As evident in the picture of the motorcycles, we had a bright, sunny Saturday for our ride. The temperatures were a little on the chilly side, a high of 48 with a cold north wind, but the rain was going to wait until Sunday. With my heated grips, I was able to wear my new Klim Adventure GTX short gloves. And because I was able to wear these smaller gloves, I was able to ride with the front brake pre-loaded for nearly the entire ride.
As mentioned in earlier blog entries, pre-load means to have a one or two fingers on the front brake lever, pulling in the slack of the brake. I’ve been using pre-load as I work on my trail braking in curves and corners, but pre-load is an important safe riding skill. There’s a YouTube vlogger, a retired NY motorcycle policeman, who refers to his supporters as “Preloaders” (Be the Boss of Your Motorcycle). So what makes pre-loading so important?
One dangerous motorcycle crash is called a “high side.” This crash involves the rider being launched over the top of the handlebars. Slamming on the front brake suddenly is a leading cause of high sides as the motorcycle may stop, but there is no front brake on the acceleration of the rider’s body, so that keeps going.
Now when leaning into a corner and suddenly slamming on the front brake, the rider may have a “low side” crash. This crash occurs when the rider applies the front brake while in the leaned position and the front tire loses traction causing the rider to fall sideways off the bike, on the low side. My trail braking practice is to prevent a sudden stoppage on the front tire which would cause the loss of traction.
So the purpose of pre-loading the front brake is to prevent a sudden loss of traction in the front tire because it allows me to gradually increase the braking pressure. How so? Well with the slack already pulled in on the brake, any pressure I apply to the front brake lever is activating the brake, so I don’t have to yank in the brake.
I have tried to ride pre-loaded on all of my motorcycles, but it is only on the BMW R Nine T that I have been successful. My grip must be stronger now too as I was able to ride in the pre-load position for almost the entire ride without my hand hurting. My only discomfort came again from the new winter pants, though it wasn’t as bad as last week. The motorcycle fought me a little with the gear shifting. When we were ready to set off, it wouldn’t drop into first. I let the clutch out and back in and was able to shift into first. But later when we were in the hospital lot, I couldn’t shift into neutral. Bill had to come over and manipulate the shifter. While there, he took a quick spin on the R Nine T and marveled at how small the 1200 cc motorcycle is compared to his 2500 cc Triumph Rocket.
I worked on trail braking, stops, pre-loads, and U-turns. When we did our in-street U-turn, Bill rode off onto the berm. He later explained that he wanted to practice the sensation of going off-road so that should he be forced off, it won’t be a weird experience. So I will add that to my practice next week.
I was happy to be able to ride in the gravel lot again; the lack of rain made that possible. I’m almost ready to try my turn around inside the wooden borders. As I worked in the hospital lot, I marveled at how well-balanced the R Nine T is. I need to be careful not to get too comfortable with this balance and forget that I can drop the bike.
We were lucky with little traffic as we rode, but there were a lot of people out and about enjoying the sunny day. We did see lots of dogs, even three new ones who came out to bark at us. Only one squirrel made a crazy dash across the road in front of Bill, but far enough away he didn’t have to stop. I found myself missing the nature sights on the ride. I’ll have to get used to it as spring is still quite a ways away. There is one yard that has Valentine’s Day decorations out, so I try and make the most out of that. Of course, I can always enjoy the sight of Bill riding on his beautiful Rocket.
Flutterby Biker 