Better Riding Advice: perfect your emergency stops

In episode 10 of the Better Riding Series, along with professional motorbike coach, Mark McVeigh, Michael and Mark discuss emergency stop and emergency braking techniques. Mark reveals that only 20% of riders perform effective emergency stops, despite ABS technology. He emphasises the importance of using the front brake first, pulling the clutch immediately, and maintaining a two-finger grip on the brake lever. Mark also highlights the significance of body position, weight distribution, and practicing in various conditions. He shares data showing that riders need to apply brake pressure progressively to avoid triggering ABS and to achieve shorter stopping distances. Read on for the full break down or watch the below video.

Better Riding – improve your emergency stops

Top riding tips from our Motorbike Coach on how to perfect your emergency stops – which could be critical.

This Better Riding series is brought to you in association with Honda Motorcycles UK and MotorbikeCoach.com – a program of self-help videos as well as written content packed full of tips, advice and simple-but-useful exercises designed to help motorcycle riders of all experiences or ability to get more from their riding. It provides expert information and practice drills that help increase rider confidence and machine control skills that supplement traditional post-test training techniques.

How many riders can perform a good emergency stop?

First of all, what is the definition of an emergency stop? It's a controlled yet maximum effort stop performed to avoid a collision or an obstacle that appears suddenly without warning. Yet even at Mark’s school where the riders are performing the emergency stop drill, and by definition they know it's going to happen, it still can be a surprise. And he sees only around 20% of the riders perform an effective emergency stop. That’s just one of every five riders, despite technology such as ABS.

Most riders are tentative with a front brake. They have a perceived risk of locking the front tyre which worryingly translates to their road riding, as whenever they are surprised or under stress they will always drop to their level of training.

Mark has seen some riders fall off or even front end pogo’s where the front end of the bike is bouncing up and down because the rider squeezes the brake lever then releases it, then has another squeeze, and so on. “They're energised up with adrenaline, and then the bike reacts in a way that they've never experienced before. We see swerving, plenty of front-end skids with riders that didn't have ABS,” adds Mark. Though his favourite story is of one lady that actually didn't do an emergency stop during an emergency stop drill. When questioned, her reply was that she couldn’t reach the brake lever!

There’s no shame in practicing, especially a skill so crucial to modern day riding. Ask yourself, when was the last time you practiced an emergency stop? Was it on the bike you’re riding currently? If not, then how do you know how capable the brakes might be? Or how effective the ABS is?

It’s like a skydiver jumping out of an aeroplane without checking their parachute.

See how the weight transfer changes under braking

Balance and grip can affect braking

It's really useful to understand more about weight distribution. Weight bias changes depending on a variety of rider input such as throttle or braking and the amount of input of either action, as well as whether the rider is upright or cornering.

If a rider is on a neutral throttle then most of the weight is on the back; around 60%, leaving 40% on the front. And then as the rider comes into a corner and they brake, the weight shifts to the front which can be up to 70% of weight. And of course, weight is the main contributor to grip which makes it additionally important to understand from an emergency braking perspective.

Mark explains it like so: if you have an eraser and drag it across a table you feel that it grips the surface. But then if you get above it and push down vertically then try and drag that rubber across the table, it actually won't move. And that's the same logic applying to your motorbike. When you put that kind of vertical load on your bike, you get that significant grip increase. The tyre flattens out as it gets weight on it, and then it interacts with the road, and so the key to ‘grip’ is building that load progressively on the contact patch. The problems arise when the rider overloads the tyre by grabbing the brake or throttle rather than applying it smoothly and gradually.

Whereas with conventional suspension, the diving effect and fork compression caused through heavy braking and weight transfer is not replicated on bikes with telelever suspension. Synonymous with big BMWs of the last 20 years such as the RT and of course, the uber-popular GS, the system acts in a different way. The transfer of the bike’s weight under heavy braking still exists but is much less noticeable because of the single strut and ball-jointed linkage. The telelever system's spring and damping functions are handled by a central strut, while the fork legs are primarily used for steering. There’s neither any front end ‘dive’ nor effect on the trail of the bike. Also worthy of note is the linked brakes, also known as combined brakes, of bikes such as the Honda Super Blackbird or VFR800 for example where the bike squats rather than dives. NB: ABS was present on models 2002-onwards, and the bikes built before that yet still had combined brakes had a tendency to lock the front wheel because there was less weight being transferred.

Pull that lever as hard as you can, with ABS the front tyre won’t lock

Which brake should I use?

You can see from the above image how effective the front brake on a motorcycle can be. Look at the rear tyre, there's obviously no weight on it because it’s perfectly round, and there's no grip on it either because it’s in the air. Why? Because if you look at the how flat the front tyre is, you can see the amount of weight pushing down on there, which results in a huge amount of grip. The contribution that the front brake makes to the bike is simple: nothing, with control, will slow you down faster.

The rear brake contributes very little, though it depends on the type bike. If it's a long and low cruiser it will contribute more than a shorter, taller bike, but it still might be just 10 - 15%. Without ABS, the rear brake is prone to locking, or if you have ABS then stamping down on the rear brake lever can trigger the ABS, but it is still important to use the rear brake in emergency braking.

Another important tip is to cover the front brake lever. Two fingers is ideal, and the key thing is to be ready, be prepared. Many of the licencing courses are teaching riders to have all their fingers on the brake lever which, as Mark puts is, “is a legacy back to the police riders' handbook and maybe drum brakes, but if you've got four fingers on the front brake, you're not actually holding on to the handlebar properly. You've got your thumb hooked on there and you may still have to swerve, you may have bumps or potholes. So, we say; two fingers for the front brake, and that can, if you're covering the brake, save precious fractions of a second.”

Get that clutch lever in; an automatic reaction for many

Should I pull the clutch lever when doing an emergency stop?

Mark teaches the riders at his school to pull the clutch in pretty much straight away, and the reason for that is because around 15 to 20% of his students have some level of throttle on when they do their emergency stop. He says, “So obviously if the throttle is on and so is the brake, you're actually driving against the front brake which is a big problem. And these riders are doing it in a drill so in a real emergency, that the percentage is likely to rise proportional to the level of surprise. And that reduces the braking effectiveness by pushing the bike on instead of slowing down.”

And there’s another problem because with the throttle on the bike wants to pitch less meaning there’s less grip on the front tyre as well. So essentially what you're doing is you're just extending your stopping distance massively. It doesn’t matter if the bike is revving its head off if the rider is stationary after performing an emergency stop. Frankly it doesn’t matter what the bike is doing so long as the rider has stopped in time and is safe. With the clutch in, the bike’s not going anywhere.

Is my aftermarket front brake lever good enough for an emergency stop?

Mark’s earlier old lady story was extreme, but he still sees varying degrees of imperfect lever set-up. Even if they’re OEM or aftermarket, the advice is to have a play with them, get them to a position where you can reach comfortably and there’s enough leverage to allow you to squeeze effectively.

Look at the above image for example, this rider has a short, aftermarket lever. The pivot point is too close to where the rider is pulling. OEM levers are much longer rider’s should be pulling near the end of the lever. So pay attention to your levers – front and rear – they could pay dividends and provide the stopping power you might just need one day.

Look up, slight bend in the elbow

Does body position affect braking?

Body position is important. Mark says, “If you think about it, most road bikes can stop at 1G and that's kind of the same feeling on your arms as doing a push up, you'll kind of feel that type of force which is significant. You don’t want that all through your arms, so it's important to sit and hold the tank with your legs as you start improving your emergency stop efficiency with practice.” Keep your head up too, look where you want to go. When your head's up, you've got good balance as well. If you're supporting your body at the tank with your thighs, you can afford to bend your arms slightly too, which in turn means you have better control of the bike and steering becomes easier.

Can the tyre lock even with ABS, and can I squeeze the brake lever as hard as possible?

ABS is one of the best safety additions to a motorbike, and it’s designed so the tyre is not going to lock up. As the rider, you still need to squeeze the lever, and Mark even heard theories around the rider outperforming ABS.

Rather than focusing on squeezing as hard as possible, the emphasis should be on squeezing as quickly as possible. With practice, riders can get to a stage where they grab the brake and have confidence in the ABS. By grabbing and squeezing as quickly and as hard as possible will trigger the ABS because the bike hasn’t had time to pitch forward so there's no weight or little weight or grip on the front tyre. Once that happens that's too much, and the rider can actually start to work backwards during the practice, and slow down the technique by fractions. The ABS will prevent the tyre from locking but can increase the stopping distance, marginally. Once you're consistent and the technique is intuitive, then you can move on. And what Mark likes the riders to do next is repeat the same thing again, but from covering the front brake because that's a different muscle memory. “You've got your hand over the front brake. Practice the timing of this, and then repeat, repeat. And then next thing to do is start bringing in the rear brake. And the rear brake, especially if you can time the rear brake that it's just on before the front brake, it has a kind of effect of flattening the bike out and kind of sucking the bike down onto the ground. And it's quite a powerful thing. So again, once you're happy with that technique, you're triggering the ABS, that's another benchmark. And then you start to increase the speeds,” says Mark.

Start off at 30mph. Then go to 50mph and do the same thing. Then go to 70mph and repeat all those things, so you've got a full matrix. And then to finish off, do it in the wet. The road surface is not always perfect so by practicing at different speeds and road conditions will all be beneficial to ramping up those skills, and muscle memory. When you bring in all these different elements, you’ll be ready with emergency braking intuitive.

Let’s also look the use of gears. The primary goal is to stop as soon as possible but eventually, we want to build into your technique that you are going down the gears so that as soon as you've stopped, you're ready to move again. Perhaps there’s a car behind you that's not paying attention. And that presents a new risk to you. Once you're stopped, you need to be mindful of getting out of the way.

Every fraction of a second counts when you’re performing an emergency brake – a 1 second delay in reaction time can see the bike travel another 30 metres

How can I improve my reaction time?

In the real world you don't know when you're going to need to do the emergency stop. But be mindful that your total stopping distance will include the extra elements of perception time and reaction time. Perception Time being the time to realise there's a problem here, which is roughly about a second. And then Reaction Time is the distance travelled before you actually physically start braking, and that's roughly a second too. So that's two seconds before you've actually started adjusting the speed of the bike, and at 60mph, that's nearly 30 meters for each second, i.e. you’ve probably travelled 60 meters before you even start to brake. That’s more than half a football pitch.

The technique is like a matrix. Mark says, “Start slow and easy, give yourself a baseline and gradually build from there. So step one is practicing from your normal throttle grip position and use the front brake only. Get used to a speed that's comfortable for you and take it easy on the first go. Give yourself a good baseline. Close the throttle and initiate braking. At the same time pull the clutch in and apply that initial pressure that makes the bike pitch forward, putting that weight on the front tyre, then squeeze that brake lever progressively until you come to a complete stop.”

Use that as the baseline and practice it over and over until you're regularly triggering the ABS. And the ABS, essentially is the braking threshold of the tyre.

Teacher vs Student: the data

Mark’s Digital Academy uses GPS-driven data via a GoPro and provides measurements for emergency braking. As you can see from the above graph, the G force is on the vertical scale, and then distance or time along the bottom. The green line is the coach, and the yellow one is the student. See how steep the green line is - that's the rate of application and how quickly you squeeze the brake lever. The difference with the student’s is that it’s much flatter. The next thing to think about is the progressiveness, i.e. keep building the brake pressure until you come to a stop. The green shows an ideal rate, and once the brake pressure is applied, it goes all the way up until the rider has stopped. Compared to the student’s line which is not so progressive. They've let the brake pressure off, and then they reapplied it again, which is really typical. “Riders get a bit of a fright, and they let the brake off, and then they kind of go again. And of course, you're, when you're doing that, you're taking the weight off the tyre,” says Mark.

The teacher peaks at 1.2G and this is just a road bike! Whereas the student manages 0.7G which tells the story. The only part missing from the data is that initial application, i.e. how quickly the riders are to get the brakes on. Though Mark reiterates that the teacher would have been covering the front brake lever just in case.

We all want to be better at the passions or hobbies we spend our time and money on, so how about becoming a Better Rider? Those who play golf, ski, horse ride all practice to get better, but motorcyclists somehow just assume greatness. We don’t aspire to be safer riders so let’s rebrand that to become ‘better’ riders.

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