Riding motorcycle is one of thing which gives great amount of pleasure for most of people, who prefers 2 wheels over 4s. But this pleasurable activity comes with its own Risk factors. Many Things become bit unstable on 2 wheels. Therefore we have brought following article for new budding riders to make understand braking parameters and usage more precisely when riding motorcycle.
It's fact that motorcycles are always been fun factor in life, and then it doesn't matters if you are roaring your engine in silent zone or zooming through highway. As the technology increases, more advance types of bikes getting in our hands which have insane amount of acceleration capabilities and some of them even goes beyond safe controlling zone of riders.
Accessing speed is matter of seconds on modern motorcycle, But braking in exact time while avoiding accidents and getting ahead of dangerous obstacles or turning safely to desire direction can make difference between life and death. As for rider, controlling bike in most demanding and cautious situations is very important skills. One should constantly learn from past incidents to expand their riding skills.
It's our
chapter one of braking guide, We're going to flash some highlight on few basic things and explaining basic principles involve in motorcycle braking. Future articles will go deeper in science and info clearing many vital things.
The Tyre
Tyre is hardware to which braking have most direct and final relation, Basically Tyre provides friction between your bike and surface you're riding. Therefore choosing right type of tyre is very important thing. In money saving favour you may choose hard compound tyre which comes cheap and lasts longer, but remember hard compound rubber have bad traction property with road which causes your bike slide during hard hard braking which ultimately cause bike fall if you dont have experience with sliding, That's the reason experts always advices to choose soft compound rubber tyre which have excellent traction level on road , though it have little bit higher costs compare to that hard compound rubber tyre but no way its higher than human life!
Grip
After determining the right type of tyre for your bike , you have to determine have much grip you're getting. Why ? because grip is actual traction level between your tyre's contact with road surface. While friction is principle that provides forward motion when your do pull accelerator.
Motorbike's grip depends upon number factors , such as presence of undulations, uneven surface road and presence of water. Physical condition of tyres and its type. Old tyres or wrong type chosen for road you're riding can affect grip level with bad manners, Bike can be victim of skidding and braking distance can be significantly increase.
Same way wet road conditions means less grip level and more chances of skid, In such conditions its important that rider should understand and get idea of their bikes grip level and road contact section. Knowing your bike better also helps to build more confidence to ride bike in critical grip conditions.
Grip is one of the most vital factor while braking, more contact between the tyres and road , the more influence of braking power get applied, while less the stopping range, which is good in fact. Grip nature also changes according to weight , Therefore we should keep in mind that heavy weight bikes have more inertial force while in motion, that's the reason heavy bikes requires more braking distance and stronger braking bite or force.
On flipside lightweight bikes prone to lose grip from road easily due to which they can skid easily compare to heavy bikes. Keeping this weight difference in mind will help you to decide which is right bike for you and your riding style.
While riding there are various type of forces acts upon motorcycle which causes significant changes to riding behaviors of machine, Including the weight shifts to front or rear depends upon whether bike is braking or accelerating. As grip dramatically affects by the weight, therefore bike's contact with road surface and stability constantly varying accordingly, while you pull accelerator the weight is transfers towards rear, presses tyre more deeply to road getting more grip level over doing ultimately causes rear end power slides which can make bike out of control.
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| Power slide |
Leaving your accelerator off or reducing throttle amount than current velocity of bike causes engine braking, this happens in all modern four stroke engines, tends to slow down bike, re-distributing the weight and if you apply front brakes little bit, you'll instantly feel the weight of motorcycle and your own too, being pushed to front ,causing the phenomenon which is famous among riders "Dive", and if you apply front brake harder more weight will get transfer to front end of motorcycle and thus cause bike to stop immediately due to more grip on front tyre , but be aware before over doing this, cause applying too much pressure on front can cause rear end too much light and can even possibly you'll find yourself doing stoppies or out of control because of crossing front tyre's threshold grip level.
No matter what type of motorcycle you're riding there's always very small size of contact patch between tyre's and road ,and it gets even smaller when bike gets in motion. braking and all riding techniques are stays on the mercy of this small contact patch. It depends upon riders how cleverly they utilizes this contact patch to slows down bike and to reach home safely.
Braking is a one kind of skill and just like any skill braking needs to develop by observations and practices. Keeping vision on all the parameters what's happening between two wheels can give you lots of information about how you should maneuver your bike towards your desire destination in one shot; Even if you miss few of changes happening over road situations can turn good things into deadly bad such as going out of grip ,leaving actual lane and crashing to oncoming traffic or roadside crash.
Chapter tip :- always keep in mind grip or traction is key factor here , which helps you to go faster as well as to slow down bike safely.
The front and rear brake of bike is meant to be use simultaneously in most demanding situations. The load shifting as explain above is very important reason to apply both brakes; clever balance of braking technique is required to compensate dynamic weight shifting occurs due to various physical forces acting upon moving motorcycle.
All you have to remember about weight shifting is: during acceleration the weight of bike moves rearwards , apply brake hard and weight sift towards front tyre. What important thing you have to remember is effect of this dynamic changes: as weight shifts to rear wheel, front end starts to get lighter and lighter and starts to lose traction from road. And if you happen to twist accelerator even harder you will find front wheel leaves the ground and raise towards sky , which means you're doing power wheelie.
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| Power wheelie |
At the time you're braking harder , it's rear wheel that tends to lose traction and there comes very much chances of side skidding if you don't take proper steps to stop deadly situation. In order to minimize traction loss and rear wheel lift effect, You must apply rear brake, also known as foot brake. Applying foot brake before front brake will compensate the weight shifting and thus helps to get back bike's balance.
The harder you apply front brake, the more precisely you need to apply rear brake so as not to lock both wheels and losing total control. You need to have more practice on bike with no ABS enable brakes installed. And there's no guarantee that same technique will work in all weather conditions, So it's just you who can figure out your bike's brakes at it's most potential capabilities.
If you ever ask most experienced riders out there, they'll point out that: braking should start with gently applying rear brake followed very shortly by main front brake. The front brake alone provides around 60 to 80 percentage of stopping power. How! well let's know the following facts.
When you apply brake, the weight shifts to front and tyre squeezes more to road surface thus pressure per inch on tyre's contact patch increases and collective result is more grip!
Bike's usually have Disk brake at front which are bigger than rear drum brake or even rear disks why? because manufacturer knows fact that it's useless to put bigger disks at rear cause rear end doesn't have as much grip as front, and even if rear brake is triggered extremely, end result is always rear end skids and fishtailing.
No matter if you wants to braking at higher speeds or slower, The basic principle is same cause various dynamics acting upon moving bike never gets change( atleast on earth). if you're riding at high speed and looking to slow down your bike to more controllable speed, you could just apply front brake carefully. while if you wants to stop your bike in shortest distance, your braking must start from rear wheel.
But why with rear brake? because looking at the various forces acting upon moving motorcycle, It is recommended to start braking with rear wheel , cause doing so shifts some weight to front wheel and then you can apply front brake hardly with less front end dive, which ultimately let you to slow down much faster.
In later chapters we will explain electronically assisted Linked braking systems or Combo braking system , where electronics applies both brakes even when one brake is triggered. And How electronics can correct human error while riding motorcycles.
Chapter brief:- budding and less experienced riders should always keep in mind that correct braking technique is in applying front and rear brakes , and starting with rear break first . learn to understand and feel bikes braking parameters and load shifting or weight shifting effects, sure It'll be helpful for your whole lifetime riding.
You may like to read
Beginners Guide of Riding Part 1
