A FOOTFULL OF BRAKE(S)

Learning how to maximize your rear brake can pay dividends

BY JOHN BURNS

If you grew up in the dirt, you already know how important the rear brake can be for adjusting your speed and trajectory. If you weren’t lucky enough to grow up dusty, it’s never too late to learn to use all the brakes your street or ADV bike came with.

It was a Freddie Spencer school in Las Vegas, many moons ago, where the great AMA Motorcycle Hall of Famer introduced the class to the idea that when you feel like you’ve just about used up all the grip your front tire has to give, but would still like to decel a tad more to get down to the apex, a great and safe way to do so is to gently squeeze on a bit of back brake. It’s an important enough thing that racers with bad right feet (Mick Doohan, et al) would rig themselves a hand lever to operate the rear brake.

A decade or two later, when matriculating at Colin Edwards’ Texas Tornado school on a fleet of Yamaha TT-R125s, honing rear brake use was again a super-important skill to have when it came to not being run over by Edwards’ hyper-competitive guests and instructors. With the little TT-R’s small and easily-lockable front brake on a dirt surface combined with its lack of horsepower, learning to work both front and rear brakes, smoothly and in conjunction while bending into the corner at the last possible second, was the only way to not be rear-ended and/or run over. Such fun.

SCHOOL IS GOOD. WHO KNEW?

It is strange how attending a really intense training school for only a couple of days can influence your riding for the rest of your life. Once back to riding big street motorcycles around on my native wild and wooly California backroads, I found myself using the rear brake along with the front in all kinds of braking situations, riding smoother and with more safety in reserve as a result. Especially in those situations involving group dynamics, where a corner you’d thought opens up actually tightens up, the ability to look where you want to go and squeeze on a bit of rear brake to tighten your line is sublime. We’ve already known for years that the front brake generates most of the stopping power for all sport and dirt bikes: It’s the rear’s reduced power and subtle input that makes it so useful for fine adjustments.

Better Braking Through Electronics

Fast forward another decade. We’ve all got special attachments to motorcycles that were built before modern electronic aids like ABS and traction control, but if you’re morally opposed to those things it may be time for a rethink. The first motorcycle antilock brakes really were designed to keep you from locking the wheels in a straight line, straight up and down, and it was good, because someone turning left in front of you is where the greatest danger lay, and still does.

If that’s ever happened to you, you know exactly why ABS is a Godsend: In a panic, bug-eye situation like that, it doesn’t matter how many braking drills you’ve been through or how skillful you are: Mr. Lizardbrain takes over and squeezes the lever with nine or ten times your usual strength. The classic “I had no choice but to lay ’er down” actually translates to “I locked up the brakes instantly and she laid herself down.” Sliding down the road is a good way to scrub off speed (and flesh), but using your bike’s full braking power on good tires is much better. That’s what ABS provides.

Lean On Me

Now there’s lean-sensitive ABS, which basically works as the name implies. It sees you when you’re sleeping, it knows when you’re about to crash. Ever since that technology was introduced we joked that we liked it, but have always been afraid to really test it. Last year, riding the new 2022 Yamaha MT-10 around during its South Carolina press introduction, I got a good feel for exactly how good that technology is.

You should never ride over your head, but if you do find yourself chasing Isle of Man veterans and factory test riders down damp, shady unfamiliar backroads, do it with lean-sensitive ABS. In at least one corner that tightened up unexpectedly, I thought I’d hit a diesel patch or maybe some possum grease: Later I realized it was the Yamaha’s ABS releasing brake pressure for a split second to keep me from locking the front wheel at full lean, and testing my trusty Aerostich suit instead of the motorcycle.

The Bottom Line

We’re not telling you to bin your beloved old motorcycle for a new one. But if you’re on the fence, there’s no better reason than the latest in ABS. In the meantime, don’t forget to use that rear brake. Although non-ABS rear brake systems can be overly sensitive and tricky to use (that’s an issue for another Savvy piece), proper use of the rear brake can definitely have your back.

If you didn’t know, this year (or last year, if you’re OCD about math) marks some historic milestones in motorcycling’s — and Honda’s — history. To wit, the 40th and 50th anniversaries of the release of three very important machines: the 1973 CR250 Elsinore, the 1983 VF750F Interceptor, and last but not least the vaunted 1973 XR75 mini-motocrosser.

As you’ll read about in this issue’s Can’t Miss Events 2023 section (page 54), the Elsinore and Interceptor will be featured prominently at this summer’s Permco AMA Vintage Motorcycle Days event taking place July 21-23 at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in Lexington, Ohio. The two are foundational motorcycles, for sure, but before we dive headlong into that