Braking & Stopping

The Ultimate Guide For Motorcyclists

Course 1

By STEVEN BAILEY

Introduction

Braking is one of the pillars of motorcycling with a significant impact on your safety and confidence on the road. Most of us had the first active experience in traffic with bicycles; even without an engine, you can quickly find yourself in a situation where you have to test your brakes. In the optimal scenario, you already familiarised yourself with brakes and the vehicle’s specifics in a safe environment. If not, you had to do so in an uncontrolled situation with other traffic participants, and that’s where the consequences can be harsh.
We can read all about braking in various books and on the internet. All the information is important for sure – more or less all the knowledge that we have about braking can make us a better rider.

But how sure can you be that you’ll apply all the knowledge when you’re in a tough spot? When a car driver recklessly turns in front of us, when we realise our speed is too high to react to quickly approaching obstacles – that’s where you’ll want all your knowledge to instantly kick in. This is why practice and real-life training is extra important. We need to be sure that we will know how to react, and do so in time to save the situation.
This course is special because we will focus on obtaining real-life results. We will cover all of the theory of braking on a motorcycle to fully understand the concepts and comprehend the physics behind it, then we will do a step forward and show you how to apply it all in real life situations and help you train so it becomes second nature.

Important: There are some parts in this guide that might seem really obvious. I will describe some situations or flows of thought that are already completely and seamlessly integrated into your day-to-day riding. Please bear along and try to visualise even these paragraphs. It might help you in a sticky situation one day!

“But how sure can you be that you’ll apply all the knowledge when you’re in a tough spot? When a car driver recklessly turns in front of us, when we realise our speed is too high to react to speedily approaching obstacles – that’s where you’ll want all your knowledge to instantly kick in. This is why practice and real-life training is extra, extra important. “

Under each important “pillar” we will show you a few video examples for better course understanding. There are some crucial videos that every motorcyclist should see (they are marked with a 🌟) and there are some a bit less important but also very beneficial in order to better understand the techniques. We have also prepared a set of exercises (you will find them at the bottom of the page) for crucial chapters that you will be able to do yourself. They are divided into 4 categories:

🏠 Home > exercises that can be done at home without a motorcycle
🛠 Garage > exercises that can be done on a parked motorcycle
🅿️ Parking lot > exercises that are meant to be done in a safe environment without any other moving objects
🏍Traffic > exercises that can be done while riding a motorcycle

Remember, you can access this course and all the materials at any time. Make sure to take a break or two.

Let’s dig in!

1. Situation assessment

Good situation assessment is a skill that is crucial for all motorcyclists. As a fun fact, one thing we’ve noticed over the years of hosting various vehicle safety events is that almost everyone who drives both a motorcycle and a car performs significantly better on Car Safety courses than attendees who only drive cars. Riding a motorcycle will make you a better rider in any vehicle, as it teaches you to always keep full focus and forces you to actively assess every situations to keep yourself safe. There are four main factors we have to pay attention to:

1.1 Weather

I want to talk about the weather first. We are all aware that weather conditions are crucial for our braking abilities.

And now you are all thinking about rain. 🙂

Obviously, rain has a tremendous affect on traction and brake performance but it is far from being the only important factor. So what do we have to take into account? Obviously before every ride we will check the weather report. We will pay extra attention to four major markers: temperature, humidity, wind and rain/sun/cloudiness. It is important that we check these markers but not only for the day that we are planning to ride but also for at least 1-2 days before, because this can still affect today’s road conditions. The temperature of the environment and the road affect the temperature of the tire. And Tire Temperature is crucial for strong and confident braking. If you notice that the temperature dropped bellow 50℉ (10℃) in the last night or two you will need to adjust your riding style. In such circumstances you need to know that you will have to warm your tire by driving a bit further before applying maximum braking force. Also, keep in mind that the road might still be wet in some shady places if the temperatures in the last few days did not go over 60℉(15℃).

* pro tip > Optimum tire temperatures begin at 70℉ (20°C) which will feel quite cool to touch, while a temperature of 95℉ (35°C) feels pleasantly warm. In turn, heat closer to 140℉ (60°C) will make you take your hand away from the tire.

*pro tip > Do not adjust the pressure of warm tires. They’re designed to work at a specific pressure and all manufacturers have strict instructions about measuring tyre pressure > you need to measure the pressure when cold, before the ride.

Temperature – if it is sunny we usually love to go for a ride and there are some riders that only ride in sunny, warm weather. Since you are not one of those, you will need to take the weather into consideration and adjust your riding style even if it’s not raining on the day of your ride.

Humidity is also important since it is harder to ride in a humid environment; we get tired faster and our response time can be slower.

Wind – This is very important for our stability. As stability is vital for stopping we need to take it into account. Especially lateral (front) wind can push up on the upper side of motorcycle forcing you to unintentionally turn. Especially for inexperienced riders this can be a very unpleasant surprise. When passing by large vehicles or other large objects, make sure to consciously remember that you’ll feel a gush of wind so you don’t panic.

Since we have a full course about road and weather conditions these are just the basics which we have to take into consideration when assessing the daily riding situation.

1.2 Other Traffic Participants

Are you alone on the road or are there a lot of participants around you? How are they moving? A car, a scooter, bicycles and pedestrians, animals, road workers – there’s a bunch of traffic participants at any given moment. Is the flow of traffic calm, do you need to expect the unexpected? Although a motorcyclist always needs to be prepared to stop the motorcycle, it is necessary to understand the difference between riding alone on some vacant road or sharing the road with other participants. As a skilled rider you should never be caught off-guard: even if a child jumps onto the road in front of you when riding down a street or if a bicyclist loses control due to some road debris right in front of you. This is something that we need to take into account – and most of us already do. But it should not stress us out. We need to practice our mindfulness and traffic awareness until it becomes a part of our subconsciousness. Try and go for a ride in an urban area and pay extra attention to everything around you – you’ll get a great insight into what your brain processes at every single moment.

1.3 Environment specifics

We already talked about always expecting the unexpected – it’s important to factor in some specifics of your local environment. Rush hour makes people much more nervous and not as attentive. This can cause some stressful traffic situations (especially if filtering / lane splitting is allowed where you live). You know your local environment better than us – take a moment and think about a thing or two that can influence your ride.

1.4 Your state of mind

Probably the most important factor of them all. Make sure you’re in the right state of mind before you sit on your motorcycle. Try to be honest with yourself and take a moment to relax and think instead of turning on the ignition when you’re stressed, exhausted, sleepy or under the influence of alcohol. Please make sure you can perform to the best of your ability – if not for yourself, for your loved ones and everyone around you.

Summary

> Always check the weather (temperature, wind, rain, humidity)

> Consider the number of other traffic participants

> Think about your current state of mind

PRACTICE ZONE

#1 Tire Temperature

Put your hand on the tire and try to guess the temperature:

– Before the ride
– After 30 minutes of riding
– When you finish your ride

Do this in different weather conditions and try to compare the difference in temperature to the feeling of control you had while on the road. You’ll soon have a great feeling of how your tires will perform in different conditions with one quick touch.

#2 Filming your ride

Having a camera attached to you or your motorcycle is always a good idea. You’ll record a lot of fun stuff, and the footage can come in handy in some situations. If you have the option, film a short segment of your ride, then take a break and watch the footage. Is there something you’ve missed? Were you positioned correctly or exposed to a less-than-perfect situation?

A different perspective can offer some great insight.

#3 The perfect state of mind

Your state of mind will not only impact your riding experience, but it will also make you safer as well.

One of the oldest and best techniques for relaxing is meditating or simply taking a moment to slow down and breathe.

– Sit on your motorcycle, deeply inhale and flex all the muscles you can. Grab the handlebar with your hands, squeeze the motorcycle between your thighs.

After 15 seconds take 5 deep, slow breaths.

This will help you immediately relax.
Hint: This is useful in other situations as well, not only on motorcycles

#4 Mindfulness

When you finish riding for the day and park your beast, take a moment and go through all the significant events of that day’s ride. What was the strongest you had to brake? Try to remember the details of a short segment of your ride. How many details can you remember? What color were the cars parked on the side of the road? Was there a dedicated bike lane?

This is how you train your mind to pay attention to every little detail on the road

2. Braking on a Motorcycle and the Physics behind it

A typical motorcycle has an even weight distribution between the front and rear tire.

After you activate your front brake the distribution will change to at least 70/30 in favor of the front tire. This means 70% of the weight will fall onto the front tire. More weight on the front tire translates to significantly more braking force and pressure on the front tire. This is why front brakes are usually a lot bigger and stronger than rear ones.

There are some rather complex physics concepts behind momentum and braking itself (you can find out more by clicking here), but our goal is to cover just enough to know how to properly utilize the full potential of brakes.

The figure below shows that the deceleration amount increases with the friction coefficient of the front tire.

If I switch the words around a bit – this means that the harder you brake, the more force will be applied to the front tire.

❗️ Important: Because of this, a lot of motorcyclists fall when panic braking, as they do not expect the sudden deceleration which can make you feel like you’ll fall over the handlebar. More on this below. With the standarisation of ABS systems on new motorcycles, this risk of the front tire locking up is decreased, but not completely eliminated.

The chart bellow shows that the maximum deceleration is achieved when both the tires are used in harmony.

As an example, coefficient of friction equaling 0.8 (dry asphalt) for both tires; the maximum deceleration (0.8g) is achieved with a braking ratio equal to 90:10.

For friction coefficient of 0.4 (wet asphalt), the maximum deceleration (0.4g) is achieved with a braking ratio equal to 70:30. The key takeaway here is that on dry surface, you’ll almost completely rely on your front brake, on wet surface you’ll want to use the rear brake a bit more. More on this below. If you want to dig into the math, you can do so here.

Since this is not a high school physics class we need to translate this into everyday use.

There are still some (luckily rare) people who will advise you to only brake with the rear tyre. In fact they even taught that in some driving schools decades ago. They could not be more wrong! On the other side some riders will try to convince you only the front tire counts.
As you can see from the charts above the optimum braking ratio is at least 70% of the force on the front tire, up to 90% depending on traction. In dry conditions, with tyres properly heated you can easily put 80% + force on the front tyre. As an example consider the coefficient of friction of 0.8 for both tires (this translates to a nice, clean, dry asphalt) ; the maximum deceleration (0.8g) is achieved with a braking ratio equal to 90:10. Using the front brake only, the maximum deceleration is equal to 0.67g; using only the rear brake is equal to only 0.29g. (chart on the image above)

Now that we talked about the physics behind braking and covered the force ratio between the front and rear tire – what does that mean in practice? How do you know how much force you’re applying to a brake at certain moment. You do not need to worry about this (unless you’re a professional racer), just keep in mind that most of the force goes to front tire which you will gradually squeeze as hard as you can, and add the rear brake as well. If you focus and use the front brake confidently you will always achieve a good ratio and it is very unlikely that you would press on the rear brake too hard. But just to be completely sure, keep in mind to always start with the front brake and apply the rear brake a moment or two later. This is just the basics – some other techniques may apply during emergency braking, corner braking or downhill braking (we will cover all of this in following chapters).

2.1 Engine braking

If you are not a complete beginner you must have found hundreds of questions, blogs and videos on the topic of engine braking. As it is with any topic, there are different takes on the subject.
First of all, it is important to understand that engine braking DOES NOT harm your motorcycle. Unless you are downshifting from 5th gear to 2nd when riding 100mph and putting the engine into red zone RPM, engine braking does not harm your motorcycle in any way. And it also doesn’t negatively effect your braking. When you are stopping your motorcycle regularly (stopping in normal circumstances) you will release the throttle, squeeze the front and rear brake according to ratios mentioned above and start downshifting. As you are downshifting, the engine braking comes into play and will slow you down while still allowing you to quickly speed up if necessary. You can also make use of engine braking when you are slowing down and not coming to a full stop, and especially when you are riding downhill.

On the other hand, in our opinion you should never use engine braking during emergency braking situations. We will cover that in separate chapter.

2.2 Different Braking Systems

Newer motorcycles are equipped with advanced driving asystance systems such as Combined braking system CBS (also called linked braking system – LBS) and Anti-Lock Braking System (ABS). The main principle of the CBS in motorcycles is engaging both front and rear brakes by applying pressure on only one brake lever. That means the system will redistribute the applied braking forces to front and rear brake even if a rider only uses one. This is especially useful for beginners and inexperienced riders, but can lead to some uncomfortable situations if you switch to a motorcycle without this technology, so we do not recommend relying on it – instead try to manually apply the correct force to brakes yourself.
The Anti-Lock Brake System is a very advanced and safe feature to have. ABS (anti-lock braking system), as the name implies – prevents your wheels from locking – the sensor detects the tire locking up and releases the brake just before the wheel gets locked and then re-applies it. This basically means that a motorcyclist will be able to stop the vehicle by applying full force to brakes efficiently without locking the tires. As you will see in the “vision” chapter, the maximum braking power that a skilled non-professional motorcyclist can achieve is about 1G, but most can handle much less (up to 0.7g or even less). ABS allows inexperienced riders to brake with a constant force of approximately 0.85G, vastly decreasing the stopping distance.

Especially for beginners, this is an amazing feature that can prevent many accidents, but it is best to use it as a redundant feature. Never rely on it. Instead, aim to learn the limits of your motorcycle in a safe, controlled environment.

2.3 Body position during braking

Correct body positioning is crucial for safe and strong braking. Your hands should rest on the handlebar with the outer side of palms bearing most of the weight. The index and middle finger should always (unless you are accelerating) rest on the front brake lever. There are riders who don’t believe in this approach – keep in mind that your reaction time is very important and you have to learn how to gradually squeeze the brake lever. This is much harder to achieve if all of your fingers are on the handlebar. Keep two fingers on the brake lever. It’s the best thing you can do to improve your reaction time. As for your foot – it should always be prepared to step on the brake lever at any given moment. Try not to position it in some strange way even if it feels more comfortable for you.

When you heavily apply the brakes you need to tuck down (chest down, butt back), as if you were trying to push the footrest into the ground. This is how you keep the rear wheel down and the front wheel stable. You do this to prevent the front locking up and sliding out which can happen if your body weight is over the front pivot point. Your hands should not be straightened or clutched but rather relaxed so you can react and adjust if necessary. Your legs should firmly and confidently hug the body of the motorcycle. Keep your wrists flat (not upright) so when you release the throttle your hand is in the perfect position for applying the brakes. If you’re looking directly at the front tire, this can easily make you disoriented. Your eyes should aim straight ahead.

PRACTICE ZONE

#5 Correct body position

Sit on your motorcycle and place yourself into the correct braking position.

– Eyes forward,
– two fingers on the brake lever,
– foot on the brake pedal,
– body tucked,
– legs clenching the body of the motorcycle.

It’s highly encouraged to do this before every ride so your muscle memory can kick in when needed.

Take a picture – a different perspective can help you improve. You can also email me (steven@motocourses.com) or Jason (jason@motocourses.com) and we’ll take a look and send a tip or two!

2.3 Head position

Looking and seeing is essential when on a motorcycle. Even when it comes to braking.

Correctly position your head. This sets the tone for your entire body – never look where you are going always look towards where you want to be. When it comes to braking this is an absolute must. For quick, strong and efficient braking it is essential that your motorcycle is upright and moving completely straight forward. Can you achieve this without looking directly ahead?
Lets try a simple exercise: find a straight line on a parking lot and try to slowly drive straight on top of that line. Now go again, but this time tilt and hold your head right. You will see a significant difference that will help you understand it is nearly impossible to hold your motorcycle completely straight if your eyes are not focused on the destination. Now try to drive on the line by looking directly at the front tire of the motorcycle (on the line in front of the motorcycle). Then try again and find a bigger object at the end of the line (you can put a cone at the end, a tree will also be ok – so something that is far away but in a same line). You will discover that it is much easier to drive straight when your head is upright looking forward towards the point where you want to go. The same goes for braking.

2.4 Field of View

We measure distance on the go by comparing known objects. When you’re standing still or driving slowly, this is quite easy. Things become a bit different at higher speed. Keep this in mind and allow yourself some extra stopping distance at high speeds. This is something that’s difficult to practice. But don’t worry, you’ll get a hang of it after a few thousand miles! Everyone picks their own reference point. The width of the road, the space taken by 3 consecutive cars. If you have a special trick to estimate distance, let us know!

2.5 Stopping distance

Let’s go through the stopping distance at different speeds. As you can see in the chart above a stopping distance consists of thinking distance and braking distance. Thinking distance is the distance which we travel before we start braking. You need to keep in mind that a healthy person in a good form can react in 0.5s; but more realistic on the road this is usually 0.7s. That means that, at a speed of 70mph you will drive approximately 20m even before you even start braking. Stopping distance is the distance in which an average motorcycle is capable of stopping. Here’s a useful Velocity Calculator. Here’s a Stopping Distance Calculator. Try it out! As a fun fact, the average deceleration rate in MotoGP is 0.8G, maximum 1.8G. Us non-professional but experienced riders can handle roughly 0.8G.

#6 Improving your stopping distance perception

Go to an empty parking lot and place one cone that will mark the “start of braking”. Place another cone on the 15ft mark, 30ft, 45ft mark and 60ft mark. Accelerate to 10mph (15kph) and test your stopping distance. You can increase your speed a bit but do not exaggerate. Keep in mind this is only meant so you get the feeling for necessary stopping distance. We’ll cover strong braking in the emergency braking chapter.

2.6 The 2-second rule

3. Regular braking

Regular braking might be a poor expression. It refers to situations when we need to slow down or stop our motorcycle and we are not in an emergency. One question pops up: when are we in an emergency? This is something that every rider has to assess in each individual situation but for the sake of argument lets say that we are in an emergency braking situation when we are not absolutely sure that we will be capable of slowing down our motorcycle to the speed that we need to perform a maneuver or stop the motorcycle. With the experience that you will gain and exercises that you will do those situations will be very rare so most of your braking will be “regular”. So we might also define “regular” braking as a braking where you do not need and you are not applying full braking force.

Even though we have enough time and space and we don’t need to fully apply the brakes, it’s the perfect opportunity to practice the basic elements of braking.

Let’s repeat:

3.1 Looking

As mentioned before – always look in front of you in the direction of driving (stopping) when you start braking. This is something that you want to train every time you are braking. Of course you need to look around, check the surroundings, check your speed, assess the distance and the behaviour of traffic participants, BUT once once you grab the brake, your must be looking forward in the direction of riding while being focused on the stopping point (or maneuver point). It may sound strange to do this when stopping in a city at 20mph but trust me here, this is something that we want to stick into our heads and the easiest way is for our brains to make an instant connection BRAKE-VIEW.

Even though we have enough time and space and we don’t need to fully apply the brakes, it’s the perfect opportunity to practice the basic elements of braking.

3.2 Position of the motorcycle

Always start braking when your motorcycle is upright and straight. This is one of those things you learn the easy or the hard way, but you definitely do not want to learn this the hard way at higher speeds. So always double-check and straighten your motorcycle, look forward and start braking.

3.3 Your position

The next four videos are great, but not absolutely essential. You can easily skip them. Make sure to watch the one with the ⭐️ tag, as it conveys a significant amount of great information.

No one has the perfect, proper, strong braking position every time they brake. It is a bit tiring and since we are not a professional racer this can affect our riding in short term (fatigue sets in sooner). The second thing is that we want our brains to associate the perfect position with emergency situations and strong braking. Nevertheless, there are two elements you want to incorporate into your regular braking routine:
Wrist position: keep your wrist flat when you grab the throttle, that way when you release the throttle you will have the brakes on your hand. DO NOT start from above since your fingers will not be in the correct position for braking when releasing the throttle. This is explained by MC Rider in the video below:

Hand position:

Your hands need to be relaxed at all times. Do not hang on to the handlebar when riding and definitely do not hang on the handlebar during braking. It is important to gently control the handlebar – not by pressing, pushing or hanging on it. As Mike on the Bike says, you should be holding the handlebar as you would be holding baby cheeks that you don’t want to crush. ⭐️

3.4 The 70/30 rule

Never use just rear brake, it is not effective enough and you definitely do not want to train your brain to only use the rear brake in panic situations. That is why you should always apply the front brake, no matter how gently you’re braking. In the video below you can see the difference between braking with both brakes or just braking with the rear brake.

Now some riders might suggest to only use the rear brake in the last section of braking when your motorcycle is already stopping in order to smooth out normal stopping. This is something that some experienced riders do, but I wouldn’t give much thought to it. If you like it go ahead, but I would not especially recommend it – definitely not until you have perfected your braking skills.

Engine braking is a core element of braking and very useful, especially if you are just temporarily slowing down and the motorcycle has to be prepared for a sudden acceleration. Be careful though, engine braking on motorcycle can be rather hard and drivers behind you more often than not – don’t know you are slowing down.

3.5 Gradually squeeze the brakes

Never ever just grab the brake with a stiff and sudden movement. Every time that you apply the brakes try to squeeze the lever gradually like squeezing the juice out of an orange. Start slowly and gradually apply more force to the point of maximum force. This is a skill that can’t be learned without practice and you should definitely practice it every time you stop the motorcycle. But since the average rider is not riding a motorcycle every day, we added an exercise you can do at home. But first, we heavily recommend watching the video below

PRACTICE ZONE

#7 Squeezing the ball

Get yourself a soft foam ball – even a regular stress relief ball will do. Gently and gradually squeeze it with your index and middle finger, until you reach the point of maximum force. Then do this with all of your fingers. This is a great way to improve your muscle memory and wrist mobility.

This is especially useful if you work in an office – it will help improve the circulation of your hands and prevent stiff fingers.

It’s very beneficial to anyone who does hard labour – this will help you get a better feel of control in your palms and it will relax your muscles after a hard day’s work!

⭐️#8 Reaction time testing and improving

We want to reduce our reaction time to shorten our stopping distance.

This website measures your reaction time: https://humanbenchmark.com/tests/reactiontime

Visit the page

Grip your mouse in the way shown on the sketch. Two fingers on the left-click button. This simulates your finger position on the brakes. Go through at least 5 runs to get an average score of your reaction time. Write it down and repeat at least twice per week. You can decrease your reaction time by as much as 50ms!

3.6 The Leg-down dilemma

This one is fairly easy. You should never put your foot down until your motorcycle has stopped (at exact moment or short moment before). We see far too often riders who do not have control of their motorcycle, flailing their legs around 100ft before they stop. This is not safe, it is not stable and it is definitely not something that you want to do. Always try to keep your feet on the bike up to the point the your bike has fully stopped. The second question or I might say a subject of disagreement is whether you should put both of your feet down or is one enough. I’d say this is up to you – whatever gives you the most comfort and confidence. Nevertheless this does not mean that you shouldn’t train and learn both ways. We strongly believe that you should be able to stop with putting just one foot down even though you might be using both feet later on.

⭐️ Important: if you only step down with the left/right foot, make sure to train your other foot as well. This will help you to not tumble over when you stop on an incline or if your motorcycle leans a bit too much to one side.

#9 Leg down – exercise

Easy peasy orange squeezy! Gently and slowly accelerate, then gently brake. Put some cones 15ft apart and try to stop exactly at the cone. Rinse and repeat, changing the leg you use to step down.

This is an amazing exercise to increase your stability, improve your feeling for the clutch and the brake lever.

#10 Long distance controlled braking

For this exercise, you’ll need more space, at least 300ft(100m). Gain some speed, shift into 3rd gear (if you have enough space, you can try 4th). Start braking and downshifting. Try to stop exactly at the end cone. Practice with different speeds and different engine braking / manual braking ratios. You’ll get a great feeling of how your motorcycle decelerates in different gears, and how the gear impacts your braking distance.

4. Emergency braking

Even though the name can sound scary, there’s something great about emergency braking. Motorcycles are capable of a lot more than we think and in most of sticky situations this gives us more than enough room for finding a solution and braking. The bad news is that most often motorcyclists are not capable of fully utilising everything their motorcycle has to offer because of fear and inexperience. Usually, the opposite of fear is courage, but not in this case. We need experience. Your muscle memory will help you react in plenty of situations. This can only be achieved with a lot of training and experience. The feeling of high speeds and strong decelerations can’t be explained or learned from books – it’s simply something that we need to experience ourselves. Remember: fear is our greatest enemy, and we can conquer it with experience!

The basic concept is the same:

– Look straight ahead.
– Motorcycle must be upright, heading straight forward.
– The front tire must take on at least 70% of the braking force.
– Squeeze the brake lever gradually.
– No legs down until the motorcycle stops!

Once you have to start braking, commit to it. You detected a dangerous situation, and you have to see it through to the end.

Position your body so you have total control. Butt back, chest down. Legs strongly and confidently gripping the motorcycle.

Brake gradually. Do not immediately squeeze the front brake lever with full force. You do not want the front wheel to lock up. You don’t want to get shocked by the sudden deceleration. The deceleration will feel harsh. It can make you feel like you’ll fall over the motorcycle. You won’t. Stay in position and control your motorcycle. As you are gradually slowing down you will

a) be able to manoeuvre around the obstacle

b) come to a full stop

Both of these options are only possible if you are in complete, total control of your motorcycle. Your muscle memory will help you. You have to practice.

PRACTICE ZONE

Emergency stopping

Give yourself plenty of space. Place some cones every 30ft (10m).

1.) Accelerate to 15mph (30kph). Brake slowly.
With each try, brake harder. Decrease your stopping distance. Don’t increase your speed.

When you achieve the shortest stopping distance you can, increase the speed and try again.

2.) Repeat exercise 1, but this time increase your speed to 30mph (50kmh)

3.) Accelerate to 45mph (70kph) and brake down to 10mph(15kph) then continue driving. On the road you will most likely need to slow down just enough to successfully avoid an obstacle.

Challenge

Drive 30mph (50kph) and designate a braking start point. Try to come to a full stop in 40ft (12m) in the first attempt. For the second attempt, try to stop in 30ft (10m).

Swerve!

The sketch gives all the data.

Tips:

– Look forward. Don’t look at the obstacle you’re trying to avoid!

– Try to placing an obstacle on the outer end as well to limit the space you have to swerve. To increase difficulty, decrease the distance between the start of the operation and the obstacle. Don’t increase your speed.

– Use a soft obstacle that won’t damage your motorcycle if you bump into it. A plastic bottle on the ground works well enough!

5. Trail braking

Trail braking is braking when you’re already in a turn. This is not recommended. It’s something we often see in MotoGP. Even though it looks easy, it takes a lot of skill. We recommend you try and level your bike before you start to brake. If you find yourself in a situation where you absolutely have to brake when in a lean – do so very gently, and slowly. (20% of regular force).

To put in it as few words as possible: the tire has a limited amount of grip. This grip is divided between accelerating, cornering or decelerating. The harder you brake, the less grip is available to turn – if you brake too hard and there isn’t enough grip left for cornering, the tire will slip and you will fall.

6. Braking on a Slope

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Download the exercises PDF

Click here to download a PDF of exercises to bring along with you

Thanks for tuning in! Proceed to the next course when you feel ready.

Steven and the MotoCourses Crew

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The Ultimate Guide For Motorcyclists