Table of contents

• Brake properly Braking with and without ABS
• Motorcycles ride well and safely: cornering technique, visual guidance, driving tips
• Dynamic wheel load shift
• Braking without ABS
• Braking with ABS
• Visual guidance when braking
• Which brakes better – car or motorcycle?
• Stopping distances
• Braking + dodging
• Road surfaces, grip and braking distances
• The normal braking
• The emergency stop
• Excessive emergency braking
• Video: Braking safely with the motorcycle

Jahn

counselor

Driving experience & Driving tips

Braking properly with the motorcycle

Brake properly
Braking with and without ABS

Motorcycles ride well and safely

When was the last time you hit the brakes really hard? Did you just come to a standstill with your heart pounding? Congratulations, if that was a long time ago, it means that you are very foresighted and that your Guardian Angel is also sticking to you.

Werner &# 34; mini&# 34; Cook,

Nicolas Streblow,
Nicolas Streblow

04/02/2019

In any case, the colleague on his Yamaha R1 in the example diagram below urgently needs the heavenly savior. A tractor crosses the country road in front of him a good 50 meters away. The R1 rushes in at 100 km / h, so a good 40 meters of braking distance should be created. Despite the quick reaction, it takes 30 meters for the actual braking to begin. With a lot of luck, it will whistle past the tractor.

fact

Emergency braking – more than stepping hard into the iron. Stopping distance from 100 km / h with a deceleration of 9.4 m / sec².

Because the pure braking distance is not enough. It usually takes 0.1 seconds for the motorcyclist to even recognize the danger and another 0.8 seconds for hand and foot to apply the brakes. In this short time, the motorcycle rolls for almost 25 meters without braking.

Now the motorcyclist squeezes with all his might. He operates the hand lever with around 140 N (around 14 kilograms) and the pedal with around 30 kilograms. With such strong braking without ABS, either the front wheel would lock, which usually leads to a fall, or the rear wheel would lift and sooner or later the motorcycle would somersault forwards.

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Motorcycles ride well and safely: cornering technique, visual guidance, driving tips

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Dynamic wheel load shift

But until the pressure in the brake lines is built up and the brake pads grasp the discs with full force, another 0.2 seconds pass, and thus another 5.6 meters, in which the motorcycle rolls along without braking. So come together at 100 km / h around 30 meters, until the brake engages; the entire stopping distance is therefore over 70 meters long. The situation could have turned out badly for both pilots and tractor drivers.

Illustration: Muller

This drawing shows how strongly the dynamic wheel load presses the front tire onto the asphalt when braking. The field with a green border shows the tire contact area (Latsch) when driving straight ahead at constant speed. The red and green marked areas together show the contact area in the event of full braking with maximum contact pressure of the tire – it is squeezed apart by up to three times.

In physical terms, the following happens: While the 200 kilograms of the sports machine bear half of the weight on both wheels when the bike is stationary, the weight shifts almost completely to the front wheel when you slow down extremely due to the inertia. We are talking about dynamic wheel load shifting. The more the wheel load moves forward, the more braking force the front wheel can transmit – if you don’t overdo it, because without ABS the wheel can lock. How high the wheel load or, in other words, the contact pressure is, can be seen on the fork: the deeper it is immersed, the higher the wheel load. On most motorcycles, when the brakes are applied hard, it dips into a good two-thirds of the total suspension travel. At this moment, the enormous contact pressure increases the tire contact area at the front up to three times (see drawing).

The rear wheel plays a completely different role during strong (!) Braking, depending on the motorcycle, from almost none (for athletes) to vital (for choppers). Concentrating on the front brake has top priority on almost all motorcycles. The driver must take advantage of the shift in the dynamic wheel load. Important, especially without ABS: Do not jerk the brake lever, otherwise the front wheel will lock up before enough weight has shifted forward. Rather, it is correct to first press the brake lever in two stages, but as quickly as possible, up to the pressure point, feel the shift in the wheel load and then pull it further to the hopefully trained optimum.

If you press the rear brake a fraction of a second before the front brake, you gain additional stability. The motorcycle pulls itself back into the spring, the rear wheel can run a little longer and transmit braking force. Some combination braking systems with ABS are designed to use this effect. A small but measurable reduction in the braking distance was found in tests. However, caution is advised here without ABS, because the rear wheel, which is increasingly relieved by the shifting of the wheel load, can lock. Because roads are usually slightly inclined to allow rainwater to run off, a blocking rear wheel tends to cause the rear to break away.

Caution: If the rear wheel, which has broken out too strongly, grips again when the machine is already at an angle to the direction of travel, there is an acute risk of falling! If in doubt, it is better to leave the rear brake under-braked after the initial impulse. When cornering, it is better not to use them at all. You can find out more about cornering braking in this chapter.

Braking without ABS

If, in spite of all caution, the front wheel locks, the only thing that can save you from an imminent fall is the lightning-fast release of the brake. While this is difficult, it is actually the only way to regain control of the motorcycle.

MOTORCYCLE archive

If you keep the front wheel just before the locking limit during the entire braking process, you will brake perfectly.

If you keep the front wheel just before the locking limit during the entire braking process, you will brake perfectly. But figuring out where exactly that limit is takes constant practice and a lot of routine. The right pattern of action for this can best be found in one Safety training Appropriately.

But the technology also has to be right. For example, if a fork that is set too softly and underdamped hits through or an overdamped fork bounces, the front wheel loses ground contact and grip more quickly on bumpy asphalt. In order to prevent slipping, it is also important to have a lightning-fast reaction, i.e. to release and immediately rebuild the brake pressure. This only works if the levers are set correctly and all fittings work smoothly.

Driving training with the MOTORRAD action team

Braking with ABS

ABS cannot be felt at all during normal operation; almost all braking maneuvers are carried out in the same way as on machines without ABS, namely below the control range. Only when a wheel reaches the locking limit can the difference be felt. Whether during a panic braking or inadvertent overbraking in a slippery place – the stability that a driver without ABS has to restore himself by releasing the brake and applying it again is retained by the ABS owner. The risk of falling from an over-braked front wheel is just as averted as the rear breaking out of the car, caused by a locking wheel at the rear. The driver can simply continue to brake with all his might to a standstill.

MOTORCYCLE archive

A motorcycle with an anti-lock braking system (ABS) can be decelerated much more safely even under extreme conditions such as a panic braking than one without.

But if you have never done this before, if you are still afraid of the blocking front wheel and the breaking out rear wheel, you will not reach all the way in and perhaps give away crucial meters. Braking should therefore be practiced consciously in the ABS control range.

In addition, enormous forces are at work in the event of severe emergency braking. The driver has to counter these with the correct sitting posture and body tension. Keep your knees tight to the tank, your upper body as upright as possible and your arms not straight but also tight. Severe side effects such as screeching tires, pulsating brake levers or a beating drive train when you forget to pull the clutch do not affect the effectiveness of the anti-lock braking system. However, they can irritate the driver so much that he will let go of the brakes in fright if he has never experienced or practiced this before.

As mentioned, front-heavy machines tend to stoppies, while rear-heavy machines (like cruisers) put little weight on the front wheel and encourage locking. With modern ABS motorcycles, manufacturers try to take the fear out of these differences in braking by appropriately coordinating the systems. Various driving modes can also be set on many modern machines, which in many cases also affect the control behavior of the ABS. You should therefore know exactly how your own system works and not blindly trust ABS.

After all, anti-lock braking systems are not infallible either. The aforementioned tendency to stoppie can lead to rollover in older or particularly sporty systems. And on washboard-like bumps, the braking distance can be longer because a jumping bike in the air does not brake even with ABS.

Visual guidance when braking

Correct visual guidance is very important when braking hard. Keep your head up and look straight ahead in the braking direction! Because that is exactly where we will involuntarily steer, whether we want to or not. Even at the end of the braking, you should keep your eyes on the top so as not to lose your balance shortly before you come to a standstill.

Which brakes better – car or motorcycle?

Double the speed means double the reaction distance and four times the braking distance. The diagram assumes a reaction time of one second and braking at 8.5 m / s². A responsive, reasonably trained driver can do this under good conditions.

While 40.2 meters were measured for the brand new BMW R 1250 GS in the MOTORRAD top test, current compact cars reach an average of 36 meters from 100 km / h. A car length is a good four meters or an impact in the rear of the vehicle in front of a braking car at almost 30 km / h.

But for this braking performance you have to create the technically achievable optimum. And while we have to do our magic, the driver just kicks the irons for this delay. An effective remedy in such cases would be sufficient safety distance! But how quickly it is used up through your own carelessness, impatience or the intervention of others. So what to do if we can only brake as the diagram shows, i.e. we need nine meters more?

Stopping distances

Or what if the relations are as shown in these two diagrams? They show the comparison between an inexperienced brakeman on a motorcycle and the braking performance of a modern car.

The braking performance shown in the left of the two diagrams is not uncommon, and less trained bikers can easily reach their performance limits. From 100 km / h, the motorcycle needs 23 meters more to come to a standstill than the current four-wheeler, which results in an impact speed of a good 70 km / h. The reaction pattern “brake – release the brake – swerve”, which is still popularly trained, is complex, error-prone and takes time, also due to the strong load changes. In addition, you only stand after braking again.

Braking + dodging

The Institute for Two-Wheeler Safety (ifz) recently carried out a study with over 100 participants (see picture) in which a less complex emergency response pattern that can be successfully carried out even in an emergency with a minimum of practice was tested in practice. It is called “evasive on the brakes” or “braking evasive”.

Nicolas Streblow

The maneuver also works without ABS as long as the vehicle decelerates below the blocking limit.

The idea behind this: instead of just braking and eventually colliding or risking an evasive maneuver without a reduction in speed with an uncertain outcome, the driver first brakes as hard as possible, and without releasing the brake, a powerful steering impulse is given in the desired evasive direction. This has several advantages: The braking increases the contact pressure of the front wheel thanks to the dynamic shifting of the wheel load and we can transfer considerable steering forces, even though we continue to brake. This avoids unnecessarily disruptive load changes, no time is wasted by releasing the brake and the motorcycle comes to a standstill, but now with a lot of track offset, i.e. lateral deviation from the original driving line.

The stopping distances of the study participants with ABS were only increased by an average of 0.9 meters, while they managed an average track offset of 2.8 meters. If the track offset achieved is not sufficient and a collision does occur because of the longer braking distance, it takes place at only 14 km / h – a risk that is tolerable from the ifz’s point of view, not only in comparison to pure evasion. Compared with the pure braking distances of around 100 participants, the chances of avoiding a collision also improve very significantly. The maneuver also works without ABS as long as the vehicle decelerates below the blocking limit. Most of them do this out of respect anyway, and so the following applies: the longer the braking distance, the more sensible it is to achieve a track offset in the worst-case scenario.

Jorg Kunstle

Attention left-turners: braking with a simultaneous lane offset to the right can bring the rescue.

The results of the study are clear: even inexperienced people had a barely longer braking distance, but achieved what is perhaps the decisive track offset. This is quite remarkable, because the results for both pure braking and evasive action showed an enormous range. In both cases, the weakest participants needed twice as much travel as the best. Exercise in the basic skills of braking and steering is therefore urgently needed for many bikers.

Those who do not master the targeted steering impulse not only have less fun in the weird hobby, but also live almost as dangerous as those who do not dare to use the brakes effectively. But braking plays the key role. Without ABS up to almost 80 km / h, with ABS even up to 100 km / h, the braking distance is on average shorter than the evasive distance. Braking should always have priority up to this speed. Those who also master the steering impulse can often save a lot while braking. A finding that is all the more important when you realize how much better cars, for example, but also many colleagues, can brake on two wheels. Transferred to the scene at the top left: the earlier and further to the right the motorcycle comes to a stop, the better. And with a little luck, the car will stop.

Road surfaces, grip and braking distances

Shine

On dry cobblestones, the theoretically realizable braking distance is more than twice as long as on rough asphalt.

The braking distance also depends on the coefficient of friction of the road surface. An extremely grippy surface with a coefficient of friction µ = 1.2, on which the tire can interlock very well, is almost only found on test or race tracks. On country roads, the grip fluctuates from µ = 0.9 to 0.7.

The lower the coefficient of friction and the possible deceleration, the greater the percentage of braking force that can be transmitted via the rear wheel. Therefore, especially when it is wet or on a slippery surface, you should brake at the front as well as the rear.

Road surface Coefficient of friction Braking distance from 100 km / hAsphalt rough1,232.8 mAsphalt normal0.943.7 mAsphalt smooth0.756.1 Cobblestone0.578.6 Wet dust0.3131.0 Ice0.08491.3

The normal braking

Illustration: Muller

The average braking deceleration when driving quickly on country roads is around 5 m / sec², about half of an emergency stop. The rear brake can contribute up to 35 percent due to the high wheel load, the front wheel is still far from the locking limit when the road surface is good. The red arrow shows the force resulting from inertia (green) and weight (yellow). If this resulting force hits the road behind the front wheel (dashed extension), there is no tendency to rollover.

The emergency stop

Illustration: Muller

The actual delays that can be achieved depend on the respective motorcycle and the current grip (coefficient of friction). If this is sufficiently high, a long wheelbase and a low overall center of gravity encourage high delays. However, the tendency of the motorcycle to rollover or stop at stoppage remains a limiting factor. This is achieved when the dynamic wheel load shift is 100% complete. The resulting force (red) runs just behind or through the tire contact patch. From now on, any further increase in braking force would cause the rear wheel to lift. Driver assistance systems (ADAS) recognize when the rear wheel is lifted and regulate the brake pressure so that it just remains on the ground.

Excessive emergency braking

Illustration: Muller

With excessive emergency braking, the rear wheel lifts off. Now the resulting line of force hits in front of the front wheel. As soon as the rear wheel has lifted off, the front wheel alone carries the maximum possible wheel load. If the driver maintained the high braking pressure of 28 bar, the machine would overturn forwards. Important to know: This also happens with ABS! Because here – again provided there is sufficient grip – the brake pressure does not have to be regulated because the front wheel is over-braked, but because the rear wheel lifts off. But another FAS would be responsible for this, if it is present in the motorcycle.

Video: Braking safely with the motorcycle

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