Trail Braking and Throttle…

[BillyJK]

I am a returning rider after 40 years. I took my local MSF in November 2022 and took the ChampU online course as well.

I understand and try to apply trail braking to my street riding on my local country roads. I always have two fingers at least touching the brake lever, so throttling down allows my fingers to wrap around the lever a bit to add brake pressur. Since I learned at ChampU that we don’t want to rely on engine braking as we approach a corner, the question in my mind is that when Nick says “neutral” throttle as we approach and use light braking to manage our comfort in the turn, what exactly is “neutral”?

Does that mean keeping the throttle where it is as we approach and add the trail brake technique, or begin to throttle down as we approach (at this point we’re engine braking!) as we add the trail brake technique? Also, do we implement trail braking even when we are approaching a curve at slower speeds just to be consistent?

I read somewhere that when Nick and his wife go out for their daily rides, they trail brake in every corner/curve, so I’d guess it’s not speed dependent, but I thought I’d ask.

I plan to take ChampU a second time now that I have some miles under my tires.

Thanks in advance for your help!
-bjk

[Author]

Posts