Welcome!! Gotta Question??

[Andrew Cerick]

I understand from the champ U course that as you are trailing off the brakes at corner entry you are modulating the brake pressure. Adding slightly more or less depending on your positioning and where you want to be on road or track. My question is I often hear people say certain bikes have a good or bad “feel” through the brake lever. What are they actually referring to? Also can this help or hinder your riding?

[Brent Ackermann]

My question is I often hear people say certain bikes have a good or bad “feel” through the brake lever. What are they actually referring to?

For me, the “feel” is feedback from my input on the brake lever to the slowing of the motorcycle. How direct does it feel per how hard I squeeze? Good brake lever feel is predictable output per my input. Bad feel is vague or unpredictable slowing of the bike.

can this help or hinder your riding?

Everything we do on the track or on the street is about limiting the times we’re surprised or caught off guard. If you have a higher confidence in your braking performance, you’re in a much better position to ride safer and more controlled.

[Brian Buckhana]

Hey ya’ll,

Really enjoyed ChampU and the confidence that it’s given me along with the tools to diagnose issues in my own riding.

I have a question about ChampBody. I know you guys are all about keeping your curriculum up to date and I was wondering if that applied to ChampBody as well? I haven’t seen anything recent on it and the only way to find it is through Google. I can’t navigate to it via the website alone. Last thing I’ve seen on it is a blog post from 2018.

Is this being replaced or phased out? Just wondering.

Thanks for all that ya’ll do and keep up the good work!

Brian

[Shashank Agarwal]

I just finished my online course..

I have a question about 2nd part of counter steering i.e stop pushing & allowing the Handlebars to turn.
But how to do that ? Is it necessary ?
Am not getting a clear picture about doing that, plz explain with as much details as u can

My 2nd question is that how to take away lean angle points at corner exit. Can I use counter steering to get the bike up ?

[Keith Culver]

Shashank,

Think of that idea in countersteering like this. If you keep pushing the bars forward the bike will keep leaning and leaning until it falls over. Not a good thing when trying to make a corner or a turn. Eventually, when you push the bars to initiate the lean to turn, you need to release that pushing forward pressure. We do this almost automatically. We’re just putting it into words so students can understand the science of the technique.

For your second question, yes. I often “feel” the counter steering in this instance more than I even do when initiating a turn.

Just remember, ALL of these inputs needs to be smooth. No matter how good the technique is, things can go wrong if you do it too abruptly.

Safe riding!

[Shashank Agarwal]

Just for instance, I am at maintenance throttle, lets say at maximum lean angle but now I decided to go on brakes reason being anything , so if I roll off my throttle to the brakes very smoothly & start squeezing my brakes smoothly at that maximum lean angle having warm tire & good road conditions,
Can the tire take that smooth load or will the bike fall ?
(I am asking this because I can’t do that exercise in real world with my bike
But I want to know the consequences.)
Plz tell me.

• This reply was modified 2 weeks ago by Shashank Agarwal.

[Chris Ducharme]

I’m practicing trail braking. Let’s say, for instance, I enter corner in 3rd gear. Through corner, I reduce speed enough that it would be better to exit corner in 2nd gear, otherwise engine lugs. Is it advisable to shift mid-corner. As I see it, that introduces some risk if engine speed wasn’t matched well to gear and road speed.

[Keith Culver]

Chris,

We want to try to finish our downshifting before we enter the corner as often as possible, especially if you are newer. The idea is to get down to the gear needed to exit. But, alas this is real world and we don’t always get that right.

If you are experienced and have a smooth clutch release, you can downshift in the corner but the clutch release needs to be real smooth (and a good blip as we teach) and you need to make sure you are in the proper gear (definitely not too low!).

That being said, neutral throttle won’t really induce a lot of lugging so in this scenario, if you are in that too high a gear, you might want to do that downshift as you are getting the bike up straighter. At least as you are taking away lean angle.

Hope this helps

[Keith Culver]

Chris,

We want to try to finish our downshifting before we enter the corner as often as possible, especially if you are newer. The idea is to get down to the gear needed to exit. But, alas this is real world and we don’t always get that right.

If you are experienced and have a smooth clutch release, you can downshift in the corner but the clutch release needs to be real smooth (and a good blip as we teach) and you need to make sure you are in the proper gear (definitely not too low!).

That being said, neutral throttle won’t really induce a lot of lugging so in this scenario, if you are in that too high a gear, you might want to do that downshift as you are getting the bike up straighter. At least as you are taking away lean angle.

Hope this helps

[Keith Culver]

It depends on how you want to define max lean angle for your situation. At the bike and tires max lean angle (the physical limit), theoretically you are 100 points of available grip so any brakes would put you over 100 points and lose traction.

If it is the max lean angle you happen to be using in that corner but not at the bikes, tires, or your 100%, than you should technically be able to add braking or lean points.

On the street, you should never be anywhere near 100 points. 70 should be your max on the street.

Hope this helps.

[Edward Clarini]

Hi, I am taking the new rider online champU course to start riding again after many years off motorbikes.
It is not clear to me about how much to load the front tire when trail braking? Is the goal to use up all the front shock travel for best road feel? Or if only light braking is needed for a more gentle curve, is it ok to partially compress front shocks to slow the bike down a little for a sweeping corner? Thanks! Ed.

[Author]

Posts