Well as ridding season will be starting for some of you guys soon, it seems like a good time to cover the subject of braking again.

That and the comment recently, by another member, that using the brakes reduces you control of the bike.

So the whole idea of trail braking is to being on the brakes all the way to the apex of the corner, while slowly trailing them off. Then back on the throttle.

The two main things this does is first by loading the front tire, you increase the size of the front contact patch (yes giving you more usable traction)

Second it compresses the forks, which gives you a steeper trail angle, so the bike will actually turn quicker.

I could go on but I'll let these guys walk you through it.....

 

Excellent information here and well worth 13 mins of my time. Thanks for posting!

 

Thanks Mike, great video.
To you people that thinks braking is not as important, please listen carefully watch and learn, this will save your life in the most critical moments, not how good you are on the throttle. Most crashes I have seen through the years caused exactly due to the wrong way of applying on brakes.

 

Another piece of advice I give to people all the time, if you want to practice leaning and trail braking without risking crashing to a cager or trees, just find an empty parking lot and practice practice practice, you don't need high speed on the street for that and you will be in better control of your lean angle, repetition will give you great results, trust me you'll see!!!

Cheers and ride safe

 

Good post but dont do this til the winter gravel gets cleaned off the roads. This years cheapo patches disintigrate to gravel but look just like pavement. Wasnt even a prob all winter but I recently locked up my front wheel on what looked like perfect pavement.

I went back to examine and sure enuff there was a failing spring patch that put gravel down the road. Even close up you could only tell by sliding your boot over it.

Just sayin, trail braking is great on perfect pavement but in rain or spring, maybe not.