Some people say that trail braking
should only be done on the racetrack but stick around we're going to explain why
you should be trail braking everywhere. You may have heard people say the trail
braking is a race track only technique, but we would argue that trail braking is
even more important for the street rider. I can honestly say, for me personally,
once I got my head around the concept it was one of the techniques that made some
of the most dramatic improvements in my own riding. Trail braking helps the
motorcycle change direction so that you can get into and out of corners more
efficiently. But more importantly than that, trail braking gives riders many
more options for dealing with unpredictable conditions and unfamiliar
corners. When you enter into a corner too fast you have two choices; add more lean
angle which increases risk, or slow down. But we've all been told that going to
the brakes in a corner is dangerous. Trail braking is different. But first,
what is trail braking? Well, in the context of motorcycling, trail braking is
trailing off the front brake as the motorcycle begins leaning. You are
braking past the point where the motorcycle tips in, with the focus being
on the front brake. Applying the rear brake while the bike is leaned over is
extremely risky, so for clarity, trail braking is primarily a front brake
technique. Riders with motorcycles with linked brakes, fear not, your motorcycle
will behave just fine for trail braking. and no, this is not just a sport bike
thing either. Trail braking works on every kind of bike, from cruisers, touring
bikes, adventure bikes, and even scooters. Now, I know, most beginner rider programs
teach that you need to do the majority of the braking before the corner and
then gradually accelerate through the rest of the turn. And if you learned to
ride in America, you probably had the phrase "Slow, Look, Press, and Roll" drilled
into you by your rider coach. But there are some real problems with this
technique. First, if it's a blind corner and you don't know how tight it is, how
do you know how much you need to slow, so that you can gradually accelerate
through the rest of the turn? And if you don't know how tight it is,
how can you possibly know how much you can accelerate before you're going too
fast? Second, why would you want to accelerate
when you can't see what's ahead? And finally, when you try to accelerate and
turn you are actually fighting two opposing forces of physics. Let's talk
about the physics part first. When we slow, the weight of the motorcycle shifts
forward and the forks compress. When the forks compress, your wheelbase is
shortened. The rake and trail numbers decrease, and the motorcycle becomes less
stable in a straight line, and now wants to change direction. In effect, no matter
what kind of motorcycle you're on when you apply the brakes, your motorcycle
becomes more like a sport bike. Conversely, when we accelerate, the weight
of the motorcycle shifts to the rear and the forks extend. The wheelbase becomes
longer, and the rake and trail numbers increase. The motorcycle becomes more
stable in that it wants to go straight. No matter what kind of bike you're on,
when you accelerate it becomes more like a cruiser. Do you realize what this means?
This means that we can manipulate the bike's geometry to make it behave the
way we want it to. One of my favorite moments of teaching out at the racetrack, was when a student came up to me with a question.
He said to me in frustration, "I just can't find a fast line through that corner." And I had to explain to him, there is no fast line through that corner, it's a slow corner. And herein lies the truth
of motorcycling; the more gentle, or wider, the arc of the corner, the faster you can
go through it. And the tighter the corner, the slower you must go. In addition to
counter steering, we can use the brakes to help us change direction. Compressing
the forks and altering the rake and trail to help the bike change direction,
and slowing down, makes the circle smaller until we can see the exit of the
corner. If the turn is tighter than we anticipated, or there's something
unexpected in the corner, we are already slowing down. We are already on the
brakes, so we have many options available to us. We can slow even further. We can
alter our path of travel. And we may even be able to stop in the
middle of the corner if we need to. If slowing alters the bike's geometry, and
makes it want to change direction, and slowing makes that circle smaller; now is
where we get to the fun part. We can use the throttle to make the bike straighten
up - make the circle bigger, and drive out of the corner. This is the safest place
to accelerate because we can see where we are going, and we are trying to go
straight. Ideally, you should use the throttle to
accelerate out of a corner and go just wide enough you end up on the outside of
the corner. Just don't accelerate so earlier so aggressively that you end up
running wide on corner exit. When you try to accelerate through an entire corner,
you are giving the bike conflicting instructions. Accelerating alters the
bikes geometry, telling the bike to go straight. You are gathering speed, which
is increasing the radius of the corner, making the circle bigger. Not to mention,
that accelerating when you can't see what's in front of you is what we would
call "risky." Trail braking is working with the the
motorcycles design and strengths to get to a corner with less risk
and far more precision. Your past instructors, or
other riders, may have told you that braking in a corner is extremely
dangerous. And it is. Going to the brakes, especially just the rear brake, after the
motorcycle is leaned over is extremely risky, and should be avoided
if at all possible. But with trail braking, we're not going
to the brakes mid corner. We go to the brake sooner, lighter, but carry the
brakes for much longer. If you've watched our other video "Seven Tips to Being a Faster, Safer Rider" you may remember me saying "the fastest riders use the brakes the
most." This is quintessentially what that means. As we near the corner entrance, we
ease off the rear brake, and continue to drag, or trail, the front brake. And
ideally, we continue trailing on that front brake, even if we're only using one
percent of our total front brakes ability, until we arrive at the apex and
we can see the exit of the corner. Ok, I know what some of you are thinking'
you're thinking "I do that, but I coast into corners and I accelerate back out."
That's good, but what do you do if the corner is tighter
than you anticipated? Do you add more "coast?" By using the brakes, we are the
ones in charge. We determine if we want to brake more or less. We have ultimate
control over our rate of forward velocity. Coasting is engine braking, and engine
braking is like braking with just the rear brake, which isn't so good. Not to
mention that engine braking basically negates all of the bike geometry
benefits we get from using the front brake. If this is brand-new to you and
you want to start trying it out, start by using a squishy ball. Practice squeezing
and releasing the ball slowly. Extend this practice to every input you give
your motorcycle. It doesn't matter if we're moving the bike around in the
garage, or heading into a blind corner. Practice always gently squeezing the
lever. As you start practicing this on your day-to-day rides, don't go out
and brake as hard as you can all the way to the apex of the corner. Start off by
riding like you normally do. Slowing before the corner, but begin by simply
releasing the front brake lever far more slowly than you normally do. This is a
great way to more organically learn how the brakes affect the motorcycle, and
become comfortable with these techniques slowly, instead of all at once. The tire can hold a lot of force, but not suddenly, if we get really good at adding and
subtracting brake force in small increments, will get really good at never
overcooking a corner, or running over that double yellow line again. We've included links to the outstanding book Sport Riding Techniques, we absolutely
encourage you to pick up a copy. Also, if you want to go off the deep end of why
and how this all works the way it does, the book Motorcycle Dynamics shows you
the maths and equations and physics. We've also included some links to some
credible performance riding schools that teach these skills. If you have any
questions, or there's something you'd like us to cover in more detail, leave a
comment. We read every comment and try to respond to as many as we can. Be sure to
click like and subscribe. Thanks so much for watching,
and ride well!
I read this and thought it was a video about Trial Biking and why we should all be doing it.
Guess I won't be hopping over tables and fences any time soon!
This channel looks pretty cool, thanks for sharing.