Pro Racer Explains How To Brake on a Motorcycle! (Track Day Tips #3)

Hello, I'm Josh Heron. Welcome to another episode of Josh Knows Best. I just meditated. I'm trying to slow my mind down. You can do this. You are one. You are... Who am I kidding? I suck. 4-6-E. Justin Pines-Clarke. My guy. Josh Heron. Go, go. Go, Josh. Go. Alright, Adam with the lead. Damn, I got smoked. I think my clutch was out. Now we're going to head over to Yosh, pick up my Ovale, head to Apex, have some fun. Send it off, DJ Bizzaz. And that's a wrap. I'm just going to have no hair left after we get to the track. Hello, I'm Josh Heron. Welcome to another episode of Josh Knows Best. What's up, guys? Today we're going to be talking about braking. Posted something on my story the other day asking you guys, basically, if you had any braking questions. Because I had a lot of requests in the last video that we did asking to talk about braking techniques. So, we're going to open up some of the questions from Instagram. This one's from at 929 underscore Travis. How often or when is the best time to use your remote adjuster? So, what he's talking about when he says remote adjuster, it's basically a cable that goes from your master cylinder and runs over to the left side of your bars. There's a knob that you can adjust. You'll see me doing it in some of my onboard footage, my GoPro footage. Basically, adjust the lever in and out. So, I can move the lever all the way into the bar or all the way out. If you want it stiff or if you want it spongy, I like having the brake lever really spongy, so kind of close to the handlebar. Whatever feeling you like with your lever, if you're using an adjuster, you just want to make sure that every time you're coming down a straightaway, if you felt like the previous corner, it felt a little too stiff or it was a little too soft for you, just adjust it then. It's really just based off feel. I'm adjusting my brakes two or three times every lap. So, quite a lot. The next question's from one of my buddies at ItsWillieJ. How can I keep the weight off the bars under braking? I don't have it on the Ovali, just because the bike's so small, I don't really need it. I use a material called TechSpec. I've talked about it before in some other videos. It's basically a material that goes on the tank. It allows me to dig my legs into the side of the tank, so it allows something to grip. Instead of the paint sliding on my leathers, it grips against it and allows me to really use my legs under braking. So that way I can relieve some of the pressure off my hands and my arms while I'm under braking, and really use my legs and my crotch against the tank as well. You want to try and take as much of the pressure off your hands as you can and relax, just for your overall being comfortable on the bike, not overexerting yourself, but also just to make the bike work better. The more pressure and straight-armed you are on the bars, the more not in control you are of the bike. If you want to be relaxed on the handlebars, you kind of have your arms act like suspension in a way. You want to absorb everything that the bike's hitting. If your arms are straight-armed, it's basically like a bicycle with no suspension, just forks. Okay, so another question. This was actually by Nick, my videographer. He's asking if I'm a two-finger breaker or a three-finger breaker. I use these two fingers. Some people use three fingers. It's really just based on what's comfortable for you. I think that using the middle finger and my ring finger are the most comfortable for me. It's just what I grew up doing. It's what you're comfortable with. I think two fingers is more than enough brake pressure. I brake just as hard as any other rider. I don't want to be cocky and say I can outbrake anybody, but whenever I've gotten into those spots at the end of the race and I really have to outbrake someone, two fingers has always been more than enough. Okay, this one's from at Tony Flappelli. He asked if ABS is cool, asking for a friend. Tony's actually a friend of mine. This is a subject that comes up a lot. When I'm at the track and most people that I see at the track, I try and get them to take the ABS off their bike because you grab a handful of brake and it doesn't matter how hard you squeeze the brake, it's not going to brake as hard as you want it to. And you get this pulse feeling from the brake lever, and I do not like that. So I suggest anybody going to the track that you remove the ABS, but if you're riding on the street, it's good. For those of you that are like, well, what do I do if I'm riding the same bike on the track that I do on the street? There is a fuse. Most mechanics know which fuse takes the ABS off. In some cases, it removes a little bit more than just the ABS, so you've got to really know what you're doing. But that's the only answer I have for that. For the street, ABS is good, but for the track, I'd for sure take it off. Alright, next question is from at Nico D. Sam. It says, what percentage of braking do you generally apply before turning in the bike for a turn? If I'm at the end of a long straightaway and I'm grabbing the brakes, I'm pulling in the brakes as hard as I possibly can with my two fingers. There is some instances where you're not using a lot of brake pressure. Sometimes it's better to be smooth. Smoother is faster. If you're going into a corner that's not at the end of a straightaway, you're at 180 and you've got to slow down for a corner that's 50 miles an hour, you've got to brake really hard. But if you're just slowing down a little bit for a bend, don't apply the brake pressure really hard. Just ease into it. Just gently grab the brakes, flow through the corner. But if you're going from a long straightaway into a braking zone, you're 100% brake. I grab the brake pretty soft at first, and then gradually squeeze harder as I get deeper into the braking zone. But when I'm ready to start leaning into the corner, any lean that I apply, I immediately start releasing the brakes slowly. And probably go from, say you're at 80-90% straight up and down, I easily go down to 20-30% as I'm starting to lean in. And then as soon as I'm getting to where I'm putting my knee out at all, to start to dip down and drag my knee or get to the apex of the corner, I'm releasing the brakes all the way. Like I said earlier, the only time that I'm touching the brakes once I'm at the apex is if I'm trying to really hook the bike to finish the corner. Another thing I wanted to talk about, now that we're done reading the questions, just throw in something else. When you're going down the straightaway, say you're in 6th gear, grab the brakes. This is how I apply the brakes, go through my downshifts and everything. Say at Koda, going down the back straight, 6th gear wide open, I release the throttle, and as I'm releasing the throttle, I go to grab the brakes. As soon as I grab the brakes, just the littlest of pressure, as soon as I'm pulling it in, I'm grabbing my downshifts. So say I'm going to 2nd gear, I'm braking, as I'm squeezing the lever, just 5th, 4th, 3rd, 2nd, I get all my downshifts done fairly quick. So that way the bike can settle in, and I have enough time then after the bike settles to tip into the corner and it's not moving around. A lot of guys brake and wait to do their downshifts, and then the bike's moving around as they're trying to tip into the corner. I definitely don't like doing that. The only time I will do that is if you're riding in the rain. Grab your brakes, slowly get your downshifts. You never want to be in 6th gear in the rain, or 5th gear even, and grab three downshifts quick like you do in the dry, because it's just going to lock the rear tire up, and then get sideways, and that's whenever you get in a bad situation in the rain. So during the dry, get your downshifts done quick, settle the bike, then tip in the corner, in the rain, grab your brakes, do one downshift slowly, get them all done one at a time, and be smooth with it. Alright, that's it for Josh Knows Best. Let's go ride. For those of you guys that are interested, I now have a full line of merchandise. Got the Yoshimura Suzuki hats, come in different colors. As promised on Instagram, any orders that came in before midnight, the first night that we launched the new merchandise, I'm throwing in a signed hat for everybody that ordered a hat, signed glove, signed knee pucks, signed boots, elbow sliders for my leathers, a bunch of cool stuff, so thank you to everybody that ordered. There's a link below, but it's jh2merch.com. Check it out, buy some stuff, support me, and thanks for watching.