Better Braking - I. Review on Tips on Buying Second Hand Motorcyles

Hello everybody!

Hope you are in the best of your healths and moods as you being to read this and guess you have a few minutes to spare as we will try to find some ways to improve on a very important aspect.

What is an Accident?

This is how I would define it: It is something that happens all of a sudden at a time when we are least prepared for it. something not so good but a reality of life that could hurt a little in come cases, could change the entire course of life in some and in the worst case put a full stop to ones life and it is something that happens to a friends or a friends friend or a far of relative etc and we never even dare to dream that an Accident will happen with us.

Why does an accident happen?

It happens becuase it HAS to happen.

Can we stop accidents?

No. They are a part of life.

Can we aviod an accident?

We can TRY.

Today I will restrict this session to road accidents alone.

Let us take a case of a college student or a young working professional. Of the 24hrs in a day he/she might spend about an average of 30minutes(that is the minimum I guess keeping in the mind todays congested urban traffic) commuting to and from the college/office. We can leave the other 23 1/2 hours and the person has maximum chances of experiencing an accident(let us remember that today we are only talking about the road accidents, we can reserve the topic of OTHER accidents etc for some other day:)).

We can divide road accidents into three broad categories:

1. Someone else comes and hits you(usually from behind). Say a Hit and run case. In such situations you hardly have 0% chance of even trying to avoid it and I don't think there is anything anyone can do about it but to experience it.

   
   




2. You go and bang someone or someone comes and hits you and you know a few seconds earlier that it is gonna happen. I would say we can try and avoid about 50% of such accidents.

   
   




3. The last is the category in which we have about 100% chance of avoiding it as we later realise that it happened due to sheer carelessness or a mistake or inexperience from ourside.

   
   

Let us see what we can do about those accidents in which we can try and avoid the situation.

In 99% of the avoidable cases, an accident can be avoided by brining the vehicle to a stop and that means applying the brakes.

So how do we apply the brakes? Simple - just press the brake pedal till the vehicle screeches to a halt.

If driving/riding is an art then braking is a fine art I would say.

Its not just about stopping the bike, its about calculating the speed and the distance in which you can bring it to a halt and it takes a lot more than just pressing the brake pedal.

Of the ppl I have observed not more than 10% can stop a bike the bike the best it could be and I am sure the stopping distance can be reduced to about close to 50% with proper knowledge and practise.

Today I will try to share some knowledge on this fine art of braking.

Let's start off with the cars. Its much much easier to stop a car when compared to a bike. In a car, you push the pedal and a well balanced car(in top condition) will heat up all the four discs/drums and their pads to bring the mass to a stop and probably the only thing to look after is the line in which the vehicle moves. A good car travelling in a straight line should still continue going straight even when brought to a screeching halt. Any imbalance in the condition of the brakes in the four wheels can cause the car to waive off the line. For example, if the brakes on the right side are slightly better than on those of the left side wheels then obviously the car will turn slightly to the right even with the steering pointing straight and vice versa.

Before I move on to the bikes, let me tell you that a screeching vehicle might sound like it is stopping but that is not the most efficient way to brake. There are better methods to stop it in a shorter distance. Screeching is a little bit too much of braking and you know too much of anything isn't good.

When you apply the brakes, the pads stop the wheels and the more you press the tighter the wheel gets until you get to a point where the braking is maximum and it is only when you try beyond this, the wheel/s lock and the mass just slides over the surface when the particles of rubber on the tyres part ways with their likes and are left on the tarmac. Its more like a skate.

Here we need to understand that there is a very thin line between maximum braking and a slide/screech and you can know this only through practise and experience. You can try it by pressing the pedal hard, and juuuust when it is about to start the screech ease off the pressure on the pedal by just a fraction of a millimeter and you might find urself moving towards the steering and will have to hold it tight to avoid contact with it and U can FEEL the car stopping.

Let us go a few years back in time. Say in an 80s movie. The hero is about to go somewhere and is in a hurry and we see the villain wokring under the heros car and comes out saying that he has failed the brakes - our hero starts and after attaining some speed realises the brakes aren't working, stamps the brake pedal but the car never stops until it goes n hits a tree and our hero is injured(he doesn't dies because he is a hero).

Can we stop the car even when the brakes have been disconnected? YES WE CAN and I am serious about that. Here is what our hero could do:

1. take his foot off the accelerator.

   
   




2. control the vechicle until it looses some speed.

   
   




3. shift down through the gears gradually(the engine will scream n growl).

   
   




4. shift down till you get it into the FIRST gear(make sure you don't get it into the neutral).

   
   




5. Turn off the ignition key and make sure that neither the clutch nor the accelerator are pressed during this entire procedure.

   
   

dhak dhak dhak the car will untimately stop albiet voilently.

Now that is what we call as AS ENGINE BRAKING. Engine braking coupled with screechless braking will allow us to stop the vechile in the shortest possible distance.

By the way - Y do most cars have Disk brakes at the front and Drums at the rear? We know Disk brakes are obviously better than the drums they Y the front ones. shouldn't they have given more preference to the rear? well today the top of the line models come with discs front and rear.

CONTD.