Learning To Be A Demon On The Brakes

Am I a demon on the brakes? Most likely not. But to know how good I am, I need to know who I’m being measured against. If it’s Toprak Razgatlioglu, I’m definitely in the amateur league. In fact, there is a good chance I’m not even playing the same game.

If I were compared to my colleagues, I’d be in the not-to-shabby league. It is all relative but has more limits than you might imagine.

Perhaps the most impressive thing about watching Toprak—who truly is a demon on the brakes—is his ability to manipulate the laws of physics that limit how hard the brakes can be applied.

He can take a motorcycle travelling at over 180mph and brake right to the very edge of adhesion and then stay there, (almost) never exceeding the limits of the tyres or the grip of the track surface.

A motorcycle’s braking force is limited to 1G (the force of gravity). We often hear of F1 drivers experiencing 4 and 5G when they hit the brakes, so why can they brake harder than we can?

For that, we need to get into the dynamics of motorcycles and what happens while braking.

The Science Bit

A few ground rules …

• Weight is caused by gravity. Go to space, and we become weightless.
• Put a weight on the end of a lever, and it is harder to lift. Holding a bag of sugar at arm’s length is harder than holding it next to your body.
• Acceleration and braking are the same thing, just the opposite of each other. Speeding up is the opposite of slowing down.
• The centre of gravity is the point through which forces can be assumed to act. This isn’t the same as the centre of rotation.
• For a motorcycle, the centre of gravity is (roughly) just below where the seat meets the tank.
• The centre of rotation, when accelerating or braking, will be the axles through the front and rear wheels.

Mix all that together, add some horsepower and brake pressure, and we get wheelies and stoppies.

For a wheelie, all you need to do is drive the rear wheel forward with a force greater than that keeping the front wheel on the ground. The motorcycle will then rotate around the rear axle.

A stoppie is a wheelie in reverse. Apply a braking force at the front wheel greater than the force (weight plus the lever arm) holding the rear wheel on the road, and the motorcycle rotates around the front axle, causing the rear wheel to lift. Simple.

Well, it is simple if you are Toprak or Jack Miller. If you were me, you would be crap at wheelies and would have no idea how to do a stoppie.

An F1 car doesn’t lift its rear wheels during heavy breaking due to weight, length, downforce, and the location of the centre of gravity. There is weight transfer towards the front, which is why race cars have adjustable brake bias. 

Brake hard in a road car, and you will see the front dive. However, the car’s brakes can’t produce enough force to overcome the car’s weight and make it stand on its nose.

How Hard Do I Brake

There are lies, damn lies and statistics, but it is estimated that only about 40% of motorcyclists on a dry road could match the Highway Code stopping distances. The figures come from accident analysis, where the motorcyclist failed to stop within the distance available to them, even when the distance appeared to exceed that stated in the highway code.

The reports offer three possible conclusions for these accidents.

• Insufficient observation. Failing to read the road and take appropriate action at the earliest opportunity.
• Excessive speed. Yes, it is the go-to accusation from most car drivers, but excessive speed for the conditions isn’t the same thing as speeding.
• Poor braking technique. Perhaps this is better stated as failing to use the brakes to their maximum effect.

On a dry road and braking in a straight line, the optimum braking distribution – I’m talking Toprak into turn one at Estoril levels of brake force distribution – would be 90% with the front and 10% with the rear and applied with sufficient force to have the rear wheel at the point of lifting.

There is no point in applying the brakes 90% to the front and 10% to the rear if they aren’t applied with maximum pressure. If the rear wheel lifts, it signals that I’ve applied to much pressure on the front brake, so marginally less pressure is where I’d achieve optimum braking.

With the rear wheel about to lift, it would be easy to lock the wheel. A locked (skidding) wheel provides minimal braking force, which is why just 10% of the overall braking force is applied through the rear.

On a dry road and in a straight line, I think I could brake pretty hard, but it would most likely take me a few attempts to get the ABS to trigger. If the ABS is intervening, I’ve exceeded the optimum braking force for the road conditions – the grip – and need to back off.

ABS – Anti-Lock Braking System

ABS exists to help us brake efficiently, but its cleverness can also disguise a poor braking technique.

Most car, lorry, and van drivers will react to an unexpected hazard by stomping on the brake pedal. They don’t have to consider the road surface or balance; they can pound the pedal, and the ABS will prevent the wheels from locking.

The same applies to a motorcycle’s ABS, but we have the added considerations of losing our balance and the fear of tucking the front.

As a locked wheel will not stop effectively (skidding), the ABS releases enough brake pressure to enable the wheel to rotate again. If the brake pressure we are applying and the road surface condition don’t change, the wheel will likely lock again, and the ABS will continue to intervene every time a wheel locks.

This on/off/on loop with the brakes produces a very unnatural feeling for a motorcyclist who knows that smooth is the way to ride. Then, there is the consideration that we do not slow down efficiently every time the wheels lock.

The optimum braking pressure that extracts the maximum stopping power is at the very edge of the ABS cutting in, with the rear wheel just about to lift. If I can do that, then I’m in Toprak territory.

Reflex Actions

The last time I needed to brake at maximum efficiency was a few months back when Joe Moron stuck the nose of his urban assault vehicle out into the road to see if I was coming. I thought he was fully committed and so hammered on the brakes.

In the lifetime that was the two seconds it took, the Urban Assault Vehicle juddered to a stop, at which point I released the brakes and weaved my way around the obstruction.

Thinking about it later, I noticed that the ABS hadn’t gone off despite my heaving on the front brake as hard as I thought possible.

If I want to do better next time—and there will be a next time—I need to be more Toprak. That means improving my technique and practising until it becomes a reflex action.

Actions we perform without thinking about them are described by all sorts of terms: muscle memory, default and learnt behaviours, reflex actions, and many others.

We learn these actions through trial, error, and instruction. I glance in my mirror almost every time I brake, having once been rear-ended by a plonker who wasn’t paying attention. It was a harsh lesson, but it is now a reflex action.

I need to be as comfortable with braking to maximum effect as I am glancing in my mirror. I need it to be a reflex action I can use without thinking the next time I meet Joe Moron.

British Superbike School

If I wanted to learn how to go faster, improve my (racing) body position, or transfer my body weight from one side of the bike to the other for better cornering, I’d go to the British Superbike School.

Therefore, my logic is that if I wanted to learn how to stop faster, then Mike Abbott and his colleagues will be the people I need to talk to. Braking is as much a part of racing as all the other skills that reduce lap times.

I’ve done both the IAM (Masters) and the RoSPA (Gold) courses, and neither of them specifically covered braking to maximum efficiency, although I’m told the IAM Skills Day (not a track day, honest) does have a section on it.

Another advantage of the British Superbike School is that I can learn on a track, so I won’t have to talk to the local Constabulary when I try to spend a day improving my braking technique on some quiet backroad.

A Demon On The Brakes

I’ll have two main objectives for the day: learning to brake more efficiently and practising it repeatedly until it becomes as natural as my glance-in-the-mirror habit. When I need that skill for real, I don’t want to think about it; I just want it to be there.

Most of my learning how to improve my braking technique will happen in a straight line (I hope!), yet not every clown in a car is going to pull out while I’m on a straight piece of road. Improving my technique for braking on a bend will also have benefits.

I know I use the rear brake too much, mainly trailing it into bends when I want to stabilise the bike, but I’ve no idea if this technique is good or bad; it just works for me.

The more I think about it, the more being a demon on the brakes feels like a skill I need to master. Perhaps, like many, I think I’m good enough. But am I?

When, Where and How

Sadly, it is winter, and most of the track-based training for 2024 is now finished, starting again in April 2025. Unless the British Superbike School suddenly decides to do a one-off brake training day in February or March. Either way, the details will be on their website.

My other option is to see if I can talk Mike into a ride one dry winter’s day. I won’t get the full benefit, but just talking the techniques through with him would give me a few pointers until the track days start again.

Watch this space …