what's YOUR way of practicing emergency braking?

S

SkyRider

Well-known member
Forum Sponsor
my next bike will have ABS but just in case won't. how/where do you practice emergency braking? 2 seasons ago i highsided locking the rear cuz i had to brake hard. dont wanna make the same mistake again. i highsided cuz while i was braking i also swerved a little to avoid the car in front, thus making the bike fishtail too much. now i think back, had i kept the bike 100% upright the bike wouldn't have highsided, and there was still plenty of room to brake.

so as a rule of thumb, is it always better to keep the bike as upright as possible when you emergency brake? even if a bear/deer/cager/baby seal jump in front of you? that must be hard cuz at that point there's so much adrenaline rushing thru your veins and survival instincts take over. i wonder how many people can actually accomplish this.

also, how do you maximize front brake power without locking it and lowsiding? just keep squeezing the lever but NEVER crunch it? for example look at this guy http://www.maxmotorcyclevideos.com/...a-motorcycle-crash-then-leaves-the-scene.html crash starts at 0:09 the car never touched the rider, and there was room for him to dodge the car but he went nuts on the lever and tucked the front.

thoughts?
 
How to do it and where to do it are also parts of the question. On the street you could get charged under HTA. Private property has limitations as well. Over zealous enforcement and anti trespassing could be bothersome. Saafety courses or track days are probably the best bet.
 
I like to practice in the Streetsville GO-station parking lot on an early sunday morning.


BONUS: If you frequently take the go-train and have a monthly pass bring it with you, that way IF security even stopped you you would not be trespassing since you purchased a pass to be there in their parking lot. (They will probably just ask you to leave in that case).
 
Who knows, good chance I would probably still panic if something jumped out at me fast enough.
But practicing has definitely let me feel the upper limits of squeezing that front brake.

Not sure if it's true, but I've heard its better just to keep going straight and try to break for deer. Most riders will swerve to avoid them and crash and it turns out they would not have hit the deer in the first place.
 
rider1106 said:
Who knows, good chance I would probably still panic if something jumped out at me fast enough.
But practicing has definitely let me feel the upper limits of squeezing that front brake.

Not sure if it's true, but I've heard its better just to keep going straight and try to break for deer. Most riders will swerve to avoid them and crash and it turns out they would not have hit the deer in the first place.
Click to expand...

Yup. Trying to dodge around the deer is hit or miss. Unless it's already dead and lying on the pavement, you have no idea what it's going to do so trying to swerve around it is like rolling the dice. You could swerve right into the deer's escape route and hit it hard, or, you could drop the bike or go right off the road into the trees with just the swerve alone.

Instead, brake as hard as possible in straight line. That gets your speed down the fastest while minimizing your chance of dropping the bike.

While you're coming to a fast stop, hopefully the deer will do its part and try to get away from the power-ranger-suited hunter trying to bring it down with a motorcycle. They can move surprising fast when suitably motivated. If you still end up hitting the deer, at least your speed will be (hopefully) greatly diminished.
 
Last edited:
turbodish said:
Instead, brake as hard as possible in straight line. That gets your speed down the fastest while minimizing your chance of dropping the bike.

While you're coming to a fast stop, hopefully the deer will do its part and try to get away from the power-ranger-suited hunter trying to bring it down with a motorcycle. They can move surprising fast when suitably motivated. If you still end up hitting the deer, at least your speed will be (hopefully) greatly diminished.
Click to expand...

That's what I did. The deer did a U turn and spun around, going behind me.
 
Like Turbo said. For my bike I have to lean back a little to avoid sliding forward on the seat, as a bonus the rear end stays down a little more for additional braking.

I generally practice in a large parking lot with no other vehicles around.
Around 40-50 kph to get the feel and sort out the distance that it takes.
A little math and you can approximate your deceleration rate.

Higher speeds don't add much, except danger to the exercise.
 
SkyRider said:
my next bike will have ABS but just in case won't. how/where do you practice emergency braking? 2 seasons ago i highsided locking the rear cuz i had to brake hard. dont wanna make the same mistake again. i highsided cuz while i was braking i also swerved a little to avoid the car in front, thus making the bike fishtail too much. now i think back, had i kept the bike 100% upright the bike wouldn't have highsided, and there was still plenty of room to brake.

so as a rule of thumb, is it always better to keep the bike as upright as possible when you emergency brake? even if a bear/deer/cager/baby seal jump in front of you? that must be hard cuz at that point there's so much adrenaline rushing thru your veins and survival instincts take over. i wonder how many people can actually accomplish this.

also, how do you maximize front brake power without locking it and lowsiding? just keep squeezing the lever but NEVER crunch it? for example look at this guy http://www.maxmotorcyclevideos.com/...a-motorcycle-crash-then-leaves-the-scene.html crash starts at 0:09 the car never touched the rider, and there was room for him to dodge the car but he went nuts on the lever and tucked the front.

thoughts?
Click to expand...


you can brake or you can swerve but you can not do both at the same time with out some skills.
 
I live on a quiet street. I practice one or two emergency stops every time I leave the house before I get to the stop sign at the end of the street. I just grip the tank with my knees to prevent getting jammed too hard into the tank.

I'm a major critic of HTA 172 but I have a hard time believing it would be used against you if you were practicing on an otherwise empty roadway.
 
I don't care what anyone says you can not practice emergency or panic braking. Practicing braking very hard is not an emergency or panic situation. If you know you are going to do something it is not a panic or emergency. Its like a fire drill you planned. You can train all you want but when there is a real fire all hell breaks lose and your plan goes out the window.

When you have an actual emergency like that guy in the video I would bet that 99% of riders will smash the car or grab the brakes and go down. If you think you can stop or avoid that without locking up your either the best rider ever or wait until it happens to you and all the practice emergency braking will go out the window the second you see your life flash before your eyes.
 
darkstar said:
I don't care what anyone says you can not practice emergency or panic braking. Practicing braking very hard is not an emergency or panic situation. If you know you are going to do something it is not a panic or emergency. Its like a fire drill you planned. You can train all you want but when there is a real fire all hell breaks lose and your plan goes out the window.

When you have an actual emergency like that guy in the video I would bet that 99% of riders will smash the car or grab the brakes and go down. If you think you can stop or avoid that without locking up your either the best rider ever or wait until it happens to you and all the practice emergency braking will go out the window the second you see your life flash before your eyes.
Click to expand...

That is BS. Tell that to the MotoGP riders. Taking instinct vs training, your only option is training. The last thing you need is to react instinctively in a life and death situation.
 
You practice quick stops, not panic stops so that your body knows what to do when it's time.You also practice not grabbing a handful of brake. Panicking won't do any good.
 
Instead of practicing emergency braking, practice safe riding so that you never end up in a situation in which you need emergency braking. he he :)
 
The Road Warrior said:
Instead of practicing emergency braking, practice safe riding so that you never end up in a situation in which you need emergency braking. he he :)
Click to expand...
Practicing emergency braking IS practicing safe riding.

Seen any large wildlife on the road ever?
 
Back when I was riding on the street more often, I would practice emergency braking A LOT!!!

I'd usually go to an empty business park off hours. It is usually the best place, because the street is clean, as opposed to parking lots which are usually dirty. Check your tires.... in a parking lot you can usually see a bit of whitish dust on them.

Anyway, going back to braking.... you should practice from different speeds. In the dry YOU HAVE ENOUGH TIME to release the front brake if you lock the front, you just have to know what to expect. So in reality either two things SHOULD happen. You start to Stoppie, so you release the front brake a little if it feels like you are going to keep looping it.... or your front will lock (only happened to me in dusty parking lots) and there is enough time to release the front brake before you crash.

KEY POINT -> Don't grab a huge handful. It is a matter of smoothly, but quickly grabbing the front brake so that the front end loads... the more it loads the harder you can grab the front brake. You should see faint black skid type marks even if you never lock the wheels. (on a supersport)

Also, I find what works best for me is that when I start to load the front I jab down on the rear and start releasing it as I load the front.
 
kiterider said:
That is BS. Tell that to the MotoGP riders. Taking instinct vs training, your only option is training. The last thing you need is to react instinctively in a life and death situation.
Click to expand...

And what percentage of motorcyclists are motoGP riders or have 1/10th the skill of one or the practice time it takes to overcome instinct?
How many people thought they had emergency braking down then had the front slide out when it actually mattered?
Forum Sponsor
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom