MarksCR250

Member
Jun 21, 2001
38
0
Today I was out riding with a pal in a pretty remote place; we call it the 'riding the powerline' ..apparently the county made these trails to access the powerlines. Its one steep hill after another after another, etc. Anyway, I was leading and as I come to the crest of a hill I see a gray blur out of the left corner of my eye and as I turn I see its a late model Toyota 4runner about 20-30ft away bopping along a road that intersects our trail and he's on a collision course with me! I instantly grabbed the front and rear brake together, pulled in the clutch, and body-englished a mild left hand brake turn (in case I had to lay the bike down at the last instant) Well with about 15-20ft to go the driver saw me, locked up his brakes, and stared at me with eyes bulging out and sheer terror and panic on his face.. at about 10ft away I knew I had it under control, and I came to a nice angled brake turn stop about 4ft from the side of his truck. Whew! The 4runner guys chest was heaving and he put his hand over his heart to show me how scared he was at what might have happened.

The moral of the story? I dont know.. but do yourself a favor and make sure you practice full panic stops from time to time. The front and rear brake, used together hard- just shy of locking them up, is something everyone should have in their bag of tricks. It sure saved my bacon.
 

CRGuy

Posts Too Much
Member
Nov 14, 2000
234
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Already done one. My cousin was to left of me on his TTR I was in 3rd gear switching to 4th to catch him even though I was getting real close. I get 11 feet behind him and he take's a hard right turn to the truck's. I grabbed my front brake and hit the rear not even grabbing the clutch. The bike didn't stall but my rear wheel was in the air. It scared me and then I chased him for a little bit to scare him and give him a message.
CRG
What's the point of this post?
It should be in the general forum under the ride/ race report's sub forum
 

MarksCR250

Member
Jun 21, 2001
38
0
Emergency braking is a riding technique, no? Sure it is. Thats why I posted here. Actually, I wonder if pulsing the front brakes will stop you quicker.. ala 'ABS' than just grabbing them hard. Dunno, but braking correct in lots of situations is a critical skill to develop.
 

CRGuy

Posts Too Much
Member
Nov 14, 2000
234
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The ABS system does that when your wheel lock's up. I hope your front wheel doesn't lock up!
It is a technique but unless your asking or saying that this is a techinque then it should be in another forum. You gave us a story on a ride. That would be ride report but the technique would be posted here.
CRG
 

Jake T

Member
Mar 23, 2000
225
0
At my house I have two short trails, one that runs through the field in the front of my house
and one that runs through the forest in the back of my house. It's a habit of me to complete one lap
through the front trail turn out, to a quick 180 turn on the drive way and start heading back up my driveway to the back trail,do a quick lap through run down the drive way go through the front and well you get the idea.
Anyway, I always come screaming out of the back trail at a pretty good clip. My family knows this
and rarely walks out around where I come riding unless they're going to watch me hit some jumps.
So this time as I near the end of the back trail my sister seems to think she can dump out our compost bucket
and get back to the house before I come out of the trail. Right when she starts to the the pile I come
flying out. Some how I managed to keep my cool and pull in the clutch and lock up both wheels throwing up gravel all over her ankels . Either I subconsciously knew what to do or I was just grabbing and stepping on anything I could :D All I can say is that my sister got a gooooood talking to from my dad!
 

wardy

2005 Lori Nyland Award Winner
Nov 12, 1999
2,681
9
braking hard and under control

EVERYONE should practice this and know it well!!

Lets face it if you ride/race a dirt bike, drive a car/truck, hell ride a bicycle you should know how to stop that vehicle as fast as possible. On a dirt bike to stop the absolute qucikest here is the best way I know.........

Stand UP, legs bent, grip the tank hard, center your wieght over the middle to front of the bike, pull in the clutch, then use both brakes HARD. Now doing all this try to remain loose so you can adjust as the bike pitches around. Now if the terrain is really rough ease up on the tank gripping and let the bike bounce a little to maintain control. Some times riders "hang on to tight" which leads to early ejection from the seat area! :think

hope that helps fire away if you have questions

.........oh and if HLG is behind you DON"T panic stopp! :scream:
 
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MarksCR250

Member
Jun 21, 2001
38
0
CRGuy, what I did was open the topic of emergency braking up using an illustration/story of something that happened to me. It was my hope that other people would also share THEIR stories, and talk about what they learned. The topic is emergency braking, ok?

Ok. Well I read a test report where they practiced emergency braking using front/rear brakes, front brakes only, and rear brakes only. The result was that using front and rear gave the quickest stops (obviously), but using front ONLY gave results that were very close to using both brakes. Using rear brakes only gave poor results. So now we know how important front brakes are to emergency stopping. As far as front brake locking goes, I think the main thing to avoid is grabbing the front brakes with so much force/panic that you *instantly* lock up. You want to apply them as hard as your balance on the bike and its stability on the surface will allow without just instantly locking them up. And in a straight line. Trying to 'abs' the brakes is probably a waste of time.. and you might only have a second or two to make the right decision.
 

High Lord Gomer

Poked with Sticks
Sep 26, 1999
11,790
34
Re: braking hard and under control

Originally posted by wardy .........oh and if HLG is behind you DON"T panic stopp! :scream:
I kept pleading with Wardy to show me some of his patented brake-check maneuvers at the MWSF, but he always ambled off shaking his head and mumbling.
 

CRGuy

Posts Too Much
Member
Nov 14, 2000
234
0
The rear tire on my Bicycle is bald from skiding. I try not to and I haven't done much in the past 2 month's. It's so bald that it slip's on hard pack. It's a 65psi tire and it slip's at any pressure. I don't want to replace it yet. I don't have frony brake's so I stuff my foot up there and do a nice endo! :)
CRG
 

wardy

2005 Lori Nyland Award Winner
Nov 12, 1999
2,681
9
hey you never

would keep up long enough but we can address that this year! hell lets have a school on brake checking, we can use Okie as a test subject! see how long it takes him to start that desiel!!!!

:eek:
 

KDXDan

Member
Oct 17, 2000
186
0
Weight over the front?

Wardy,
Stand UP, legs bent, grip the tank hard, center your wieght over the middle to front of the bike, pull in the clutch, then use both brakes HARD. Now
I'm confused on the wieght over the middle to front quote. Everything I have read (ex. Gary Semics books) states you should be over the back wheel to provide proper leverage. If I'm over the front and brake hard my bike wants to nose wheelie.
 

Jason2001

Member
Jan 3, 2001
23
0
Here's something done in roadracing. Apply the rear brake first. This causes the bike to squat, reducing the weight transfer when the front brake is applied. More weight on the rear tire = more control and more braking effect from that tire.
 
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