Safe Braking

[Red Robbo]

Season's greetings.
I have a bit of a problem in the braking department, my lovely newish Scott has hydraulic disc brakes and 700x35c semi slicks fitted. The trouble appears to be that with so little rubber contacting the road surface and so much power in the brakes that stopping at speed is an impossibility without launching into a skid.
Any advice on controlled braking? (Going slower is not always an option)!

 

[Smokin Joe]

Cut down on the number of fingers round the lever. GP riders bring a motorcycle from 200mph to 60 with only two fingers, the less you use the more sensitive your control.

 

[gbb]

Cut down on the number of fingers round the lever. GP riders bring a motorcycle from 200mph to 60 with only two fingers, the less you use the more sensitive your control.

Never having had discs, i read OPs post and though...i dunno
But thats so obvious...it didnt occur to me

 

[marzjennings]

I find I only need one finger to brake comfortably with disc brakes, two in emergencies or loose conditions.

Also stop using the rear brake as a much and concentrate on using the front brake most of the time.

 

[Bigsharn]

I'm running on exactly the same tyres and braking system as you Robbo, and I find that (like a car) you put a little bit of pressure on, then gradually add more pressure as you near the place you want to stop

The best way to do it is to practice on a side road

 

[Garz]

Oddly im a rear break user more than a front break, I know roadies tend to hardly use the rear but growing up riding when young it was what I got used to (on BMX and MTBs). Practice feathering your brakes, you can hear and feel slight contact when descending so get used to the pressure required. I dont have a steed with disc brakes however so you may be more restricted as they grab contact better.

 

[GrasB]

This shouldn't be a problem, just how are you applying the brakes?

I run hydraulic discs on 700x23-700x35c tyres (the latter on ice) without any problems, just gentle, progressive feeding in of power with 1 or 2 fingers. The great thing about discs is you don't need a lot of leaver pressure which in turn means you have a lot more control. However ham fisted grab a handful of the leaver & pray application of the brakes will cause all kinds of mayhem.

 

[Number14]

The rear wheel locks up first and skids because the weight (your's and the bike's) is transfered forwards under braking.

Slip your bottom off the back of the saddle to put more weight over the back end and you can brake harder without locking up - takes a bit of practice but does give significantlyshorter stopping distances.

 

[xpc316e]

I second the advice about using one, or two, fingers to brake. Set up can help here: normally when you get a bike the brake levers are snuggled up next to the grips, so loosen the clamps and move them inboard slightly (2cm, perhaps), so that the index and ring fingers automatically fall on the lever in the correct position.

The other thing to bear in mind is the brakes themselves: hydraulic discs are generally very powerful, but not all are easy to modulate and apply gently. I have Quad discs on my mtb, and they were the main reason why I bought that kind of bike. They received rave reviews regarding their ease of operation, as well as outright power.

 

[GrasB]

Slip your bottom off the back of the saddle to put more weight over the back end and you can brake harder without locking up - takes a bit of practice but does give significantlyshorter stopping distances.

The only times that the rear break has an effective positive impact on braking distances is when there is when you can lock the front wheel(s) instead of lifting the rear wheel off the ground or if the front brake isn't good enough (eg. it can't lock the front wheels or stand the bike on its nose). Given a decent tyre, decent brakes & dry surface you can't push enough weight back to stop torsional reaction of the bike standing it on the front tyre, on lose surfaces this works but it also will increase front wheel grip as well.

The advantage you have on a bike is that brakes are independent, but in emergency situations you can't multi-task quickly enough to control the rear braking properly so forget about the back brake. You either don't apply the back brake or apply it to a certain extent & let the rear lockup, even looking at videos of road racers under emergency braking I didn't find one example of a rider not locking up the rear wheel to some extent (visually stationary wheel or rear end squirming which only happen with some slip) if they applied both brakes with their weight fully back.

Going on an automotive tangent; On a buggy I helped build we did braking tests & found that even with 80% of the weight over the rear wheels the front wheels had enough mechanical grip on tarmac & hard pack dirt that the rear brakes were effectively pointless as we couldn't measure any difference in stopping distances between turning the rear brakes off, not locking up & locking up. We ended up using the rear suspension extension to control an auto-bias valve on each of the rear callipers. At static suspension sag the valve was fully open, at 90% extension the calliper was cut out completely. The result was great braking on all surfaces & the ability to run heavily rear biased setup no matter what without rear lockup problems.

 

[zigzag]

you only need to use your front brake if riding on the road (for loose surfaces both brakes are equally important). as others said use 1 or 2 fingers. for complete confidence choose safe area and practice to stop doing front wheelie without going over the bars. it may sound extreme, but worth learning.