@
ZeroGravity360 @
lizardywizard
Over in the "250 not fast enough?" thread I posted about braking hard.
https://www.ninjette.org/forums/show...7&postcount=88
Rather than derail that conversation even further, I thought I'd pass along a little tip for you. This comes from the friendly folks who run the track days I go to.
You can brake INCREDIBLY hard on a motorcycle. Much harder than you believe possible. You can literally lift the rear of the bike clear off the ground, using just two fingers (i.e., a stoppie). It's a lot harder on a Ninjette with its single disc, but on a supersport it's easy.
Now, stoppies are not part of your regular riding skillset, nor should they be. But hard braking definitely should be.
The key is to not lose the front end. You've got a small contact patch supporting all those forces, and once it gives up the bike is going to lowside and you'll thank your lucky stars that you're ATGATT.
To keep that from happening give yourself as much traction as you can.
And yes, you can INCREASE the tire's available traction. Here's how: first you load the front by squeezing gently (I don't mean light as a feather... I simply mean enough to start braking; the point here is that you do NOT grab the whole freakin' thing RIGHT NOW!!!).
What that does is compress the front tire, making it "squish." The contact patch spreads out and grows, giving you more traction. Then you can squeeze REALLY hard.
It's a relatively fast thing, but it's definitely a "squeeze, then SQUEEZE" not a "squeezeSQUEEZE."
If you apply the brakes too hard, too fast, you overwhelm the tire before it has a chance to squish. By loading it gently first, you get more traction and THEN you can brake harder.
Great video about this. Pertinent stuff starts at 2:00. At 3:00 you'll see a graphic demonstration of what happens when you suddenly load a tire, vs. loading gently before you lean on it.
Link to original page on YouTube.
Two other things:
1) When you brake hard your instinct will be to stiffen your arms to keep you from sliding forward. Think about what that does... it makes controlling the bike almost impossible, because your arms are locked. The correct technique is to squeeze the tank with your knees and keep your arms as loose as possible. This is what Stomp Grips are for.
2) Your tire only has so much traction. That traction must deal with three kinds of forces: acceleration, cornering and braking. Think of it as if you have 100 points of traction. Note that this is not an absolute measure... using the technique above you'll get more traction to begin with -- the "traction pie" gets bigger -- but for our purposes it's still "100 points."
If you're using all 100 points in braking and you lean over even a bit (i.e. add cornering force) then you will exceed the traction limits of the tire and it will skid. The reverse is also true. If you're cornering at the limit and using all 100 points for that, then touch the brake and you tuck the front. When you see a MotoGP rider lowside for no apparent reason, that's what has happened.
This allocation of traction among cornering forces is why the MSF teaches you to stand the bike up BEFORE you emergency brake. They know that new riders are far more likely to panic and grab all the brake they can, so they want to keep you safe by giving you as much traction for braking as possible by reducing cornering load.
More advanced riders are able to balance braking and turning forces better... which is what trail braking is all about.
For new riders, though, walk before you run. Trail braking is an advanced technique.
As a new rider, you may wonder how you know when you're reaching the limit. Short answer is that at the speeds you're traveling and the forces you're dealing with, you're nowhere near the limit in dry conditions unless you do something REALLY stupid, so don't worry about it. In the wet, be more gentle and smooth in all you do.