Observations on braking...Long winded.

[No Worries]

Originally Posted by FT BSTRD

I think it also depends on the bike. Because my bike is high on torque but low on top end HP, I try to maintain as much entry speed as possible track or street. I know I will have grunt coming out of the corner. If there's a long straight after the corner, I ain't outrunning jack squat.

Then you would love riding up and down Lookout Mountain. There are no straights. It's one curve after another. Some are tight, and some are less tight. So most bikes are on an equal footing, especially going downhill. I saw two Buell's going down when I was going up today.

On the switchbacks or hairpins, how much entry speed do I want for a 15mph curve? Enough to keep from tipping over, but not so much I cross the double yellow. Here's what I think about when hitting such a curve. Both brakes on, downshift, look for my line (usually in one of the tire tracks), start leaning off the bike, look around the curve, don't cross the centerline, and don't go into or off the mountain. Then I can accelerate to the next curve.

Going uphill on many of the curves, you don't need the brakes, just engine braking and downshifting. What a terrific sound and what a feeling. But you most certainly need to use the brakes correctly to go quickly and smoothly downhill.