Stopping tips?

[afk94]

I know this may seem like a silly question but what's the proper way to stop your road bike. When I say stop 3 situations come to mind, a stop sign, approaching a corner too quickly, or when you have to stop immediately to avoid hitting something. Also what do you guys do with your feet? I haven't bought special pedals yet, but so far I've noticed that you sit up a lot higher on a road bike than on a normal bike (or maybe I was riding those wrong as well) and when you come to a stop you put one or both feet down. It seems to be a lot harder on a road bike. Is this just something you get used to?

 

[daveryanwyoming]

Well there's a lot in your question, but to break it down a bit:

- When you come to a stop on a bike with the saddle adjusted at the proper height you can't really stay seated in the saddle and squarely put your feet on the ground. You may be able to reach down with your toes extended or sometimes stay seated and rest a foot on a raised curb but in general you'll get out of the saddle, stand on the opposite pedal and lower your free foot to the ground, leaning the bike gently towards that free foot as you do so. That's true whether you use cleated shoes and matching pedal systems or just platform pedals.

- In terms of braking, just like a car it depends on whether you're talking gentle speed control or hard stopping for emergency situations. But the basics are that the front brake has far more stopping power but in general both brakes are used. Sure as kids we were all warned about the dangers of the front brake and going over the handlebars but learn to keep your weight planted firmly on the saddle and if it's really hard quick braking or hard braking on a steep descent you learn to slide your butt even further back on the saddle as you grab the brakes in a quick stop.

- It's best not to use brakes in an actual corner. Much better to use the brakes for speed control before you lean the bike over in a corner and then let the wheels spin freely through the turn. This is not always possible so if you must brake mid corner you really don't want to lock up either wheel but especially not the front wheel. So if you must use the brakes for mid turn speed control try to be super gentle and release the front brake as soon as possible and definitely at any sense of losing traction but then it's likely too late for most folks. For super tight slow corners I'll tend to grab both brakes as I approach the turn, release the front just as I push the bike over into the turn and then release the rear a moment later.

Practice all this stuff and it gets pretty easy and natural.

-Dave

 

[Dave Pace]

Your question is a loaded 1 as the situation will be different every time. Speed, down or up a hill, Flat surface, Wet or dry, are you racing or going for a ride etc. This like I have said is loaded. so we will go with this.

All flat. just going for a ride
Normal speed 17-20 mph
Normal American corners with a curb.

In a normal flat stop just raise yourself up a ways back, this will provide the wind resistance to allow you to slow down while exerting minimal pressure to the rear breaks only.

Corner on a flat surface is easy enough, you follow the same process as above,

Emergency stopping. This is a standard that everyone should learn no matter what and takes a lot of training to really get it right.
1. Get out the saddle and hang your ass over the rear wheel stretching out your arms.
2. get on both breaks, but you will want to pump your rear breaks and do not forget that at this point 80% of the stopping is really in the front. the back is just a helper at this point, but so that you do not skid the tire pump the rear.

 

[alienator]

No, don't pump brakes. The only time there's a real benefit to pumping brakes is on long technical descents with carbon fiber clincher wheels. In that case some manufacturers recommend the pumping in order to allow cooling cycles between brake cycles to limit heat build up. There's no anti-lock braking benefit as humans can't cycle brakes fast enough and humans would find it essentially impossible to brake to the limit on each brake cycle, especially with the high frequency cycling needed to function as an anti-lock braking maneuver. All that aside, pumping brakes will only increase the stopping distance.

 

[Dave Pace]

Originally Posted by alienator .

No, don't pump brakes. The only time there's a real benefit to pumping brakes is on long technical descents with carbon fiber clincher wheels. In that case some manufacturers recommend the pumping in order to allow cooling cycles between brake cycles to limit heat build up. There's no anti-lock braking benefit as humans can't cycle brakes fast enough and humans would find it essentially impossible to brake to the limit on each brake cycle, especially with the high frequency cycling needed to function as an anti-lock braking maneuver. All that aside, pumping brakes will only increase the stopping distance.

Correct we can not go fast enough, but you pump the rear as the rear will want to skid where as the front will not. the pump is just to stop the rear from skidding.

 

[alienator]

Just modulate the rear. Pumping is more likely to induce skidding, all the while introducing periods of no braking action. If you get skidding, you just back off the brake lever a bit. Pumping decreases the time available over which to modulate braking effort, and this results in sub-optimal modulation, if not damn poor modulation. If you're pumping slowly enough to modulate well, you're just worsening the braking effort by increasing periods of sub-optimal braking.

 

[Dave Pace]

Originally Posted by alienator .

Just modulate the rear. Pumping is more likely to induce skidding, all the while introducing periods of no braking action. If you get skidding, you just back off the brake lever a bit. Pumping decreases the time available over which to modulate braking effort, and this results in sub-optimal modulation, if not damn poor modulation. If you're pumping slowly enough to modulate well, you're just worsening the braking effort by increasing periods of sub-optimal braking.

maybe what you concider modulate is what I consider pumping.

 

[alienator]

By modulate I don't mean cycling brake application. Instead I mean applying brake pressure and only decreasing that brake pressure if the rear locks up, and in that case the brake pressure is decreased just enough to get the wheel rolling again. There's no increase in brake pressure that follows, no cycle of increasing and decreasing brake pressure.

 

[Volnix]

Originally Posted by Dave Pace .

Emergency stopping. This is a standard that everyone should learn no matter what and takes a lot of training to really get it right.
1. Get out the saddle and hang your ass over the rear wheel stretching out your arms.
2. get on both breaks, but you will want to pump your rear breaks and do not forget that at this point 80% of the stopping is really in the front. the back is just a helper at this point, but so that you do not skid the tire pump the rear.

Thanks for that. /img/vbsmilies/smilies/smile.gif I tried it yesterday in an empty paved area and it works fine... /img/vbsmilies/smilies/smile.gif

 

[Dave Pace]

Awesome. Glad I could help

 

[alienator]

Awesome. Glad I could help

You have to take what Volnix says with a grain of salt. You also need to make more clear what you mean by "pumping the rear brakes".

 

[Dave Pace]

Originally Posted by alienator .


You have to take what Volnix says with a grain of salt. You also need to make more clear what you mean by "pumping the rear brakes".

By pumping I mean adjusting the breaks so they do not skid.

 

[alienator]

By pumping I mean adjusting the breaks so they do not skid. 

Can you describe it in detail? Pumping has a very specific connotation. Here's a graph that shows what pumping is generally considered to be:

And here's a graph of what smooth modulation might look like. See how the effort changes the rate at which it increases, and then when it maxes out, effort is backed off smoothly until the optimum effort is reached. Note this is just an example. It would be equally valid if the optimum effort was reached at the maximum so that backing off wasn't required. The take point is that there is no cycling as there is in the "pumping" graph.