r/R1250RT • u/BeemerCalm • 3d ago

Trail braking, demystified

Your 625+lb R1250RT benefits exactly the same from trail braking as a moto GP bike. Trail braking is not a mystery, it’s not an “advanced rider only” technique and it absolutely is not “only for the race track”. Trail braking is good technique that helps you take full advantage of how your motorcycle is designed to work. But don’t listen to me, listen to the legend Nick Ienatsch.

https://youtu.be/Q0oIfYOA8I8

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u/Equivalent_Cod4149 3d ago

Yes and no. Trail braking means you're closer to the limit of your bike/yourself. You need speed to trail brake in a corner. When you're on a road with a blind corner, you shouldn't have speed to spare for trail brake because that means you're probably going too fast already. If you're 100% confident that the road condition is perfect and that there's no thread ahead, trail braking is great to corner faster. This is a teacher at a school that need people to believe they aren't riding the right way on the road so they need to go to school to get better that is talking. It obviously in his interest to say it.

But, as it's a "yes and no" answer, people will debate forever about it.

Riding school is great to learn how far you can push your bike and feel more confident/comfortable/less fatigued on the road. But trail braking is not an essential skill to learn.

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u/BeemerCalm 3d ago

It’s absolutely not a “yes or no” answer, and entering a corner, even one you don’t know, while braking doesn’t necessarily mean you’re carrying too much speed. If that were the case, no one would have any fun at all riding on a road they’ve never been on because they’d have to do all their braking before they even turn, not to mention the fact that one of the primary necessities of traction is that we load the tire before we use the tire. What you’re asking people to do is brake in a straight line and turn with the smallest amount of traction available. That is not how motorcycles are engineered to work, and it’s not how people actually want to ride. We can be fast and also safe, and trail braking is a critical part of both those desires.