Perhaps the most important skill in the pantheon of motorcycling is braking. Unfortunately it is also of the least understood skills. OverDrive (Dec. ’08) shares a few tips on building them up.

First of all, unlike cars, motorcycles give one the option of modulating the front and rear brakes separately. This is a potent toll when put to the right use – and disastrous if one misuses it. Like the throttle, they are delicately tuned instruments that allow one to just the right amount of force, with practice.

Fist let us understand what a brake does - Brakes of all sorts, convert kinetic energy into heat, causing a motorcycle to slow down. But in operation, it is a little more complex than that. How much kinetic energy can be converted to heat depends, obviously, on the type of brakes – discs being more efiecient than drums and on traction. Traction is the amount of grip available from the road in a given situation. So basically traction increases for a given situation when more weight is brought to bear on that contact patch.

To explain this further, let us take an example says OverDrive (Dec. ’08). If one parks a motorcycle on two weighing scales, with a wheel on each, the front wheel will carry slightly more weight than the rear. But when one brakes, the motorcycle pitches forward, causing the front wheel to carry more and more weight, which in turn means the front wheel gains more and more traction and therefore the front wheel carries more braking capacity. This is why larger brake discs are always mounted on the front hub of our motorcycles. Therefore one should apply the front brake more than the rear – but how much.

To begin with, one should apply gentle pressure on both brakes. Once the forks begin to compress, one should start to squeeze harder and harder on the front brake lever. The forward motion of the centre of gravity will cause the rear wheel to become lighter and therefore using the rear brake in this situation will cause the rear wheel to lock. Gentle pressure will not cause a lock-up but add a stabilizing effect.

So the best way to brake is begin with gentle pressure on either brake, squeeze harder on the front brake till the pace drops close to walking speed and then apply more pressure on the rear brakes, easing off the front rake progressively. So if one does it right, one should come to a smooth halt without banging up and down on the front forks.

It is of utmost importance to practice braking skills, so one emergency stop during one’s daily commute is good to keep one’s skills sharp and useful, signs off OverDrive (Dec. ’08).