Male Speaker: Here are some common braking mistakes.
Brakes that don't work properly, now either that's through poor setup or just mechanically
they're not working properly.
A really common problem is people getting oil onto their rear discs, they're lubing
up their chains, especially with spray.
It just gets over the back and onto the disc, it goes onto the pads.
You can normally tell why there's a bit of howling coming from just the rear brake and
then either not going to work at all or just not going to be as good as probably the front
ones.
Definitely check there's no contamination on the pads.
You might be able to boil it off or you might just have to get new pads and clean the rotor.
Other things are making sure you've got plenty of material left in your brake pads, you don't
actually rub them all the way through and you're on either the back of the metal material,
or even on the springs sometimes they get caught in your rotor.
Also, making sure your disc is centered right in the middle.
[background music] Also, having your lever as not set up quite
right it's going to mean you're not going to get the most power from your brakes.
Really just make sure you get the most leverage through that brake lever.
This is definitely down to personal preference, because actually I'll hold on to my bars with
my hand overhanging a little bit, my finger goes right on the very end of the grip, and
just use one finger for me definitely, it just gives me plenty of power.
It gives me the rest of my fingers holding on to the bars, which is definitely important,
I guess, you already know all that stuff.
Also, I like them quite closed into the bar, reach-wise, and my pad movement or the lever
movement, should I say, on the absolute minimum, so I don't have to pull them very far till
I'm hitting the disk and they're starting to work.
You feel you're having them nice and close to my bar like that, it means that it's quite
a strong position.
You've almost got a clenched fist, so that's why I can really get the most pull on my levers.
Finally, for setup is making sure the angle on the bar is right, so when you need them
the most you can reach them.
I'll get into moving around on the bike in a second, but actually when you brake it really
hard, you should be pretty far back on the bike.
That means that you need them high enough so that you can still reach them in that position
and make sure they do the work properly.
Dropping your heels behind the pedals and your wrists rolled behind the bars means the
weight goes down and into the bike rather than up and over.
It stops you from going over the bars.
The rear tire and the rear brake, therefore, does a lot of the stopping.
Both brakes and tires do the stopping, but it's a mistake not to think about them independently.
There's definitely situations where you can use a bit of one brake to help you ride.
For example, if you're trying to get the back wheel to move around, you can just use a bit
too much rear brake, while sometimes a lot too much can actually make it move to a big
skid or then just back it off into smaller fractions that just so you're getting in the
back tire just to step back to get around the corner, or opposite but the same, you
can use the front brake a bit too much.
That's probably in a situation where there's a lot of grip.
You can do an endo to bring the back wheel up around, you're more likely to use the skid
when it's a bit loose and [unintelligible 00:03:02] grip.
Big brakes with four-pot calipers and massive rotors are only as good as how much grip you've
got.
Definitely think about what the braking edge is like in your tires, both of them, but especially
the rear because a nice edge on that really helps slow you down.
Don't forget that as soon as you stop turning and leaning the bike over, you're actually
moving off those edges a bit and onto those sides knobs, so you're not going to be able
to brake as hard.
The biggest mistake, when it comes to braking, is too much front brake in the corners and
the dreaded front wheel washout.
Go easy on the front brake.
Pumping the brakes, trying to ride it down a hill trail fast, think about what you're
doing with the brakes.
Are you using on and off gently and modulating how hard you pull them?
You probably think you are, but try and feel it.
It's often the case that you're more like stubbing at them when you feel the urge.
This isn't going to give you the most amount of grip.
Grabbing the lever will put a lot of strain through the tire to stay in grip to try and
smooth it out.
I actually think this is a really hard one to get out of the habit of doing, so I'll
try and concentrate on it when I'm riding sometimes.
Can I try and dare myself to get around that corner without dragging the brakes?
Because, actually, most of the time, they make it worse, and you'll lose a little bit
of grip.
Thinking that your front brake does more of the stopping than the rear, now this is a
myth that I've heard loads of time, it's really a common one.
Maybe when you're on a road bike and you've sat down and you're on Tarmac and you hit
the brakes, yes, the front brakes are doing a lot of stopping.
With the mountain bike, when you're stood up on a trail where there's less grip, your
riding needs to be much more dynamic.
That means moving your weight around, and that means moving that weight over the rear
tire and the rear brake to do the stopping.
[00:05:10] [END OF AUDIO]