"Weaving under braking or emergency stop" thread in "Staying Alive"
Where are you looking while braking?...

Where are you looking while braking?

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Argue with me: http://the-ride-info.blogspot.com/

Errm...a bit embarrassed to admit this but on some of the stops I had picked a place a wanted to stop before, and looked at that, so for a few of them where I braked late I might have ended up looking at..errm..the front wheel? Doh!!

This is not a good thing is it? I've just realised that by doing that I've basically been training myself to target fixate!!!! OMFG!! What a prize winning t**t!!

I've read and practised lots of stuff about vision before as well. I can't actually remember now if the wobbly stops were the 'fixated' stops. Oh dear!

Better that you find out now!

Talk yourself through it:

- Head an eyes up, looking well ahead - as far as you can, pick a point at head height.

- Relax your shoulders

- Squeeze the brakes, as you feel the weight in your elbows, squeeze harder on the front

Where you stop is not important for a quick stop, it's stopping (and 'how' ) that's important.

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Argue with me: http://the-ride-info.blogspot.com/

oops, "practice makes permanent" as Spin would say
If you know you have budget forks & use them all up during e-stops that isnt the end of the World, just bear in mind that they will tend to lock the front if you then hit a bump, & be more prepared to back off quickly & re-apply. Again, all stuff you're better of finding out now!

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Rubber Side Down
TFDodo
VFR750, CBR400
We've seen it all - Bonfires of trust, flashfloods of pain...

"you only get away with it
... until you don't"

Wonder where he learned that little gem?


http://www.visordown.com/forum/forum...160045&V=2&SP=


Contrary to popular belief, practice does not make perfect. Practice makes permanent
Horse, submitted by The Spin Doctor

So practice the perfect
Scarver, submitted by Horse

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Argue with me: http://the-ride-info.blogspot.com/

"Errrrr... where did that air go that I was planning to stop at?"

Scarver... I do remember you see

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The dull copyright bit - feel free to nick it for personal use. If you want to reprint it for your club, I'd like a mention as author. Otherwise hands-off. Full terms
"Force has no place where there is need of skill" Herodotus 450BC

In an e-stop stability is more important, I would say, than stopping at a particular 'point', and peripheral vision will help too.


Read the post again . . . and the FAQ you wrote

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Argue with me: http://the-ride-info.blogspot.com/

Bum... you're right!



On the e-stop thing, I know what you're saying, but you do need a target somewhere... generally when practicing I'll have a mark in mind where to start braking, and try to perfect the technique from that point - that's generally going to be the road surface or something near it. It's not quite like target fixation when planning to avoid something by steering.

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Sponsor Page XMAS OFFERS Blog Website Courses Riding Tips Shop
NEW - online e-course
The dull copyright bit - feel free to nick it for personal use. If you want to reprint it for your club, I'd like a mention as author. Otherwise hands-off. Full terms
"Force has no place where there is need of skill" Herodotus 450BC

What I try to encourage in terms of 'vision' for practising is two things:
Initially
- The 'fixation' point is a long way off - typically 100yds or more
Concentrate on the technique (again in two parts: braking, then build to firm braking), not the location.

Subsequently
- Accuracy; this means it can't be a full-on e-stop, because then miimum distance is the over-riding factor, instead this is braking to stop at a point, but remaining aware of it in peripheral vision.

I have a 'rule' for the accuracy that the trainee doesn't turn and look at me until they've stopped, then they can look around and grin

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Argue with me: http://the-ride-info.blogspot.com/

I have almost never been able to lock the front in a straight line. In other words, whenever I've locked the front, I've almost always had a tankslapper. I filed these facts under "that's life", along with why is the sky blue and why do things fall down.

However, Horse showed me that it needn't always be so (read his advice above), which is seriously messing up my mental filing system.

The process that I was using was to pick a spot, marked by a line on the surface, and then try braking closer and closer to that point on each run.

In retrospect, I don't know if that was such a good approach. Perhaps next time the best plan would be to brake at that point and pretty much ignore where the stop finally happens, at least until the stop is done.

Thinking about it, by picking a point and edging closer and closer to it, I was putting myself under pressure to stop before that point even though on some of the runs there was no chance of me being able to make it. Hence squawking tyres and bottomed out forks, and wobbles which sound like have been, at least in part, caused by tension and poor vision.

Perhaps even picking a point to start braking at is distracting; if the purpose of the exercise is to feel what the bike is doing at various levels of braking effort, I guess where you begin and end is not that relevant, car park space depending of course

Make sure your front suspension settings are the same on both sides. I upset the front end of a bike by accidentally adding compression damping to one side and reducing it on the other. If the preload is different on each side, it'll make the back end swing either left or right if it leaves the ground under heavy braking although I forget which way corresponds to which side is set higher.

A 5 PSI drop in front tyre pressure is enough for the front end to start feeling really quite nasty under hard braking.

I can't see that happening as the fork sliders wheel spindle and brace move as aunit so the damping value just averages out. Some forks have a compression damper in one leg and a rebound damper in the other and work perfectly.

Is the right answer..... Gen 2 Fazer 1000, and mine was a great handling bike..

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"..And the young, they can't do as hoped
'cause they can't see beyond ... today.
The wisdom that the old can't give away..."

Yup, I know that's how it should work. The compression mis-adjustment was on my bike so I know it made a difference. A pro stunt rider explained about the issue with preload to me, he does adjust the preload on one fork leg to keep the bike straight during rolling stoppies.