Re: [Fwd: RT Linked Brakes] - Panic Braking

["Tom Brown" <tbrown@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Bob:

I've been driving BMW cars on race tracks since 1979.  I've been teaching
since 1993.  I've been to the Nurburgring drivers school with the
International BMW Clubs twice.   I've been to 4 days of track schools on my
Mille R (no ABS).   I like to think I'm a #1, but sometimes, something
happens that truly is unexpected, I mean really unexpected.   In that sort
of situation, the linked servo brake system can really help.  It happened,
by chance once to me last fall.

The best defense, of course, is to scan, scan, scan and never be surprised
by what goes on.  You thus avoid actual panic braking.  You may have to
brake very hard, but you've anticipated and you do the hard stop that you've
practiced in safe conditions. It doesn't always work out that way and this
one time, I was caught totally off-guard.  I grabbed both brakes hard.   I'd
practiced this on an empty road before, but it still felt like I was going
to go over the bars.   It was over in a second and turned into a non-event.
The servo linked brakes stop you right now, very hard.

I grant that my old brakes, enhanced with HH pads, were probably a bit more
"fun", but it's just that.   The new brakes don't slow me down or ruin my
style in any way.  I'm not able to "feather the rear brake to correct my
line" like I use to, but high displacement twins like the Oilhead have so
much engine braking available that the rear brake thing is really the wrong
way to go about this anyway.  Just keep the revs up and use throttle control
to adjust your line.

Without ABS, if you lock the rear wheel, it can slide out sideways and you
get into a situation where you want to let go of the rear brake.  This will
cause a high side crash when the rear wheel suddenly regains traction and
the bike spits you off.

At the Falling Leaf Rally (Southern Missouri, great nearly empty roads) one
year, a guy who lives a few miles from me and had been riding all kinds of
bikes for 30 years, came over a hill and had to stop suddenly.  He was
cooking and he was following too close.   He high-sided his bike on a
straight road, fell off and the bike landed on him.  He was killed when the
handlebar hit him square in the chest and stopped his heart.   This actually
happened.  I didn't see it, but I went to the wake.  The bike was a non-ABS
R1100S, I think.

If you think it can't happen to you, well, it can.   There are no #1s on
public roads, especially when speed limits are being exceeded by a
significant margin on seemingly ideal roads.  I know no one in this group
would ever do anything like that.

- -TB

>1 - Cool head under any situation.  Will properly feather the brakes
(both front and rear) regardless of the pavement conditions and come to
a stop faster than any ABS bike could do.  This guy stops two feet
short of the car, which is now stopped in the middle of the road.

>2 - Hot shot who thinks he has a cool head under any situation.  This
guy locks the back brake, really doesn't get more than about 60% on the
front.  He slides into the car at about 20 mph.  Later he swears there
was no room to stop, and he did the best he could in this situation.

>3 - Joe wimp sees the car pull out and freezes up.  Gets the bike
pulled down pretty well but still hits the car (or alternately locks
both wheels and slides in).  After, he says 'Damn, I know when this
type of situation comes up, I am not prepared to act cool enough under
pressure.  I need help with this.'

>OK.  I admit it.  I'm a number 3.  Like a deer in the head light, I
need assistance to make this stop quickly.  ABS really works for me.
Prevents rear wheel lock up, and keeps me upright until I stop....

------------------------------