they have a braking problem. My response is usually the same, and that is to say that most riders don't actually have a braking problem at all. When you consider it, the brake is really a pretty easy instrument to use. You squeeze it and the bike slows down - how hard is that? The reality is that most riders don't have a braking problem, they have a problem of where their attention is being focussed while braking.

In Keith Code's first book A Twist of the Wrist, Keith brings out the idea that you only have a certain amount of attention to spend on any activity. He likens it to having ten dollars to spend - meaning that attention, like money, is finite. You only have so much of it. If your attention is being spent unwisely, you may be using up a large portion of your ten dollars on something that doesn't really deserve it, and the important stuff like getting your speed set exactly right for the turn gets missed because you just don't have enough mental money left over to spend on it. If your speed is not right coming into a turn, is it because you didn't know how to use the brakes properly or because you didn't have enough attention left over after doing all the other actions of entering a turn to get it right? Just thinking that something might happen, takes some of your ten dollars worth of attention. Interestingly one of the most common fears listed by riders in my experience is the fear of locking the front or rear wheel while entering a corner.

Let's handle that one straight away. You shouldn't have the brakes on while entering a corner! If you have decided that you will complete the braking prior to getting the bike leant over, then you won't be spending any attention at all on the possibility of this happening. Taking this further, there is one school of thought that suggests if you apply a little rear brake in the middle of a corner when running wide, it will tighten the line up and allow you to get your apex. This not only flies in the face of the sheer physics of riding a motorcycle, it also confuses the control actions of riding through a corner, reduces traction, and takes your attention away from where it should be, which is completing the turn. You are now trying to deal with a whole other set of forces which you don't really need to deal with while in the turn. Try it and you may soon find yourself being 'overdrawn' on your ten dollars. Which of course can't happen. You can't spend what you don't have.

The brake lever is a decelerator. It is pressure sensitive and is used to set the speed for the next thing you are going to be doing. Taking a corner and slowing down for it are two different issues.

If the next thing you are going to do is take a corner, then setting the speed for it should be completed before you get there. If you are going to be stopping at a set of lights, then the brake's job is to set the speed to zero. How you regulate this force and what result you get from it will determine your ability to complete the next action in the control sequence for a corner.

If you find yourself struggling to slow the bike down when you're already in the turn, then you've made a mistake somewhere before you got to the corner. Once you've made a mistake like this, you can't fix it on that run through any particular corner. All you can do is learn from it and try to fix it next time.

Good luck with your riding.

Steve Brouggy is the owner of the

Contact:
2 / 76 Rushdale St
Knoxfield, VIC 3180
Australia

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