This is a piece of advice I wish someone had told me when I began commuting in traffic, in unfortunately long-winded form.
This is about a simple braking technique for commuting in traffic on the highway that really changed things for me. I am not talking about splitting, this is for when you are in your lane.
I had a regular occurence of panic stops the first few years of commuting (about every 60 days), and some ABS activations occurred on rainy days as a result of those. BARF taught me to dissect those events to develop ways to stop them from happening. I admit for a while I despaired of being able to do so, until I did one simple thing.
We are taught to read traffic 10-12 seconds in advance at the BRC. But you can't always see that far ahead if the freeway is going up a hill, or around a curves. And it isn't enough to know what is happening that far ahead, you have to have strategies that utilize that knowledge to reduce risk.
The simple idea is this:
- I brake the moment I see brake lights in front of me. Either the car in front, or several cars ahead if I can see that far.
- And I initially brake to maintain following distance, I don't allow a speed delta to build up between the car in front and me, this is the key idea that has all but eliminated panic stops for me.
- the goal is to brake sooner, and therefore gentler, avoiding loss of control issues and avoiding getting rear-ended since gentler braking gives them more time to react to you slowing down.
- it also gives me more time to react to whatever is going on, my habits get me on the brake immediately, and I have more time to think about what I am going to do next.
- closing the following gap while braking can also work to reduce braking force, this is a semi-emergency technique for me, meaning the guy in front had to brake pretty hard for this to happen, and I tend to go into a split if I get pushed this far. And I view it as a failure to either read traffic adequately or maintain proper following distance.
Two more things I do:
- I guess we all do it, but I cover the brake and the clutch so I can begin braking faster, this enhances the whole brake sooner and gentler thing.
- I also apply the light-triangle idea to my brake lights, I have two mounted on the top case, when I apply the lever, those behind me know it, especially at night, since I cannot be mistaken for a single brake light on a car and get creamed.
That's it, way too much verbiage for a simple concept, but it transfomed my riding.
The only downside is I have to deliberately practice hard braking now since I don't do much of it on my rides any more.
This is about a simple braking technique for commuting in traffic on the highway that really changed things for me. I am not talking about splitting, this is for when you are in your lane.
I had a regular occurence of panic stops the first few years of commuting (about every 60 days), and some ABS activations occurred on rainy days as a result of those. BARF taught me to dissect those events to develop ways to stop them from happening. I admit for a while I despaired of being able to do so, until I did one simple thing.
We are taught to read traffic 10-12 seconds in advance at the BRC. But you can't always see that far ahead if the freeway is going up a hill, or around a curves. And it isn't enough to know what is happening that far ahead, you have to have strategies that utilize that knowledge to reduce risk.
The simple idea is this:
- I brake the moment I see brake lights in front of me. Either the car in front, or several cars ahead if I can see that far.
- And I initially brake to maintain following distance, I don't allow a speed delta to build up between the car in front and me, this is the key idea that has all but eliminated panic stops for me.
- the goal is to brake sooner, and therefore gentler, avoiding loss of control issues and avoiding getting rear-ended since gentler braking gives them more time to react to you slowing down.
- it also gives me more time to react to whatever is going on, my habits get me on the brake immediately, and I have more time to think about what I am going to do next.
- closing the following gap while braking can also work to reduce braking force, this is a semi-emergency technique for me, meaning the guy in front had to brake pretty hard for this to happen, and I tend to go into a split if I get pushed this far. And I view it as a failure to either read traffic adequately or maintain proper following distance.
Two more things I do:
- I guess we all do it, but I cover the brake and the clutch so I can begin braking faster, this enhances the whole brake sooner and gentler thing.
- I also apply the light-triangle idea to my brake lights, I have two mounted on the top case, when I apply the lever, those behind me know it, especially at night, since I cannot be mistaken for a single brake light on a car and get creamed.
That's it, way too much verbiage for a simple concept, but it transfomed my riding.
The only downside is I have to deliberately practice hard braking now since I don't do much of it on my rides any more.