Quote:
Originally Posted by MissHell
I never hear the term "trail braking" until my track instructor told me I was doing it.
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I don't know where you went or who you worked with, but unfortunately some "instructors" are not qualified to do what they're doing. Don't necessarily assume that because someone has a vest on and talks a lot that they know what they're talking about. I've seen instructors before throwing around terminology and giving advice that was out of their realm of understanding. He may have simply seen you braking at some point while leaned over and told you that was trail braking. Of course, this is just conjecture on my part.
Quote:
Originally Posted by MissHell
About 70% of the time I use my front brake BEFORE a turn to slow down. However I also use the method of using my rear brake in the turn, to kinda slide through the turn, this is trail braking?
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It depends on exactly how you're using the front. I am not a rear brake user, so I'm not going to try to tell you how to properly incorporate the rear brake into the equation. The important part is to consider what the suspension is doing during the time you're using the front brake.
When I approach most corners, I apply maximum front brake, bringing the rear of the bike to the point that it is just barely contacting the ground. The immediate goal is to get to the point that the chassis is stable and I can keep the bike right at the edge of totally raising the rear wheel. Below is a good picture to show the distribution of weight when you are close to maximum braking:
Note that the forks are very close to being bottomed out, and the rear shock is completely decompressed. I am anchoring myself to the bike with my lower body, and my elbows are bent and keeping weight off of the front end of the bike. This will allow for more brake application before the rear comes off of the ground.
The next thing I often do is to bring the bike slightly out of line using foot input and momentum. I like to do this right before the point of turn in to get a little head start on getting the bike turned. It's not a massive Gary McCoy style move, it's just a minor shifting of the rear wheel out of line from the front. I tend to do this on corners at the end of straights where the speeds are higher and it takes more input to make the bike turn.
At this point, I begin to turn the bike in, and I begin to trail off of the front brake as cornering forces increase. The key here is to be very sensitive to the feel of the front end, and know what the bike feels like when it approaches the limits of traction. In an ideal scenario, I want to keep the tire at the threshold of breaking traction all the way from the point that I first apply the brake to the point that I release it completely and begin to throttle out. If you have 100% tire traction available, you want the percentage being taken up by cornering and the percentage being taken up by braking to equal 100% or as close to it as you can. If you're using 60% of available traction by braking, you want to be using the other 40% for cornering. As you proceed deeper into the corner, the amount being taken by braking will decrease as you release the lever, and the cornering percentage will increase as you lean the bike and proceed through the corner. Anything below 100% would be failing to use the available traction, and anything over 100% would result in a slide that may or may not be recoverable.
Quote:
Originally Posted by MissHell
Are both methods okay? What are the con's of trail braking?
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Using the rear brake alone will not set the suspension correctly, but it can be incorporated into the process. Focus on what the front forks are doing when you ride. If they are decompressing between the point that you first apply the brakes and the apex of the corner, you are not trail braking correctly.
There are no cons to trail braking from a performance standpoint. The only con is that the deeper you go and the harder you push the smaller the margin of error becomes, and the amount of skill required to explore the limits of the front end increases rapidly.