- This topic has 6 replies, 5 voices, and was last updated 13 years, 11 months ago by gitchy42.
Help…Emergency braking training.
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May 7, 2010 at 2:51 am #3932Victor1239Participant
HI everyone,
Just taking training this week and I have done well at almost every skill except for emergency braking. I have no problem braking to a complete stop on straights or corners if it is a normal stop. BUt as soon as I try the emergency stops I either am almost always putting on too much rear and not enough front brake. And then, if I focus on front brakes, I seem to have trouble with keeping the wheel straight. I am sure it is just going to require practice but I need to pass my final tomorrow. I have 2 hours on a bike tomorrow before getting the test. Any tips?
Thanks!!!!PS Learning on Honda 150’s, and from what I read on the ‘net I should ignore rear brake and only use front, is this wise?
May 7, 2010 at 3:24 am #26248gitchy42ParticipantThey taught us that the fastest way to stop is to use both brakes together. Luckily for me the rear brake on the bike I got was adjusted a little loose, made it hard to lock it up.
Also they taught us to squeeze both levers and push on both pedals, at the same time. I felt that the harder I squeezed the brake the harder I squeezed on the already disengaged clutch.
Don’t know if this helps, good luck!
May 7, 2010 at 4:32 am #26249eonParticipantCan’t comment on this particular bike but I did go out and practice on my own one night, trying just back brake, then just front then both together. I can tell you both together stopped me a lot faster and was a lot harder to lock up (it was wet so locking up was quite easy).
I’m not sure why you are wobbling when you concentrate on the front. Just remember to squeeeeze the brake, I had a tendency to grab which gets you into all kinds of trouble. And then ease up slightly on the back as you squeeze more on the front. I’m sure you just need a little more practice. I felt as if I struggled with most of the exercises but after a little practice it would come together.
May 7, 2010 at 6:11 am #26250Gary856ParticipantSqueeze your knees against the tank to brace yourself against the braking force. Don’t stiff-arm or use the hand/arm to brace against the braking force, or you’d have the wobble from the unintentional steering input.
Try this off the bike – ball up your right hand and make a tight fist (as if you’re squeezing the front brake lever). Feel your entire right arm tightening up too? Now shake the arm around to make it loose, while tightening and loosening the right hand. The goal is separate your hand movement from making the arm stiff.
With the rear brake, make sure your heel stays on the foot peg, just pivot the ankle down to engage the brake lever. Again, focusing on moving/pivoting just the foot/ankle, but not stiffen up the whole leg. You can try this sitting on a chair. Now do the hand and foot together but focus on moving them independently, apply different pressure levels…
In the beginning, if you tend to lock up the rear, just apply the rear brake lightly, enough to feel it drag. Focus your attention on the front brake lever – count “one one thousand” (1 second) as you increased the squeezing pressure from light to hard. Again, squeeze means starting from light pressure, and gradually increase to hard pressure over 1 second.
May 7, 2010 at 10:24 am #26255ctfc13ParticipantHey Victor, hope it goes well for you out there on the day!
I live in England but I’m guessing they make you do the same across the pond i.e. you accelerate up to a certain speed then they tell you when to brake & you do an emergency stop?
The most important thing I can tell you is SMOOTHNESS is the key to quick braking!! Most learners think that because its an EMERGENCY stop everything has to be done quicker & harder than normal but trust me this has the opposite effect to what your after.
Sorry if this part seems like a lecture but its important!! Just for one minute think about what your trying to do & what your asking the bike to do!! Under acceleration all the weight will be transferred to the rear of the bike, under braking all the weight needs to be on the front tyre!! So how do you get it there?
See when you brake, what your trying to do is squash the front tyre into the ground, this makes the contact patch with the floor bigger & that means more force can be put through it & you’ll stop quicker. All the forceful (heavy) braking in an emergency stop is done at the end, the first few steps are just preparing the bike to do it & making it less likely for something strange to happen.
1) The first step which is key is to simply ‘roll off’ the throttle, simple I know, but this will start the weight transfer to the front tyre. Just practice accelerating then rolling off & see what happens, the bike dives (more like rolls) forward!
2) Now start to gently squeeze the brakes & the bike will roll further forward squashing that tyre down into the road.
3) Now you can pretty much brake like hell because the bike is setup & it isn’t going anywhere lol!!
Ideally your looking to roll off the throttle and start your braking in one movement, just get used to rolling off as your reaching for the brake, then you want to apply your brakes with the same pressure from start to finish say from completely off to fully on over 2 seconds, it doesn’t sound like a lot but think about it the whole braking manuvore from start to finish will only take about 6 seconds & all the heavy braking is done in those last few seconds.
As for your rear brake just apply it at the same gradule speed as the front and you shouldn’t have anymore problems with it.
One final tip, leave your clutch out till the last possible second, this has two advantages,
1) you get the added bonus of ‘engine braking’
2) you will find it much harder to lock your rear wheelHope this helps
May 8, 2010 at 3:30 am #26278Victor1239ParticipantThanks for all your input, passed today with 100% mark!! I took some advice from all the replies!~
After reading the posts last night I realized that I was too hooked on the “emergency” part and trying to stop in too short of a distance. I needed to focus on the procedure not the speed with which I did it. This made it less stressful for sure. The tip of grabbing clutch and brake simultaneously and counting one one-thousand as I smoothly pull on controls helped a lot as well.
Off to buy a bike tomorrow!!
Thanks,May 8, 2010 at 5:11 am #26280gitchy42ParticipantGood job on passing the test!
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