Trail braking on your Harley Davidson...

hey motor man here and this week we're going to talk about Trail breaking I get so many questions about it so I'm going to explain it the best way I can Trail breaking on your Harley-Davidson or whatever motorcycle you happen to have if it's got two wheels these techniques are going to work well okay so Trail breaking I hear a lot about this people ask me about it all the time and uh you know here in Florida we don't have many curves it's not a big deal it comes in trail breaking comes in especially handy when coming down a winding Mountain Road and of course there'll be other times as well and it is just a skill uh another skill that you could put in your bag of tricks now it just happens that right down the street from where I live we happen to have a few S curves yeah they're they're not they are curves they're not very severe but we're going to go over this and by the way if you don't know what trail braking is it's a technique used when coming around a winding road or going into a curve where you keep the front brake on a little bit and that pushes the front end down and gives you more traction now the the way you've probably heard about it and the way I've talked about coming around a curve right here we're going into this curve I look I press forward on the right grip the bike leans and I come around the curve rolling slightly on the throttle that's what I'm doing right here I've done that for years and really here in Florida never felt the need to uh to go as fast as possible around a curve especially I'm on my road king right now but I've got uh you know a cruiser type motorcycles hopefully you didn't buy a cruiser type motorcycle to tear around the curves with cuz if you did you you got the wrong bite you can do it but if you really want to tear up the twisties you should probably get a sport bike or a sport [Music] tour so we're going to go through this same set of Curves quite a few times and I'm going to explain Trail braking to you remember that the point of Trail breaking is to get more traction out of that front tire so I'm going to come around this [Music] curve I'm going to keep little pressure on the front brake that's going to dip my front end down it's going to shorten the wheel base ever so slightly and it'll give me more traction now if I was really going 70 or 80 around that curve which the bike will do that would really help me under normal conditions yeah you really don't need it so coming around another curve I want to put a little front brake on and I can actually feel that front end dipping down slightly I'm going to start releasing that front brake when I get to the Apex if you're not familiar the Apex is the part of the turn where you're no longer going into the curve but you're coming out of it that's where you could release the brake now I remember the uh about the one of the first times I tried Trail bring I was coming down a very steep winding Mountain Road up in uh Tennessee and somewhere in the area of the Dragon I don't remember which street it was on or what what road but I found out that engine braking wasn't enough to Slow Me Down enough to get through the curve safely and I started using that front brake that slowed me down and it put a lot of traction on that front tire it came in especially handy under normal conditions some people may argue with me about this in fact I'm sure somebody will you really don't need Trail braking it's when you're coming around these Cur is kind of hot so I'm going to go back up this same set of Curves and I'm going to try to demonstrate that for you again I I realize that it's not an easy thing for you to see so it's best that I explain it as I go through the curves and once again I'll be putting a little pressure on that front brake in fact as I approach the curve I'm going to use both brakes I will release the rear brake keep a little front brake on plant that front tire as I come around the curve here we go I'm doing my braking I'm going to release downshift stay with a little front brake still with a little front brake CU it's an S curve another one here that front tire is planted solidly in the ground the faster you go the more that you want to use that technique another helpful thing about it that will go through this curve here starting from the outside little front brake little front brake release it as I get through the curve again the fast faster you go if you want to get in that turn really hot and get out of it really quickly with as much traction as possible you want to use that front brake not the rear brake still want to push forward on one of the grips if the road is going to the left I'm going to push forward on the left grip that makes the bike lean left and go left if the road is curving to the right I want to push forward on this right grip and by the way I've got my half gloves and I I've told you why I I use that because I have to press the the buttons on the camera and it makes it a lot easier if I got my finger sticking out if I want to coming around a right curve I press forward on the right grip the bike leans right and goes right I did an entire video on counter steering you should watch that it's got about a half a million hits and as I say under normal conditions or you're not familiar with the trail braking technique just stick to doing your braking before the curve looking through the curve and roll on the throttle slightly as you come around the curve [Music] you may be asking how much pressure do you need on the front brake well it's actually very little and I know that it's hard to say what very little pressure is but here's a way of testing it right now my motorcycle is in neutral I'm going to push forward the bike is moving I'm going to press on the front brake till I feel slight slight drag I can feel it now it's now it's hard to push forward but it's not clamping down on the front tire that's about how much pressure you need you can do the same thing going backwards you can do this in your your driveway or your garage as a matter of fact it's easier to push it backwards so I'm pushing backwards no break at all I put a little pressure on that front brake I feel it starting to drag now it's just a slight movement of the brake depends on how much play you have in your brake lever but that's really all you need you do not want to grab it you don't want to snatch that brake cuz if you do that that tire could tuck under and you're going to go down so you got to use light pressure be gentle with that front brake it's got a lot of power in fact it's 80 to 90% of your stopping Force we going to go through that same set of Curves again mainly because they're very convenient to have them right down the street from my house and there are not too many places here in Florida where you have curves so I'm going to pick up my speed here I'm hitting uh 50 m an hour I'm going to use both front and rear brakes I'm going to release the rear brake and Trail brake into this curve Trail break it into the curve light pressure released it now I apply it release it so it's about halfway through the curve you're by the way when you're going through the curves like this you're basically doing is straightening out the curve as much as possible so coming into this turn here I'm going to do my braking I'm going to release the rear brake I'm going to roll on the throttle with a little brake great pressure on the front release it apply it and the best way to practice this as usual is go to a big empty parking lot get your speed up 20 M an hour or so and start using a little bit of front brake as you're making turns big wide turns now of course if you're making sharp low speed turns you do not want to use this front brake you want to use the rear brake that's going to help to steady the motorcycle the better you get with the clutch and throttle at low speeds you can pretty much when you're practicing eliminate the use of the rear brake and for those of you with uh motorcycles with link brake which this bike has it doesn't mean anything either in trail braking or using the rear brake for low speed Maneuvers it's not going to it's not going to help or hurt you so let's get that out of the way I know a lot of bikes have link brakes including this one it's not a mystery it's not going to put you down on the ground unless you're a real doofus and you tend to Cham on those Brakes in the middle of a curve so I hope you get the idea and should you try this way sure you should like I said always get a uh another set of tricks or techniques to put in your bag of tricks and you want to get as much skill as possible on your motorcycle but this will come in especially handy if you live in a place where you got winding mountain roads and especially when coming down steep winding Mountain Road but to practice it a little bit at a time do that in a big empty parking lot or even on a deserted Road started about 20 mph or so that's it for now till next [Music] time don't forget to subscribe and I hope you give me a thumbs up and I try to make it as simple as possible till next time

Channel: Ride Like a Pro Jerry Palladino

Views: 125,716

Keywords: trail braking, how to trail brake, ride like a pro, high speed techniques, braking skills, learn how to ride, uturns, how to make a uturn, how to ride a motorcycle, motorcycles, motorcycle, harley, honda, sportbikes, lady riders, high speed braking, deals gap, sturgis, bikeweek

Id: McH5-jVZVos

Length: 12min 28sec (748 seconds)

Published: Fri Oct 02 2020