Emergency stops!

[akaDAVE]

Yesterday morning I remember my bike instructor's words of wisdom when he advised me to practice a few emergency stops every time I went out on the bike.
I only remembered this when sitting 1/2ft away from the back of a Micra after about 20yards of sideways tail-sliding, arse clenching drama.
I had just come around a bend on a familiar, normally fast flowing nsl country road to find someone had stopped a big caravan for no apparent reason what so ever without indicators/hazards mid lane.
He did a good job of using the bend and trees to hide the caravan just out of site to following traffic.
If it wasn't for the obvious reaction of the car in front I would have been fucked to be honest. The micra was going realatively slowly for that road but had to stamp on the brakes ahead of me which gave me a warning. It really was a freak incident there and I was well caught by suprise.

I went straight off to practice some stops and realised I was well off. I was locking up the back dreadfully and had no feel at all.
Does anyone make a disciplined habit of practicing emergency stops? When was the last time you actually practiced/did one?
I think it's a good idea.
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GSXR600

[Suzuki]

I never go out to 'practice' them. Occasionally have to hit the brakes pretty hard though.
Never had too much trouble with a snakey rear-end.

Sounds like you might be applying a little too much rear brake?

Well done for stopping pre-micra though!
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[jay_666]

I was practising mine yesterday. Why? Because i had a lesson

edit: its tuesday today isnt it. i had my lesson sunday! Doh!

But yeh, I was once going round a 90 degree left hand bend that i know well and some idiot decided they would just do a 3 point turn just round the bend!

Luckily i stopped just inches from the car and gave the driver a right dirty stare
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[Akira]

[akaDAVE]

[andrea]

I will practise when i have a bike to practise on!

From what i was taught, in a straight line in the dry use 75% front and 25% back blah blah, but to be honest i was taught to just use front for the e-stop as the back locks up too easily when you are loading the front. i locked the front once on a loose surface, thought i was coming off, that was scary.

Practise, practise practise though, because you never know when you might need it and id rather know what to do in an emergency rather than just grab and stomp and hope for the best (which is what i would probably do )

[APNess]

Had the same yesterday. Unfamiliar roads, under trees after being in bright sunlight, road surface poor/chopped up, and junction at the end of the road with a car in front of me - if not for car slowing/stopping I'd have missed that one - no obvious junction signs that I saw, half blinded by sunlight/sudden shade anyway :S

Locked front up first, then back, then eased off slightly on both, wheels chattering away like ABS, back end of car looming up in front of me.

I stopped ok, last few feet a slide (only doing 30mph before then!) and my backside was chattering as well :S

Not something I want to practise every day, but glad I can keep my head when the easiest thing to do would have been to panic and nail the brakes as hard as poss.

Just thinking about it makes me want to nip to the loo :S

[colin1]

leaving a safe gap means you dont usually need to do emergency stops

2 second gap in dry, 4 second gap in wet

watch a bit of road as it passes the car in front, and make sure it takes 2 seconds to get to you

most people seem to leave 1 second gaps or less
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[Dark]

akaDave, sounds like your suspension could do with a few tweaks, its ususally the cause of instability under very hard braking
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[Itchy]

I'd say for safe gaps or space to move into if you should ever find yourself in such a situation, ie behind the right indicator or even more to the right , so you can swerve out the way , since practicing is no real indicator of how to do them in real life , I can stand the NTV on its nose if I try in a dry controlled environment , but on the road where things pop up unexpectely its a bit late to think oh I think I shall brake sharpish ,

if you regularly lock the front (I rarely do now but have done , due to people not seeing you and coming out junctions) , ABS might be an option to look for on your next
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[G]

First problem seems to be using the rear brake... don't use it and it won't lock up .

You can usually get all the braking you need from the front - to the point that the rear is just about to lift up - at which point braking from the rear won't do anything.

[jonboy22]

Ahhh was wondering what that funny little pedal on the right hand side did, thought it operated my wind screen wipers.....

um my back brake seems to do very very little and when I'm emergency stopping (which is very very rarely because I'm 92 and very mature) most of the time the back end will go super light as all my weight is transfered forward into "oh shit I'm going to endo" position.....

Skiddy back only seems to happen when it locks after dumping the clutch whilst emergency stopping.
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last bike: GSXx-R 600 K4 - written off, now converting to track bike

[colin1]

yeah id say back brake is good for dropping a bit of speed on a bend as it will make the bike oversteer and turn into the bend rather than straighten up, but under hard braking, if you use the back brake much the back wheel will slide about

under heavy braking, all the weight goes to the front, so it doesnt take much for the back to break traction as there isnt much pushing it down onto the road. Then it can slide sideways, which is probably best avoided unless you really know what you are doing.
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[sickpup]

Always amazes me how many people claim not to use the rear brake. Tis really strange considering the amount of rear pads I've fitted to these peoples bikes over the years.

In the words of Mick Doohan 'If you don't use the rear brake yer a wanker'.

[Visitor Q]

If it locks, let off it and start again...

Thought about this the other day, when coming round a sweeping corner and *cough cough* mph, and you suddenly need to scrub speed but you're quite leant over, does everyone else stand it up straight line BRAKE, corner, stand up BRAKE, corner etc to lose speed?

Any problems with that?
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[jonboy22]

didn't quite follow the stand up etc bit but in those situations I find that I sort of progressively squeeze brake as I start to straighten it up.
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current bike: GSX-R 750 K6 stolen, found the next day in a van in Durham, returned to me 3 months later costing me my NCB and my excess...
last bike: GSXx-R 600 K4 - written off, now converting to track bike

[Visitor Q]

[Dom_]

Emergancy stops are horrible, bars wobbling like fook, tyre screeching now and again due to warped disk (sounds a bit like abs)
Thats a real emergancy stop btw, not just stopping quickly for an examinor.

[Trixie]

I had an instance on the bike a few weeks back. I rounded a bend and had to scrub off the speed Very Quickly Indeed due to a line of cars at a standstill on my side of the road and a bunch of Coppers the other side tending to some sort of spillage with no room to get through. A grass bank on one side of the road and a 50' drop to the sea the other side gave me no room for manouvre. I had to brake from a fair speed, as I was in a derestricted zone at the time.

I seriously thought that was it and that I was either coming off or I was going to hit something; my bike has crap brakes at the best of times.

Needless to say I bought some braided stainless hoses the next day.
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