Trail Braking - Flavour of the month/year?

[GTR1400MAN]

YouTube is awash with Trail Braking videos for motorcycling. This has come about with a lot of promotion of the technique by Nick Ienatschin in Motorcycle World magazine (and their YouTube channel).



Your thoughts?

How do you deal with the topic if it arises with Associates?

I've ignored it up to now but thought I'd test the water with a comment on there.

Yet another video on flavour of the month/year on YouTube ... trail braking. All the people saying "I do it naturally". Don't you mean "I went in too hot and had to trail brake to get round". Trail braking is a skill. A great skill to master on a piece of road you are riding repeatedly ... oh, yes, a track. A place where you can explore how much you can get away with. The road is different every time you ride it, or this may be the only time in your life you ever ride through that particular bend. Do you really want to go in using up some of the braking power you have, loading up the front, and requiring more steering input to get the bike to lean/turn in as it wants to sit up and go straight on? What happens as the view round the bend opens up, and you are confronted with a hazard? You only have 100% of tyre grip. You can use it to lean/steer, brake or accelerate. 60% + 60% = pain. There's a reason why slow in fast out is best on the road. It is the safest.

[Horse]

I did one of the sessions at Castle Combe, where there were riding groups and 'classroom' bits.

Hopp were running the riding (IYSWIM). "Instruction included "load the front wheel". I asked why, and was it didn't apply to my BM with Telelever. No explanation for anyone else, I'm still none the wiser.

Trail braking seems to me to usually be a solution to a self-inflicted problem. Worse still, I think it's likely that if a rider using it encounters a problem then they're very likely to panic brake on the rear only.

[Ohlins]

Trail braking appears trendy. And it's not only Motorcycle World but RiDE magazine that's promoted it for road riding. This month's issue (December) of RiDE features advice about how to ride in the rain, with seven techniques for road riding. And one of them is to use the rear brake during cornering:

4. REAR BRAKE
Lightly holding the rear brake on ('dragging it') at any phase in a corner - into, through, and even out of it - is already popular on track, but less so on the road. It has several benefits, but for riding in the wet, the most appreciated is the way the rear brake 'connects' the otherwise 'dead' space between braking and accelerating ...

TRY THIS
Try it, in the dry at first. Add a fraction of rear brake - just enough to dip the bike - and hold it on through a corner. If you like it, keep on trying it!

This advice goes against what I learnt from i2i (Level 2) and on track. Can you imagine a new rider following this advice – in the rain – on a bike without cornering ABS?

But then the same issue of RiDE described a touring jacket with only a CE A-rating as having "average protection" and gave it a RiDE Recommended triangle. Whether it's trail braking or clothing advice, WTF is RiDE thinking these days?

[GTR1400MAN]

I ended up making this as there was little if any from the Roadcraft riders on Youtube.

[GTR1400MAN]

But then the same issue of RiDE described a touring jacket with only a CE A-rating as having "average protection" and gave it a RiDE Recommended triangle. Whether it's trail braking or clothing advice, WTF is RiDE thinking these days?

I'm 'guilty' of riding in A rated gear, but then most textile stuff is. The world of motorcycling has gone mad the last few years assuming everyone is loaded. Prices of bikes and kit are at silly levels.

[Ohlins]

I agree with you about pricing! But if you’ve got good observation there’s AA-rated kit that doesn’t cost the earth. Recently, Weiss announced that most if not all its textiles would be AA-rated. Some textile jackets (New Road and Road Airflow) from Scott Leathers achieved the original CE Level 2 standard (even higher protection than AAA). A few Oxford Products textiles are AA-rated, such as the Hinterland jacket. And in MotoCAP tests, RST's Adventure-X jacket (AA-certified) gets one of the highest protection ratings for a textile jacket - far better than any textiles from Dainese or Alpinestars.

I'll take, use and give some information about it:

So how much protection does the lowest standard offer, considering it's lower than the old 'commuter' standard? The answer is "not nearly as much as you'd like". Dr Chris Hurren, one of my fellow presenters on the Shiny Side Up Tour events in 2018 and 2019 in New Zealand, has tested garments with CE Class A certification and hasn't been impressed (to put it politely).

Technically, Class A garments are tested on a Darmstadt machine. This is a spinning rig (hence the rpm figures) which abrades the material against a concrete surface. Class A clothing is deemed suitable for urban riding if they provide the following protection:

Zone 1 (shoulders, elbows, hips and knees) requiring one second of abrasion resistance at 265.3rpm
Zone 2 (everything else except chest, inside of the arm and back of the leg) requiring half a second at 147.4rpm

As Chris goes around ripping bike clothing apart as one of his roles as a materials scientist at Deakin University in Australia, creating the antipodean 'MotoCAP' standard in the process, I am happy to trust his results. In tests using the Darmstadt machine, Chris has demonstrated that a decent pair of demin jeans can pass, and could therefore be rated at CE Class A. I don't think any vaguely experienced rider would claim that a pair of denim jeans are protective equipment.

And you'll notice that the A-rating doesn't require any abrasion resistance for your chest. Zero. Zip. Zilch

[GTR1400MAN]

Yeah, but ...

How the overall ratings are reached…
Nine individual abrasion tests are conducted, while the number of seam and tear strength tests carried out depends on how many different types of seams are used in a garment and what material is used (leather faces a greater number of tear tests for example).

The level awarded to the garment is the equivalent of the lowest achieved in any one of the individual tests. So if a garment scores AAA in all but one of the individual tests, then only reaches A in the other test, it will only be rated as an overall pass at A.

So while you can compare jacket A with jacket AA and conclude the AA is the better (protection) one, you have no way of knowing where/what caused the A rating for the lower rated jacket.

There has to be a balance between comfort, features, waterproofness and safety. If we not careful we would all end up deciding we HAVE to ride with full leather, armour, back/chest protectors and inflatable vests.

[Ohlins]

So while you can compare jacket A with jacket AA and conclude the AA is the better (protection) one, you have no way of knowing where/what caused the A rating for the lower rated jacket.

I agree: one of the many flaws with the shiny new CE standards is that you can’t tell if something barely scraped a pass or easily surpassed the rating. But Australia’s MotoCAP tests provide precisely this info.

While MotoCAP hasn’t tested every garment on the market, you can sign up for their email updates as and when they add more clothing. It's growing, and there's an equivalent for helmets (CRASH) that evaluates comfort and noise too.

There has to be a balance between comfort, features, waterproofness and safety. If we not careful we would all end up deciding we HAVE to ride with full leather, armour, back/chest protectors and inflatable vests.

I’d argue there’s a bare minimum, and the A-rating falls way below what’s reasonable protection. The kit that’s AA-rated is far from being like plate mail! Usually, it’s impossible to tell if something has an A- or AA-rating without checking the label. Both feel similar, IME.

I can easily buy clothing with all the comfort, features and waterproofing I desire. It’s hiking gear. What distinguishes motorcycle clothing is abrasion resistance and (albeit limited) impact protection.

IMO, part of being a ‘thinking rider’ is thinking about my kit. Who hasn’t made a human error? In this circumstance, I don’t want to be lying on the road, wishing I’d been an Advanced Consumer.

[GTR1400MAN]

I have to admit that while I have been following the roll out of the A, AA, AAA ratings I didn't realise that a pair denim trousers could pass the A rating.

I've always (well many many years now) worn Richa kit and when I purchased my current jacket/trousers it had only just started and there was little in the way of AA rated textile kit about. I've just checked and the whole Richa range of textile kit is still only A rated. Right from their basic commuter jacket all the way through to their Gortex Adventure style jackets costing nearly £900.

Is this because that is their rating or can you just sell stuff as A rated if it has decent armour without it actually being tested?

When I change I'll certainly look for AA rated kit.

[Ohlins]

The problem with the new A/AA/AAA ratings is the clothing industry. From what I gather, some manufacturers were concerned the latest CE regulations would come into force before their kit could achieve (what’s now called) the AA rating. Hence the A rating was born.

And it has little to do with price. I had imagined that more expensive gear would fare better. But independent Australian research, and MotoCAP test results, have shown that plenty of expensive clothing offers crap protection. Yet some less expensive stuff offers better protection.

Dainese is a case in point. Not all but some of its race onesies are AA rated (rubbish protection for track speeds). And you can find textile jackets costing £1,000 or so in both Dainese and Rukka’s ranges that fail to get the AA rating! In this month’s RiDE test of jackets under £200, half of them achieved an AA rating. If you can stretch to £300, Scott Leathers sells two textile jackets that pass the stricter CE Level 2 (tougher than AAA). It’s not all about price.

It was the same story when the EU developed standards for armour. Originally, there were levels 1 to 3 for body armour. But Dainese and Alpinestars lobbied to get rid of Level 3.

Frankly, I wish IAM Roadsmart would highlight these issues, instead of telling us that doing 80 mph on the motorway is like drink-driving.