Motorcycle Stop

Thankfully most motorcycle crashes don't happen at high speeds. High speeds and motorcycle crashes are generally not good for a rider's health. Most crashes occur at slower speeds because the bike has less balance at slow speeds and frankly it requires more technique for a rider to handle a motorcycle at slow speeds. I don't know about you but I see a whole lot of riders out on the street with pretty poor technique. So there are all kinds of mistakes that we can make at slow speeds that cause drops or crashes or even though they result in a less severe injuries or threat to the injuries to the rider, they're embarrassing nonetheless and it would better to avoid them all in the first place. So this week on MC Rider I thought we'd talk about one thing that causes slow speed crashes and that's coming to a stop and having the motorcycle out of balance and I'll give you three techniques to help you fix that. So where should you be looking when you come to a stop on a motorcycle? In order to have maxim You should be looking up the road or through that car in front of you, keeping those head and eyes up, looking out on the horizon. Many riders when they're come to a stop their eyes drift down or even worse their head goes down and they're looking at things So here's a simple experiment that I want you to try then it's going to show you the effect of looking down and what effect that has on your balance. So stand up look straight down at your feet and walk about 20 steps trying to walk in a straight line as you possibly can and then once you walk 20 steps I want you to turn around look up look across the room and walk those same 20 steps and you'll notice how much more balance you feel and you'll improve your ability to walk in a straighter line. So by looking down that's the same disadvantage we put ourselves in when we're looking down at the road or the front tire or the instr So keep those head and eyes up looking out on the horizon is going to give you a whole lot more balance. So here's the technique that'll help you stop a motorcycle and more balance for a whole lot of reasons. When we initiate the brakes to stop on a motorcycle we should always begin by smoothly applying that front and rear brake. So you want to apply both brakes using both brakes is going to give you the most stopping power and it also develops muscle memory so that when you have to stop in a hurry our reaction is always going to be to go to the front and the rear brakes. If you stop frequently with only one of your brakes either the front or the rear you're But here's the key at the end of a normal stop So we initiate braking front and rear brakes but for the last five miles per hour So this one technique will have a huge difference on the balance that the motorcycle is in when you come to your stop because it takes some of the weight off of the front of the motorcycle which causes the forks to compress and a rebound at the end of the stop just by using the rear brake for that last five to 10 miles per hour the motorcycle is going to be a lot more balanced. It lightens up front end up so it's not as susceptible to the inconsistencies in the road surface. So if the road is So using this technique you'll use the rear brake all the way through the stop that last five to ten miles per hour your left foot goes down first and then after you get the motorcycle to a full stop it's kind of personal preference on whether you keep that right foot up on the rear brake or you put both feet down for better balance I typically if I'm on a lighter motorcycle with very little wind I'll keep my right foot up on the rear brake It really does make a big difference and I encourage you to get out and try it next time you come to a stop at a stop light or just practice it on a parking lot till you get used to it'll make a huge difference in the balance of the motorcycle when you come to a stop. So this last tip is partially related to the previous one we just talked about and that's keeping the handlebars straight or square when you come to a stop you don't want any turn in those handlebars at all because if there's even a slight amount of turn in the handlebars that's going to cause the motorcycle to want to fall over in the direction of that turn when the forks rebound on the motorcycle. This can be caused by the road surface It's related to that previous tip because if you complete the stop only using the front brake then you're Plus in my opinion sticking your feet out to the sides of the motorcycles like some Albatross coming in for a landing just looks bad in my opinion and if the front tire gets out of alignment just a little bit you may even come in for a landing that looks something more like this so to recap when coming to a stop for maxim Until next week guys it's Kev with MC Rider and I'll see you on the road. you