Dabbing The Brakes Into Corners

[Jamz]

Dabbing The Brakes Into Corners

Some people in cars are absolute pigshit. One of the things that irritates me more than anything, is people pressing their brakes when they go around ANY corner.

Not in the sensible way I'll go into later, either - I'm talking about people who inevitably are already going really -ing slowly, and yet even the slightest corner will have them on the brake pedal. Worse still, they don't brake ready for the corner - oh no! These people turn into the corner and THEN brake!

I can kind-of understand someone being a bit paranoid about corners. Maybe earlier that week they ran over a small baby holding a kitten that made the tyres lose grip and they had a rather nasty slide mid-corner? I'm understanding of stuff like that.

But if there's one way to make your car spin off the road and crash, it's by braking whilst you're going around a corner!

Grr!!!

On a similar subject, and to partly contradict all the above, although some people say I'm 'crazy' on the roads (meh, just cause they're slower!), I actually do ride pretty safely. I'm a huge believer that on the roads, you should take the 'Slow in, Fast out' approach - that is to enter a corner slowly, and increase your speed as the corner opens up.

This way, if you suddenly find diesel on the road, or a tractor in the middle of the corner, you can do something about it!

On the track, you should be trying to enter the corner as fast as possible and hold that speed - but this gives you very little margin for error if something unexpected suddenly appears in your way.

Plus it's nice to slide the rear around the corner, leaving big black lines! Hehehe! Only joking, of course...

When you're really flying, in a car or on a bike, a quick dab on the brakes can settle the suspension just before you turn into a corner, making the bike more stable.

Now, I sometimes do this, but I know it pisses people off who are following me. Hell, it pisses me off if someone in front keeps doing it!

I'm not talking standing on the anchors, just a tiny dab to settle the bike.

Is this the safe and sensible way to do things?

Does it make me a pussy for braking into corners? It seems to be a macho thing to never use your breaks when riding quickly?

And does it really make your blood boil to see slow drivers/riders breaking needlessly for every -ing corner?

[deviant]

throttle control dear boy, it's a tool for slowing down as well as speeding up you know


seriously though, if you are just bimbling along you should practically never need to touch the brakes.

it gets even worse when there's a whole line of them because they all panic and brake progressively harder.

[rene]

yep thats one of my pet hates, as i do about 40 miles to work and back each day on pure twisty back roads you offen get court behind somone that will brake all the way around a bend and it pissis me off a treat!

When riding i'll brake in a strate line up to the bend and just as im tiping her in then i wont tutch them again

[Jamz]

throttle control dear boy, it's a tool for slowing down as well as speeding up you know


seriously though, if you are just bimbling along you should practically never need to touch the brakes.

it gets even worse when there's a whole line of them because they all panic and brake progressively harder.

Oh believe me - I've got a big old V4 under me these days, remember! I can happily ride without touching the brakes ever!

On my ZXR coming down the M6 I was once caught in a queue of panic brakers - Luckily I was keeping a good gap, but the speed the 10+ cars in front of me dropped the speed even caught me out a bit!

I remember very vividly, as I was trying to brake hard enough not to hit the car in front, I was also looking in my mirrors at a blue MG which was slewing sideways with all 4 wheels locked, and I was trying to stay in front of him at the same time!

Could have all been very nasty...

[mycallsevern]

Yeah we have the same down herein Devon, does my head in!

Another thing that gets me is these big signs that light up as you approach them, you know they used to just remind you of the speed limit if you where going too fast, now it seems they are using them to warn of bends in the road.

On the A38 just after Chudleigh there is a bend in the road (oooh exciting but bear with me here) and they have installed one of these signs on each side of road so as you approach in you can see 2 of them. I was riding past this spot the other night and guess what it was raining, now there was a car on the inside lane and me in the outside, we both reached the "trigger" point for the magic signs at about the same time. So suddenly I had 2 huge signs light up in front of me, the signs caused the driver to panic and brake, so I had a full compliment of brake lights as well.

So what I hear you ask, well my point is I am approaching what is obviously a dangerous corner, at night where being able to see the corner is probably one of the most important factors of getting around it, and suddenly all I can see are 2 huge fucking signs!!! I mean why make a corner more dangerous by blinding everyone before they get to it. In the rain its even worse because the light is refacted by the rain drops.

GGGRRRRRRrrrrrrr.

Makes me angry!

[RedexRobB]

As deviant said really, use the throttle. I cant say i really notice people braking mid corner, i usually keep a good distance so i guess thats why. I also do most of my braking upright, even if i need to slow mid corner ill wait till im more or less upright and brake, even if it does make me brake harder.

The thing is because people are stupid, they brake mid corner, but with ABS these days i guess its not much of an issue unless your really going for it. all this electrikery make people think they are safe.

[Xphyral]

Y
On the A38 just after Chudleigh there is a bend in the road (oooh exciting but bear with me here) and they have installed one of these signs on each side of road so as you approach in you can see 2 of them. I was riding past this spot the other night and guess what it was raining, now there was a car on the inside lane and me in the outside, we both reached the "trigger" point for the magic signs at about the same time. So suddenly I had 2 huge signs light up in front of me, the signs caused the driver to panic and brake, so I had a full compliment of brake lights as well.

So what I hear you ask, well my point is I am approaching what is obviously a dangerous corner, at night where being able to see the corner is probably one of the most important factors of getting around it, and suddenly all I can see are 2 huge fucking signs!!! I mean why make a corner more dangerous by blinding everyone before they get to it. In the rain its even worse because the light is refacted by the rain drops.

GGGRRRRRRrrrrrrr.

Makes me angry!

Thats there so people will crash, the goverment will deem excessive speed to be the cause of the accident to justify placing a speed camera at an "accident blackspot" to fine people with badly calibrated speedometers doing 0.5mph over the limit ofc!

[mycallsevern]

Y
On the A38 just after Chudleigh there is a bend in the road (oooh exciting but bear with me here) and they have installed one of these signs on each side of road so as you approach in you can see 2 of them. I was riding past this spot the other night and guess what it was raining, now there was a car on the inside lane and me in the outside, we both reached the "trigger" point for the magic signs at about the same time. So suddenly I had 2 huge signs light up in front of me, the signs caused the driver to panic and brake, so I had a full compliment of brake lights as well.

So what I hear you ask, well my point is I am approaching what is obviously a dangerous corner, at night where being able to see the corner is probably one of the most important factors of getting around it, and suddenly all I can see are 2 huge fucking signs!!! I mean why make a corner more dangerous by blinding everyone before they get to it. In the rain its even worse because the light is refacted by the rain drops.

GGGRRRRRRrrrrrrr.

Makes me angry!

Thats there so people will crash, the goverment will deem excessive speed to be the cause of the accident to justify placing a speed camera at an "accident blackspot" to fine people with badly calibrated speedometers doing 0.5mph over the limit ofc!

Funny you should say that, because there is already a speed camera about half a mile on from that corner, which has been there long before the signs.

[Rob636]

i see no one is able to answer the question, ok quick thing to remember is when u touch the front brake your putting all the weight on the front tyre, this is good n bad cause the rear will lighten up, so what could happen is if you load the front too much going into the corner quite hot, you could lose the rear end as it could be bouncing or loosing traction, in my opinion i would say set yourself up for the bend, be at the right speed for the bend and excellerate through the bend also try avoid braking mid corner you could lose the front end, id like to say here general car drivers dont understand the setting up we do, all the time when were riding were planning our lines, thats why i hate drivers that pull out on roundabouts etc, as they generally think we can stop on a six pence at the drop of a hat, its just not that way,

Rob

[mycallsevern]

I find with cornering if you know the limits of your tyres and can pick your lines right, you can start tipping the bike in whilst still braking. Then at the very last point release the brake allowing the bike to tip in properly and weight to shift back to the rear wheel. Then I get on the gas just as I clip the appex.

I find this lets me brake a lot later as well as carry lots more speed through corners, though you do really have to trust your tyres and it is a very comitted approach which means I don't do it too much on the road incase of the unexpected.

So I would say braking in corners is fine, as long as it is smooth and progressive.

[Jamz]

I used to back my ZXR into corners a fair bit...

I haven't really tried it (not intentionally, anyway) on any other bikes! But then I did have the 400 for around 3 years...

As you say, not recommended on the roads, as there's far too much scope to f*** up.

[rene]

grate fun when you get it right tho

[Jamz]

First time I did it (i'm sure the story is on here somewhere!), I was taking a right hand bend with a bus full of people in the lane to my left, and I did a huge slide into the corner, and powered out perfectly!

Total accident, but I never felt out of control, and seeing all the faces on the bus turn towards me as a sideways bike was coming towards the side of the bus was pretty impressive!

Yeah, I know it was silly, but f*** me did I feel like The Man!

[superman]

If you pull the brake to hard the bike just levels up an you overshoot the corner as i did, its a scary thing. i wont be doin that again

[mycallsevern]

First time I did it (i'm sure the story is on here somewhere!), I was taking a right hand bend with a bus full of people in the lane to my left, and I did a huge slide into the corner, and powered out perfectly!

Total accident, but I never felt out of control, and seeing all the faces on the bus turn towards me as a sideways bike was coming towards the side of the bus was pretty impressive!

Yeah, I know it was silly, but f*** me did I feel like The Man!

That reminds me of the other day when I came round a corner and there where some temporary traffic lights and a que of traffic. So kind of by instinct and kind of for fun I grabbed a handful of front brake, which as you will know is more than enough to hoist the back end. I must have rolled on the front wheel for about 10 metres before dropping the back end down about a metre from the Clio at the back of the que. It was right in front of a busy bus stop, the looks on the peoples faces was priceless, half looked as though they had never seen a bie do that before the others just seemed in awe. As Jamz said very silly but it does make you feel like the man.