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!