Panic Stop Technique

[aldend123]

I often ride at night, on empty roads. So I have opportunity to practice panic stops with mild regularity. I searched for technique info to see if I could improve, but I couldn't find the info I was looking for. Maybe people commonly call it something else?

I've only been working with the front brake, because I think I lack the experience to combine them and when it counts, I'll lock the rear. So I'll keep it simple, and eventually graduate to a combined technique.

• Back in the seat to keep the rear-end down, or forward to keep weight over the front tire?
• Let my body weight rest on the handlebars to maximize weight on the tire, or clamp the tank so that the tire is free to dance a little with an uneven surface?
• When the front lets go, is it typically recoverable? I'm pretty afraid of locking it for the sake of practice, unlike the rear which I can semi-comfortably deal with a quick skid.
• Front tires don't seem to squeal like a car tire. But it does seem to make a sheering noise under heavy braking, maybe like a truck tire produces. Is this sound an indicator of approaching the grip limit? Are there any indicators at all?

[Kurlon]

Butt back, grip the tank with your knees, arms loose, stay as upright as you can WHILE STAYING LOOSE on the bars. If you roll the brake on you should be able to feel the rear wheel lift before the front brakes traction.

[SwiftTone]

I often ride at night, on empty roads. So I have opportunity to practice panic stops with mild regularity. I searched for technique info to see if I could improve, but I couldn't find the info I was looking for. Maybe people commonly call it something else?

I've only been working with the front brake, because I think I lack the experience to combine them and when it counts, I'll lock the rear. So I'll keep it simple, and eventually graduate to a combined technique.

• Back in the seat to keep the rear-end down, or forward to keep weight over the front tire? Scooch your butt back if possible without putting pressure on the bars. Neutral if that's not possible
• Let my body weight rest on the handlebars to maximize weight on the tire, or clamp the tank so that the tire is free to dance a little with an uneven surface? Grip the tank with your knees/legs. As little weight on the handle bars as possible to so you don't input anything you don't want. Let the front tires ride the (unevent)surface so it has maximum traction.
• When the front lets go, is it typically recoverable? I'm pretty afraid of locking it for the sake of practice, unlike the rear which I can semi-comfortably deal with a quick skid. Release and reapply smoothly and firmly. You want to apply it just enough speed to transfer the weight to the front without overloading it. Use the front suspension travel as much as possible without bottoming out. You can put a zip tie on and see how much braking it takes to push the zip tie 1/4" from the bottom
• Front tires don't seem to squeal like a car tire. But it does seem to make a sheering noise under heavy braking, maybe like a truck tire produces. Is this sound an indicator of approaching the grip limit? Are there any indicators at all? Different tires sound different. But I think this is the sound of the increase the contact patch from a small sliver to a fairly large patch.

These are just my opinions and what I've gathered through experience on and off the track. I'm sure someone will correct me. Feel free to too as I would like to know.

[nhbubba]

Gently engage the brake at first. As the weight transfers to the front the front tire will flatten out and the contact patch will increase in size. At that point you can gradually and smoothly increase braking force to much, much more than you ever could if you just stabbed the brake.

I practice regularly as well.

Yes, you can recover a front wheel skid, especially if you are straight up and down. Gently back off and immediately gently re-apply brake.

[RandyO]

first clue, DON'T PANIC

practice "emergency stops"


panic leads to crashing

[Marc R]

Once you've mastered all the good info listed above, the next thing will be shorten the time you take to set the brakes. At 30 mph you're traveling at 44 feet per second. If you reduce the time it takes to the load the front from 1 second to half that, you can dramaticaly reduce your stopping distance.

[aldend123]

first clue, DON'T PANIC

I scream like a little girl and re-assess my life while practicing to make sure it feels real.

Yes, you can recover a front wheel skid, especially if you are straight up and down. Gently back off and immediately gently re-apply brake.

In theory, sure. I guess I was wondering how often people have experienced this and been able to recover versus not. I've felt the front end slide in other situations, like in sand or a tar snake and recovered. But in those cases, I was not at my (or the bikes) limit changing speed or direction aggressively. I do it on my mountain bike all the time, like it's second nature. Easily detected, handled, and recovered.

I was getting pretty aggressive on the Gpz last year and the front end let go and it fell. Fortunately, I had already lost enough speed that I basically put my feet down and it finished falling on it's side and slid a foot. I never understood why it happened, as I felt like I had braked harder before. There's a small frost-heave-like pinch in the pavement in the area, so that was my best guess. I did have all my weight on the bars. I remember thinking to myself "is the front end sliding? Nah, not braking hard enough yet" and that's when the bars turned sideways. In this instance, I should have reacted to the voice in my head. But the time from questioning that it let go to bars being sideways was extremely short.

[Garandman]

Lay 'er down?

[butcher bergs]

Very slim chance of saving the front when leaned over at speed, braking and in an emergency situation...which is probably why we dress for the crash and not the ride, right?

[golden chicken]

If you use the rear brake just before you get on the fronts, you can load the front tire and suspension more gently, which can allow you to use the front brakes harder sooner. Then you need to ease off the rear as you squeeze on the fronts.

If you're upright, you can lock the rear and release it, though lots of people will claim you will instantly highside if you do such a thing.

[loudbeard]

Do some track days. Changed my view on what I perceived my braking abilities to be immensely.

[butcher bergs]

"Easing" and "gentle" are not words found when experiencing an emergency.

The front brakes will be your singular saving grace in an emergency situation as there is a high probability that there will not be time to have the forethought enough to gently load the front by using the rear brake. . You can use the front brakes instantly. There is no need to introduce the rear at all.

[TTD]

Track time will definitely help you improve your overall braking ability. Normally you are not doing panic stops on the track, but you should be progressing toward using maximum braking - which will definitely help on the street once you get over the panic part of the incident.

The ideal scenario if you were a robot is to quickly apply rear brake pretty firmly - at the same time you are setting the front brake. Then progressively squeeze the front brake while you reduce rear brake (since the back of the bike is getting light).

If you lock the rear you should just keep it locked and use all your focus on modulating the front brake and using your body english to keep the rear wheel in line. (dirt biking is great for learning long rear wheel skids)

Having said all this, the real trick is to never get into a panic situation by improving situational awareness.

[Karate.Snoopy]

Braking with 2 fingers helped me get better at modulating the force applied to the front brakes.
Pull in the clutch, apply brakes gradually & downshift to 1st (as is taught in MSF as a quick stop)
The front will take a lot of load but not all too quickly, If you have a bike with ABS, you can slam those brakes , hoping the ABS works. It is best to still practice applying the brakes like a rheostat.
Don't release the rear brake if it locks up, doing so while the rear is out of line could cause the rear to grip and cause a high side.
Front may be momentarily released in case of a lock up and reapplied gradually but firmly.
Keep your arms loose

In addition to these check the brake fluid, rubber brake lines break down,get brittle,expand over time, invest in steel braided lines.

[e30addict]

I love ABS. Smash the lever and pedal and stop. Totally saved my ass already when I've done something stupid.

[RandyO]

"Easing" and "gentle" are not words found when experiencing an emergency.

you prefer to panic ?

[butcher bergs]

Yes Randy because that is the only option

[nhbubba]

I have saved a locked front. I'm no super rider. So that leads me to believe anyone can. If the front starts to slide, back off on the lever. Don't let go of the lever, just back off a little.

Also, I maintain that I can out brake the ABS system if I do it right. Do it wrong and I'm damned glad the system is there to save me from myself. But done right I am convinced I can stop the bike faster riding the edge, just before the ABS kicks in.

"Easing" and "gentle" are not words found when experiencing an emergency.

Muscle memory. Condition yourself to never, ever jerk the lever. Theoretically if you practice enough, you will do the right thing in a panic because you are so used to doing it. .. Theoretically.

Braking with 2 fingers helped me get better at modulating the force applied to the front brakes.

I'm not a fan of the idea of using less than four fingers on the brake lever. The bike you're on may have brakes strong enough to make that perfectly fine, but the next one you jump on may not. I had grown accustomed to two fingering my SV at the track and started doing that on my street bike, which has vastly inferior brakes. It was fine for casual, planned stops. But then I needed maximum braking force in an emergency and didn't have it. I actually had to reposition my hand in the incident. Had I had all four on the lever to begin with things may have worked out better.

I now focus on using my whole hand on the lever no matter what the situation or the motorcycle.

[Paul_E_D]

My panic stop techniques:

1. Scream like a 12 year old girl meeting her friends at a middle school dance
2. pee my pants (just a little)
3. stomp on the rear brake
4. LAY 'ER DOWN!

[ZX-12R]

But done right I am convinced I can stop the bike faster riding the edge, just before the ABS kicks in.

The term you're looking for is "threshold braking." That's the point of maximum braking right before your wheel locks up. ABS isn't designed to improve your braking performance (even though it does for a lot of people); it simply tries to prevent uncontrolled skids.

[RandyO]

everybody keeps bringing up "panic"

panic is the LAST thing you want to do

panic results in crashes


the first thing you have to so is get panic out of your mind

[nhbubba]

Randy, in this case I believe that the word "panic" is being used as a euphemism for "emergency" or "quick" or "abrupt" or whatever word you prefer. I think it is universally understood by everyone else here that freaking the fuck out (ie steps 1 and 2 of Paul's advice) is largely non-constructive.

We get it.

[mzdagrl]

If you're upright, you can lock the rear and release it, though lots of people will claim you will instantly highside if you do such a thing.

Done it. Did not high side. Did leave a nice long skinny skid on the pavement though (better than mangled bike parts, I guess).

Did learn that my instinctual response was rear first, then front. I have been working on changing that to front only (or mostly, really). Had a moment on Tuesday where I needed to quick-stop and found myself using front only without thinking. I was very pleased with myself. It's a good thing to practice these regularly. So many of us get "comfortable" and stop practicing.

[TheIglu]

First thing I do is to panic. It usually occurs at a disco.



Front end slides aren't exactly easy to recover from in most situations, but it sure is an incredibly accurate and helpful learning tool if you can bite of a little at a time in a controlled manner. Whenever I start riding again each year, I intentionally see how much it will take to lock the front wheel of the Wee on straight, smooth dry (and then wet) pavement. If you are upright and paying attention, you can get it to skid for at least 4-5 feet and then release enough to let it keep rolling before getting back on the brake hard. I have the trophies of long black marks on the road in front of my driveway as proof. Remember, you aren't trying to get it to skid, you are trying to see how fast you can stop. So don't just grab the lever, squeeeeeeeze the lever. Also keep in mind that as you get slower and slower, the brakes have more power so the same hard braking lever pressure at 60mph may cause the front wheel to lock up at 20mph once you slow down enough.

On the track, I know the limit of my race tires on the front of my SV or EX. I'm a late braker compared to most intermediate riders so I go bombing into turn 1 and hit the brakes at the 2 boards. I've already pre-turned, but it's still not exactly straight up and down due to the new T1 setup. I've come in too hot and felt the front end start to slide hard on the brakes while slightly leaned over. That was a big learning experience for me. Didn't freak out, just reduced pressure slightly on the brakes and took the corner a little wider than normal. That is the type of thing to use a trackday for.

[DucDave]

At least as important is to practice disconnecting the eons of evolution that developed into a finely honed, defense/offense reaction to threats which we call 'target fixation'. I've had a several experiences where even the most effective use of front and rear brakes wasn't gonna get me past the threat safely. Look where you want to go and not at the threat. It's freekin' hard to clear that set of synapses in your brain but practice will get you to look away faster which can make all the difference....!