Warmer weather braking

[MotoMike]

I was out this morning on my bike and got reminded of the general problems with braking my bike quickly in an emergency type situation. I was approaching a traffic light when it decided to go red on me. I was at a distance from the light where under normal circumstances I would normally gas it and go on the yellow. But I noticed 2 Coweta Co sherriffs cars sitting at the intersection so I made split second decison to try to stop. I hit both brakes harder than usual and both wheels immediately locked up. Non ABS on my F2, I stayed on the brakes, the bike fishtailing but it finally stopped, still upright, about 3-4 feet inside the intersection. I think the cop in the lead car was impressed that he wasn't having to help pick me and the bike up and heard him holler, "It'll happen every time!" as he pulled off.

Bottom line analysis, can't really pinpoint anything I did wrong. Situation was I had prolly coated up the tires good with a lot of oil off the road as I had been riding a few miles in heavily trafficed area, even though I consciously ride to the left or right of the "bigger" oil patch in the center of the lane. And this is after we got a 1/2 inch rain 2 days ago, doesn't take long to get a slippery surface I guess. I was running 45 mph, the speed limit, when I hit the brakes. Fortunately no one was ahead of me.

Basic reminders I came away with was 1) Increase following distance in traffic , and 2) Consider lowering speeds in areas with more potential needs to stop quickly.

[ramm]

Glad it ended good for ya man. :up:

Could have been a bad ending

[redciv1]

Nice work. I have never locked up the front tire, although back tire plenty of times. Since I am still a relative newbie with 3K on the clock, I took a lesson from cars and Auto-xing and would go to a empty parking lot with lots of room and purposely lock up the brakes to see how the bike would handle in that situation, so that when it happens on the road, I won't be so surprise with the bikes reaction. I tried to lock my front up a couple of times but came close to doing a stoppier. Good job.

[Derrick]

Good job getting it stopped and keeping it upright. I know it's hard to think in a 'panic' situation, but if you can apply the front brake gradually to get the weight shifted forward on to the front wheel to give it more grip to stop and then really get on the brakes it may prevent a slide next time. Just my 2 cents.

[NiceGuysFinishLast]

Go practice panic stops. Not 5, not 10, hundreds, until it's muscle memory. I can count on one hand the number of times I've locked a wheel not on purpose during hard braking. Learn the limits of your bike. Never grab, always squeeze. Glad it turned out ok for ya. Also, just something to consider (And I don't need an answer if you don't feel like it, just think about it and be honest with yourself), did you even check your mirrors to see if your panic stop was going to end up with you getting hurt worse than going through the light? Glad you're unhurt, and ticketless. And better, shiny side up!

[Georgiacbr]

Glad it ended good for ya man. :up:

Could have been a bad ending

Yea No armor all on the wheels LOL......

[MotoMike]

Go practice panic stops. Not 5, not 10, hundreds, until it's muscle memory. I can count on one hand the number of times I've locked a wheel not on purpose during hard braking. Learn the limits of your bike. Never grab, always squeeze. Glad it turned out ok for ya. Also, just something to consider (And I don't need an answer if you don't feel like it, just think about it and be honest with yourself), did you even check your mirrors to see if your panic stop was going to end up with you getting hurt worse than going through the light? Glad you're unhurt, and ticketless. And better, shiny side up!

This entire event happened in 3-4 seconds. I've got over 30+ years exp street riding and 5 yrs on dirt. I was relativey certain no one was right behind me when I hit the brakes. One question is would I have been better off not even touching the rear brake? Purpose of my post is to share exp with newer riders who may not have encountered this situation yet. One thing I would definitely recommend to all riders is to get some dirt riding exp to help become a better street rider. I rode street for 20 yrs before getting on dirt and was amazed how much dirt exp helped my street riding skills. All my reactions in this short time frame were automatic pretty much. I think MSF has some basic dirt courses they offer if budget problems haven't cut them out?

[NiceGuysFinishLast]

Sounds like you know what's up and did the best you could. You'll get varying answers from everyone about using your rear brake. My personal opinion: In a straight line, emergency braking situation (to eliminate all the naysayers claiming I'm going to highside myself), you get better results with both brakes than just once. That's just physics. Even with weight transfer to the front from braking, unless you endo and pull the rear wheel off the ground, the rear wheel is helping brake.That rear wheel is providing more braking force when it's rolling and being acted upon by the brake than it is when it's locked up and skidding (which also obviously reduces your control over the bike). Two wheels + two brakes is better than 1 wheel and 1 brake. Again, just my opinion, but physics backs me up.

[MotoMike]

Sounds like you know what's up and did the best you could. You'll get varying answers from everyone about using your rear brake. My personal opinion: In a straight line, emergency braking situation (to eliminate all the naysayers claiming I'm going to highside myself), you get better results with both brakes than just once. That's just physics. Even with weight transfer to the front from braking, unless you endo and pull the rear wheel off the ground, the rear wheel is helping brake.That rear wheel is providing more braking force when it's rolling and being acted upon by the brake than it is when it's locked up and skidding (which also obviously reduces your control over the bike). Two wheels + two brakes is better than 1 wheel and 1 brake. Again, just my opinion, but physics backs me up.


Yeah, I tend to agree with you on using both brakes, the bike actually stopped in 30-35 ft from 45mph

CBR, yup, its amazing the feel of the tires trying to stop quick, it felt just like they were slicked up with some sort of Armor All or something which of course they weren't.

[ramm]

Yea No armor all on the wheels LOL......

:facepalm:

:lol: That was pretty damn funny.

[NiceGuysFinishLast]

Never armor all your seat. (oops...)

[Georgiacbr]

Never armor all your seat. (oops...)

Why do all seem to have some experinces here with Armor all (LOL). yea I ****ed up and cleaned my tires with that stuff and was following ram and Had No braking causing me to run a red light that recently turned Red (Yikes).