intentionally locking the brakes

[stickygreen]

as i've been riding more and getting more confident (almost 10k miles this year), i've been really pushing my braking to the limits in all kinds of conditions to learn how far i can go if a given situation arises
as i've been doing this riding i've had the bike get squirrelly on me a few times.... i found i was rather comfortable with the feeling of the tires losing grip

so, i've been intentionally pushing my front or rear .. or front and rear .. to a point of losing traction in controllled areas to better understand the handling of my bike once the tires lose grip

what a great thing !!

i feel sooooo much more at ease now when i get a little brake heavy in the rain .. or hit a patch of sand in a turn

so .. good idea or bad idea ... am i teaching myself bad habits doing this ?

thanks

[Wade-Kat600]

depends on how you're controlling it - its good to be comfortable but you should be teaching yourself how to correct it - not just hang with it when you want to.

I can take my kat out and do a 40mph slide pitching it sideways and throwing it around like a dirt bike - but that isnt a situation to practice

What to practice is how far you can push it without locking up - how to correct a slide - is your body in the right position in relation to the type of slide you have.

And practicing this on a kat is not a good thing - its too heavy to recover if you get into a bad situation - you should practice on a little tiny bike - or a dirtbike to get comfortable with the positions without getting crazy with a bike designed to keep its traction.

Yes its important to be able to control those things - but be careful you arent teaching yourself some bad habits.

For instance - are you practicing locking the rear tire? are you goin straight when you do it or are you making a panic stop while in a corner so the rear end comes around.

[paperairplane]

What you need to be focusing on:
* how does the bike react when sliding, and how to recover
* more importantly, how hard can you get on the brakes prior to lockup

It is very useful to know what the maximum braking performance of the vehicle is, regardless of what you are driving.

Bear in mind that if you are sliding the rear tire you should remain ON the brake until it stops sliding. Releasing the brake while the rear end is sliding sideways is how you practice a high-side.