Riding Tip: Braking Fidelity
Last Updated: March 4th, 2024
Riding Tip: Braking Fidelity
When it comes to avoiding hazards on the street, stopping your motorcycle quickly is a critical tool to have in your toolbox. Do you have the braking fidelity to stop your motorcycle in an emergency?
Maybe you’ve never heard the term braking fidelity. Essentially, it is the exactness with which a rider can perform their braking. For this video, we’re talking about max performance braking and we’re going to relate specifically to front brake usage.
Now I mentioned max performance braking. You may also know it as threshold braking, and it is the ability for a rider to stop their vehicle in the shortest distance possible without engaging the ABS and without losing traction.
There are an infinite number of variables that can affect how quickly we can stop our motorcycle. From tires to brakes to motorcycle type to surface, they can all affect how quickly we can get stopped. For a max performance stop, we want to work on a precise, progressive squeeze to help us come to our quick stop.
A couple elements come into play here. How fast we squeeze that brake lever and how far we squeeze that brake lever. If we go too far, too fast, we can lock up that front tire causing a skid and a loss of traction.
Too slow and not enough brake pressure and we can extend our stop risking running into that hazard we’re trying to avoid.
So how do we gain braking fidelity? When an emergency pops up, do we want to rely on a hope, a wish, a prayer? We’d rather rely upon what we already know. And we gain that knowledge through training.
In training, you can learn how to max brake your motorcycle. You’ll be able to understand how to stop your bike safely and quickly.
Thank you for watching this video. At TEAM Arizona we’re here for you and we hope to be on Your Road to Ride for Life!
For the Entire TEAM Arizona Newsletter Content, CLICK HERE
Bill Seltzer has been a Motorcycle Safety Foundation RiderCoach since 2003 and a Total Control Advanced Riding Instructor since 2011. He currently serves as the Marketing Director for TEAM Arizona and is a member of the Arizona Strategic Highway Safety Planning committee. Have questions or comments about the article? Email him: Bill@MotorcycleTraining.com
