According to the Hurt Study, in the single vehicle accidents, motorcycle rider errors were present as the accident precipitating factor in about two-thirds of the cases, with the typical error being a slide out and fall due to over braking or running wide on a curve due to excess speed or under-cornering. If you are not able to upgrade your mortorcycle parts you should know some simple information in order to act as a guideline as stated below.

Braking is probably the most important action that a rider can perform. Braking allows us to quickly slow down and come to a stop before hitting an obstacle.

Most riders do not fully understand the distance that is required to bring the bike to a full stop. Braking distance increases with speed, and unfortunately the increase is not linear.

If a bike that is doing 30 MPH can stop in 33 feet doesn’t means that if the same bike is doing 60 MPH would be able to stop in 66 feet, it actually will take 134 feet! The increase in braking distance is the square of the speed increase.*

Any reduction in the speed you are traveling will decrease enormously your braking distance. Motovike.com provides us with the following chart.  Refer to it for a clear idea of braking distances, but be aware that this chart doesn’t include your perception/reaction time (which will increase your braking distance considerably).

braking distance. Motovike.com provides us with the following chart.  Refer to it for a clear idea of braking distances, but be aware that this chart doesn’t include your perception/reaction time (which will increase your braking distance considerably).

Speed Braking Distance
90 MPH 300 feet
80 MPH 238 feet
70 MPH 182 feet
60 MPH 134 feet
50 MPH 93 feet
40 MPH 59 feet
30 MPH 33 feet
20 MPH 15 feet
10 MPH 4 feet

Use of the front and back brakes can be the difference between living and dying in close situations.  In normal situations, braking is fairly typical and made with ease.  Unless you’re riding on a slippery surface, in which cas you should use both brakes to slow your motorcycle.

Be aware that the front brake provides 70 to 100 percent of the stopping power of a motorcycle.  With that in mind, you want to practice using more front break than rear.  An ideal situation is to have a balance between the front and rear brakes, with about 70% of the emphasis on the front.

We suggest that you always consult your Mortorcycle Manual in order to make sure that your bike is running in its optimal condition and you are maintaining parts that may need maintenance in order to operate under optimal conditions.

You may also consider using a red light changer to change the lights so that you do not need to stop at all. This obviously is not a way to avoid knowing your braking guidelines but is at least a useful idea to consider in order to save your brakes longer to replace them less often and cause less maintenace time on your bike.

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