Bloody brake 'ard ya Mongrel

[monstermick58]

OK, so this morning I'm out test riding this bike, off we go up Bulli Pass, vroom...... along the back of Mt Ousley Rd swoop.... then down Mt Ousley itself whoosh...... Ok, lots of trucks so its nice and easy, THEN... this DICKHEAD it a 4 tonne tipper decides to pull out from behind a slow moving B - Double and right on top of me as I was going past him, I braked this little make the beast with two backser as hard as I dare, back wheel locking and unlocking, wondering how much more dare I squeese the front brakes, me seeing my space slowly disappear into a truck on my left and a concrete barrier on my right.......                   
Then he realises that I might be in a bit of trouble after he decides to eventually look where he wants to be and ducks back behind the truck he was going to pass. Phew!
Two things did'nt happen, Ok, three.
1) I did'nt breathe during my outstanding braking performance
2) My heart did'nt beat either
3) I did'nt see any evidence of this manouver being pulled on me.
Right, heart restarts, I can tell because its doing double time to make up for when it was'nt beating and I'm breathing again, look, my visor misted slightly.
So my question is this; Do we practice emergency braking techniques? I know I use too, but now I don't, and should we ??
Maybe its time for a refresher course,






                                                  Mmick

[mattyvas]

Can't say that I do practice emergency stops, the recent track work has given me a great feel for the braking power of my bike.
Sometimes no matter what you do a bad situation arrives and you have to get out of it.
Sounds like you did well with what was infront of you, especially that you were on an unfamiliar bike.

[pigmy]

mick,anyone with half your experience  maybe would have lost it.ya done well son.the fact that doing a course and have someone tell you
how many fingers you should use and produce a mathematical formula for stopping distances just is not enough.in those situations it comes down
to 1.experience
   2. nerves
   3. luck.
 
ps good to hear you riding again.       

[brimo]

Thanks for sharing Mick,
3 words: experience, experience and experience, and you only get that from practice.
Just about any opportunity I get with no vehicles around, I practice my evasion and hard stopping, wet or dry road, different surfaces, you never know when you're gonna need it. I also like to play let's pretend. Pick a line through a corner, imagine something in the road as you come round, change your line, all stuff that may come in handy some day.
The nerves are overcome by practice, so you don't even have to think what you are doing it becomes automatic and maybe a teensy bit of luck, but experience will beat that any day of the week.
And also what comes with experience is you may not have consciously thought it, but there may have been just that microsecond saved when you are automatically just expecting that bastard to pull out on you.
Also your own road position at the time.... geez all those little 1 percenters that experience brings that just add up to save your arse one day.

[Dockstrada]

Can't say that I do practice emergency stops, the recent track work has given me a great feel for the braking power of my bike.
Sometimes no matter what you do a bad situation arrives and you have to get out of it.
Sounds like you did well with what was infront of you, especially that you were on an unfamiliar bike.

+1 on that Matty its amazing how little brake we use on the road and how much more is left in the leaver.
It's all about experiencing the maximum ability of the brakes you have and knowing the result, that will give new confidence it their capability

[dragonworld.]

Its great to practice using the brake and feeling and getting comforable with its power right up to the maximum. BUT ............

What a lot (Probably just about everyone??) dont do is introduce the unknown factor, getting to and applying the brake effectively when recieving an outside stimulus.

At the Island in a supersport race, a particular rider that was a demon on the brakes, consistently floating the back wheel braking into corners on max brake, was faced with 2 bikes decking it in front of him at turn 3. he proceeded to lock the front wheel and crashed well before getting to the original prang. 

On the road its even more important to practice your skills with the unknown in mind, so get your mates together and have a play with you taking it in turns giving an arbitrary signal to stop, then you're REALLY practicing your braking.

[Rickoz]

Sh!t i think my heart & breathing stopped while reading your story.

[DUCMONROB]

Mick,

After you told me about the incident today I remembered about a poor fellow going down Ousley had a similar experience to you about a month ago.

He ended up losing a leg.

the story is this fellow decided to undertake a truck down the breakdown lane.

As most of the trucks do down Ousley they pull right over to the left to allow the faster trucks to overtake.

Glad your OK!



On another note did anyone hear about the bad 2 motorbike accident in the RNP today. It happened at the Wattamola turn off?


Rob

[mattyvas]

yeah someone whos not a biker told me about it tonight.
Haven't heard any further details, other than a bad acco.

[goldFiSh]

mmick, good to hear you're OK, and +1 on what pigmy said.

Sad to hear an about an incident in the RNP, ride safe everyone.

[DUCMONROB]

Well you wouldn't belive it.

I went for a ride today and as I was heading down Mt Ousley all the traffic was stopped!

I did some lane splitting and the cause was because of an bike accident.

It appeared that a similar problem occurred to this rider as with Monster Mick yesterday.

Thankfully the poor fellow was ok but his Trumph Rocket was a little worse for wear.

Anyway it seemed that there was a truck and several cars were involved.

I saw one massive skid mark in the right hand lane where the poor fellow over braked.

The bike looked brand new. Never seen one in yellow!

This may have been the cause of his fall. Not knowing the limitations of his new equipment.

So boys & girls make sure you practice those emergency brake stops. [moto]

Ride on!

Rob

[dragonworld.]

Well you wouldn't belive it.

I went for a ride today and as I was heading down Mt Ousley all the traffic was stopped!

I did some lane splitting and the cause was because of an bike accident.

It appeared that a similar problem occurred to this rider as with Monster Mick yesterday.

Thankfully the poor fellow was ok but his Trumph Rocket was a little worse for wear.

Anyway it seemed that there was a truck and several cars were involved.

I saw one massive skid mark in the right hand lane where the poor fellow over braked.

The bike looked brand new. Never seen one in yellow!

This may have been the cause of his fall. Not knowing the limitations of his new equipment.

So boys & girls make sure you practice those emergency brake stops. [moto]

Ride on!

Rob

And, unfortunately more than likely a "Summer only  ???rider" !!??

[MonsterDorf]

As part of my rider training (done overseas) you had to complete a range of courses and learn a range of skills, one of them being emergency braking.

Some years later (many many many) and a long time ago I did a "high speed cornering and braking" course at Easterrn Creek to once again get the hang of the whole braking thing.

To this day I still remember the techniques to effectively & safely pull up - come to think of it, you use this stuff almost every day out there on the road.

Training and practice always pay off.............37 years of experience (on and off road) doesn't hurt either   

[monstermick58]

Thanks for sharing Mick,
Also your own road position at the time....

Yep, totally agree with what everyone, and thinking back, I was in the left hand wheel track in the right hand lane, still, I think I will go out and find somewhere to practice, see I have to admit I have been a bit complacent, and this incident just highlighted to me that you must stay sharp, mind as well as body.





                                                                         Mmick

[Betty]

Good to hear ya done good in a sticky situation Mick.

Yes I need to practice more, but unfortunately I am losing faith in my brakes at the moment ... but that is another story.