- From every day.
(laughing)
Let's dos it.
(beeping sound)
- Whoa. What am I doing with my hands?
- Brakes. I know you use them,
but are you really using them?
It's a touchy subject, but brakes are arguably
the most underrated component on your bike.
From EWS racers to everyday riders,
breaking is something they wish they learned
about before they found out the hard way.
So let's start the chat.
Today, we're going to cover
off why your breaks are orientated different to mine.
- What is brake modulation?
- And give you a drill that you can try
in the car park before or after your ride.
(lively music)
- To start, we need to talk
about which way your brakes are orientated.
If you're from a country that drives on the right hand side
of the road, typically you'll have your rear brake
on your right and your front brake on your left.
If you're like me and from a country that drives
on the left-hand side of the road
it will be the other way around.
Now, schools have been debating for centuries
which way is the correct way around.
And there's yet to be an agreement.
I'm sure you'll let me know your
theory in the comments however.
First, you brake lever
how steep or flat are your brake levers?
It's important to think about
because that changes the angle of your wrist.
According to my biomechanic textbook
your wrist is actually strongest
when it's cocked back a little from straight.
Typically, if you're riding steeper trails
your brakes will be a little flatter
but it's all up to personal preference.
And there are thousands of theories out there.
So give them a try and see what feels right for you.
Personally. I changed mine all the time
depending on how much arm pump I'm getting
and how often I'm crashing on my brake levers.
So you can pay attention
to how close your brakes are clamped to your grips.
Typically, when a bike comes out of the box
the brakes are clamped right up against the grips.
And generally, you want to be able to squeeze the end
of your lever with just your index finger.
And when you fully squeeze the lever
you're not hurting any of your other fingers.
One finger on the lever, you have more fingers on the grip.
That means more control and stability.
Third thing to think about
is how far your lever extends by itself.
Most leavers these days have a hook on the end
which is a perfect spot
for your first knuckle on your index finger.
So depending on the length of your phalanges
you can adjust how far out that lever extends by itself.
For my relatively short stumps,
I run that pretty close to my bar.
(moody music)
- Now we already know everybody's different
but as far as angle goes for my brake set up
how I like to find the angle is to sit
on the bike, nice, comfortable position.
My wrist is almost straight
but it's just got a little bit of a flex there.
Still nice and comfortable, that way
when I'm going downhill
I can bring it a little bit more forward
without getting that weird, you know, chicken wing feeling.
It's not super comfortable.
Where my brakes are on the bar,
I run them, slammed against the grips so
that I can reach this nice little notch on the lever.
And when I pull it in
it's not smashing my middle finger there.
I've seen a lot of people
in the past get like big cuts there.
It's not a good time.
And I've actually been known to cut down grips.
If they're too long, I'll trim them just a little bit
because I want to run my hand, again,
this is personal preference, but at the end of the bar.
I like having that little bit of overhang.
So by having my brake lever as close
into the grip as possible.
We've got a nice contact point there.
Super comfy.
I can run my leavers out a bit longer
but the longer you run them out
the more tired your index finger is going to get.
(moody music)
- Now we've got our cockpit dodd.
What actually happens when you squeeze that lever
and what the hell is brake modulation.
It's a word that's bandied around the internet
a lot these days.
For us, that means controlling the amount
of braking force with your lever.
It's finding a sweet spot between one end of the spectrum,
being no pull on your lever,
your wheel is running freely
and you've got tons of traction.
At the other end, you're squeezing you lever
as hard as you can.
You've got complete skid and you've got no traction.
- Yeah. Think of it like, you're driving a car,
you're coming up to a red light.
If you slam on that brake pedal all the way
down to the metal, you're gonna have a bad time.
You might even rear end the car in front of you, but
if you just gradually increase the pressure on the pedal,
come to a nice controlled stop.
Nobody gets hurt.
Now, lucky for us, Tom's got a little drill to practice.
So we're going to head on out and do that now.
(lively music)
- There is nothing like a drill to practice your skills
especially if you're waiting for that mate again
or you don't have time to ride today.
So what you'll need for this drill
as a slight slope, ideally dirt, grass or gravel
but an asphalt carpark at work
or maybe even your neighbor's front lawn.
You'll also need a few rocks or sticks.
Pretty straightforward.
The purpose of this drill is to get a feeling
for what brake does what
and how hard you really can squeeze that brake lever.
Now I know it's quite scary squeezing
that front brake in case you go over the handlebars
but this will be good practice.
So feel free to do it on a grass slope.
It's all in the name of modulation.
Go to the top of your slope.
You'll need a good few meters.
Drop your stick.
This is where you'll start rolling into the drill each time.
At the bottom of your slope, throw another stick.
This is going to be where you'll start braking.
Lap one roll down from the start with good body position.
Use both brakes and stop as quickly as you can.
When you hit the braking stick.
Lap two, go back to the top and repeat,
except this time when you hit the
braking point, use your back brake
as hard as you can to skid.
Notice a difference and mark how far you've gone.
Lap three, go to the top.
Repeat.
This time, use your back brake again,
except modulate so you're not skidding.
What you should see is that you stop quicker
than your skid the time before.
If not go back to the top.
Repeat until you do?
Now, you're feeling comfortable with just that rear brake.
It's now time to try the not so scary front brake,
go back to the top,
repeat and now just pull your front brake only.
Try it a few times until you get comfortable.
And what you should see is that your start stopping quicker
than with only your rear brake.
To put a ball on the drill go back to the top
and repeat and use both brakes without skidding.
Mark it.
See how quickly you come to a stop.
The reason you can stop quicker
with just your front brake compared to just your rear brake.
It's because of physics.
So if you weren't listening in school that's
because the braking force is in front of the mass
which means the weight can go onto the front brake
and apply more braking force without skidding.
Boom.
So to wrap up our little science experiment
that we were testing the hypothesis that braking
with modulation will be faster than with a skid.
Let's have a look at the results.
So this stick here is rear brake, full skid.
As we move closer to the braking starting point
we then see the rear brake with no skid
with modulation, really good, move back further.
And we see front brake only
with modulation.
Stops quicker than any rear brake only.
Perfect.
Then this stick here was Christina's first time
with both brakes, a little bit of a skid.
And then after a bit of practice
we moved back to the closest stick, the quickest stop
which with both brakes, really good modulation, no skidding.
So Christina, thanks for being the participant today.
How's our little drill?
- Yeah, that was quite fun.
Is very obvious when you see
the evidence on the gravel.
It was a little intimidating.
Took me a while to kind of get comfortable just
using my front brake because, you know
even I have the scary fear of washing out in the gravel
but it's cool when you see it on the ground
how much quicker you stop with just the front brake.
And then when you put that into the modulation effect
even the difference there because you know, a lot
of us might think we're modulating, but we're not.
- Perfect.
Well, I think next step let's take it to the trail
but that's another video for another day.
So make sure you're subscribed, we're putting
out more and more videos each day
and thanks for being my participant.
- Thanks for having me.
(lively music)