Braking guidelines for motorcyclists

According to the Hurt Study, in the single vehicle accidents, motorcycle rider errors were present as the accident precipitating factor in about two-thirds of the cases, with the typical error being a slide out and fall due to over braking or running wide on a curve due to excess speed or under-cornering. If you are not able to upgrade your motorcycle parts you should know some simple information in order to act as a guideline as stated below.

Braking is probably the most important action that a rider can perform. Braking allows us to quickly slow down and come to a stop before hitting an obstacle.

Most riders do not fully understand the distance that is required to bring the bike to a full stop. Braking distance increases with speed, and unfortunately the increase is not linear.

If a bike that is doing 30 MPH can stop in 33 feet doesn’t means that if the same bike is doing 60 MPH would be able to stop in 66 feet, it actually will take 134 feet! The increase in braking distance is the square of the speed increase.*

Any reduction in the speed you are traveling will decrease enormously your braking distance. Motovike.com provides us with the following chart.  Refer to it for a clear idea of braking distances, but be aware that this chart doesn’t include your perception/reaction time (which will increase your braking distance considerably).

braking distance. Motovike.com provides us with the following chart.  Refer to it for a clear idea of braking distances, but be aware that this chart doesn’t include your perception/reaction time (which will increase your braking distance considerably).

Proper usage of the front and back brakes can be the difference between life and death in a close situation.  In a normal situation, braking is pretty straightforward.  Unless you are on a slippery surface, use both brakes to stop or slow your motorcycle. 

Be aware that the front brake provides 70 to 100 percent of the stopping power of a motorcycle.  With that in mind, you want to practice using more front break than rear.  An ideal situation is to have a balance between the front and rear brakes, with about 70% of the emphasis on the front.

We suggest that you always consult your Motorcycle Manual in order to make sure that your bike is running in its optimal condition and you are maintaining parts that may need maintenance in order to operate under optimal conditions.

You may also consider using a red light changer to change the lights so that you do not need to stop at all. This obviously is not a way to avoid knowing your braking guidelines but is at least a useful idea to consider in order to save your brakes longer to replace them less often and cause less maintenance time on your bike.