Get ya Motorcycle Safety lecture here!

[KTMKID]

For all those positivley contributing to this thread, I thank you very much. Theres no better weapon to have than the power of knowledge, because knowledge is everything.... and for those who want to act tuff and try to be all hard...your time will come

As Ruby said in previous posts, a vast majority of the teenagers on this site will be the future generation of Road bike riders.. I myself being one of them. Bikes are dangerous and deadly! But with a good amount of know-how on how your bike performs and reacts to different weather conditions and what to do to avoid dangerous situations, you could save your life!

Inexperience amongst motorcyclists is a contributing factor in many motorcycle crashes. As with car drivers, experience is critical in making motorcyclists safer on the roads, and all this knowledge is contributing to your knowledge of the kinds of hazards us futre/present riders face.

Motorcyclists have a high vulnerability to sustaining injuries on the road given their limited protection in the event of a crash. So gear up and ride safely boys.

 

[pascal125]

yeh, xFOADx is right, riding on a bike at 100k's on the road doesn't look the same as in a car! lol luckily i don't get scared, dad is a fast, but safe rider...well atleast when im on the back, LOL.
yeh he rides with an alipinestar jacket, some whacky expensive helmet and gloves (i just bought him new ones as his are getting old for father's day) SHHH no1 tell him tho, lol. he won't let me ride on the back without a good helmet, pants (usually jeans), a jumper or mi leather jacket i got off a mate.
Hey is any1 headin down 2 phillip island for the race today?? ir ur there around 3 i'll look out 4 ya, mi mate Mick Miceli is racing a Falcon hotted up as a GT and now that his car is good, he will probably win as he is extremely talented.
peace out

 

[Ruby]

I've been to many funerals for friends who have died on our roads. Some were innocent victums, others were being stupid at the time. But no one deserves death. My views on motorcycling and motorcycle safety has been forged with the good and bad times.

Ruby, you wanna explain the different uses for front and back brake on the road, thats one thing Im not very good at yet, but its important to learn.

It ultimately depends on the bike you're riding. Sports bikes rely mostly (if not entirely) on the front brake, whereas cruisers like (haha) Harleys have a large reliance on the back brake. This is all due to the sitting position and where your body weight is. A harley for example will just fold the fornt wheel under heavy front wheel braking, so the front and rear brakes should be used 60:40. A sportsbike with the rider leaning on the bars means the fornt brakes carry more of the responsibility of stopping. Hell, I rarely use the back brake ... rarely. An experienced sportsbike rider would use the front and rear brakes around the 90:10 mark.

To answer your question in a road use sense (on a sports tourer), you're more using the brakes 70% front and 30% rear, depending if you are upright or on a lean. A neutral riding position like a sports-tourer bike (Honda Hornet etc) means 70% of braking is with the front and the rear brake helps to add stopping power too. However, in an emergency stop if the front brake is grabbed hard enough alot of weight transfer happens to the front, if the rear brake is used the rear might lock up, so in this case less rear brake (20%) is used.

Ultimately, this is too much of a broad question. So many examples and so many scenarios. For me, on track, I use front brake mostly and only ever use the rear brake to 'tidy up my line' mid-turn and out of a turn (also helps stop the front wheel coming up so I can keep the bike pointed in the direction I want to go). However, I have tuned my suspension and modified my brakes to do so. There are too many variables to give a straight answer.

Another tip ... attend a Knee Scrappers day (track day) if you ever can, they talk about bike setup, including brakes.

 

[Ruby]

Another explanation of the above:

Take a cruiser (like a Harley or Honda Shadow), the forks are long and soft. If you are braking on these bikes it would be 60:40 front and rear, so you'd want to allow yourself lots of room for smooth comfortable braking. In an emergency, if you grabbed the brakes quickly, like riding a sports bike or race bike, the suspension will do its best to soak up that suspension travel in the emergency braking situation. When the suspension compresses so much that it has used all its travel, the rake or angle of the forks is now steeper. Length from front wheel axle to frame is reduced and therefore rake is steeper and steering response is lighter. Also, the front wheels are usually far heavier than sportsbike wheels. Due to this, the 'front can fold' meaning the bars suddenly turn one way or the other as the front wheel locks up and the rider goes down in a 'low side' crash. So you can see the suspension also plays a key role in braking ability. So too does tyre choice and grip.

Sportsbikes have a more aggressive chassis setup and brakes to match. The steering angle is steep to begin with (24 degrees or so) compared to a cruiser , so any change in the rake due to emergency braking and compression of the forks is not as much as compared to cruisers. Plus most sportsbikes have steering dampers anyway to prevent the steering being light and fragile. Sportsbikes also have the added advantage of having fully adjustable suspension front and rear, so you can tune the bike to your riding style. Cruisers can't without rebuilding.

 

[Flarry]

Due to this, the 'front can fold' meaning the bars suddenly turn one way or the other as the front wheel locks up and the rider goes down in a 'low side' crash.

Ive done this so many times in 4th on my pitty ahah.

This is all good info for me as Im gonna be riding on the road soon.

 

[Ruby]

My first crash on the race track was a low side on my Aprilia RS250 LOL

Went too hot into a hard left hander and had the bike on full lean and still squeezing the Brembo brakes, scrapping my knee sliders. Lean some more, scrapping my pegs. Just a little bit more, and then the front goes out from under me! I end up sliding off the track at about 80kph into the runoff area kicking up dust and dirt. LOL

But who says you can't scrape the pegs on an RS250? LOL