Trail braking slower on corners (track)

[Carlos Tomás]

In a civilized discussion about doing or not trail braking (TB) (this seem a endless discussion specially for the street), I got, for the first time, an “opinion” (by more than one person) that seem to know well what is TB but that doesn’t agree that’s useful on the streets at “normal speeds” (I think I already catch all the arguments against and for) but they say that is a mistake/error/false saying/teaching that using TB is better to get faster lap times on competition or that it makes possible faster cornering on the street.

They have said that usually TB is more used during the race as it is used to try to maintain or gain position and not to have better lap times as is more used in the qualifying phase. Also someone gave the example of Isle of Man races that this technique isn’t also used as the streets are more narrow than on track and so, TB is not useful.

I already watch (1 time) all videos from ChampU (soon I will rewatch again, but this time more slowly to actually practice), I think I understood the benefits of doing TB (also on the streets) and assumed that using this technique also allowed to be faster on corners at least on track (I don’t remember if that on the ChampU videos is there any mention about the efficacy and efficiency of the technique).

Is there any direct or close relation between the use or not of the trail braking and the speed that a corner can be done (and lap times) on a track or, in fact, it’s not yet possible to know this relationship in such a simpler terms?

I really don’t care much about be able to do the corners faster to be faster than some other rider on the streets, my mind is more about using the proper techniques to control and be safer on the bike, but I must confess that this “opinions” caught me off-guard.

Thanks for any input to enhance my knowledge.

• This topic was modified 2 weeks ago by Carlos Tomás.

[MrPC]

I think trail braking is most useful for speed control. You don’t have to go fast to use it (brakes can be used gently too). Its useful to “load the tyre to work the tyre” to turn the bike and makes for a safer corner entry, as well as a few other things. Have another watch (or two) of the video in the course.

[Author]

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