Curious George asks: Does the VFR's dual braking system affect steering when applying rear brake only? Reason I ask is that last weekend, I had to apply the rear brake to slow down before entering a corner, and when my front wheel touched a patch of gravel, the bike's balance was impossible to regain. ( I did a low side, and subsequently scratched the entire right-side of the bike) Now that I am over the incident, I am trying to establish the cause of the accident so as not to repeat it again. I realize that gravel is like ice as-far-as bikes go, but I am still wondering if the linked brakes had anything to do with my lost of control. Speed was not an issue, I believe, since I was only in second gear going maybe 40 km/Hr. Any suggestions or constructive critizism would be appreciated.
Well, no.. The steering, per-se is not affected, but any braking force on the bike when encountering gravel isn't good..obviously rear brake alone would have perhaps given you a chance to avoid the spill, but in general the linked braking is far more helpful than hinderance. The only thing that's foolproof when dealing with gravel is seeing it early ! :bolt: Rod
Just a guess, but the linked braking when applying your rear brake will have applied some braking force to your front brake .... very bad news in a corner on gravel where grip is minimal, and quite enough to loose any spare grip Advice given to me when I bought my vfr from its very experienced rider was never use the linked rear brake in a corner, as it will not react like a normal unlinked bike, and could easily cause a drop ....
As before.. The rear brake will have applied some front brake, but my advice would be never to brake on top of gravel anyway..:drum: If you are not a proficient enough rider not to be needing to brake in a corner then you are hardly likely to be able to stop the resultant rear-wheel slide you are about to incur if you brake with the rear on a "regular" non-linked bike..Panic braking on any bike is likely to involve the front brake lever anyway.. It reminds me of the old story of someone who was told not to use the front brake as they would "go over the handlebars" and spent the next few miles on their new bike standing on the rear brake to stop... Rod
The advice given to me at my MSF course a few years back was to only apply rear brake when stopping on gravel roads. I was too late to lean the bike for the turn as my lane ended suddenly. I was done doing my regular shoulder check, when I turned around to look ahead I realized I did not have a full lane around the corner. I let-off the throttle and applied rear brake pedal only, making sure to steer straight-ahead. As I gradually braked harder on the pedal, my front end got mushy/ wobbly. This "feeling" is what I am questioning at the moment. I know better than to lock-up the brakes in a corner. I was not "cornering " yet. I still to-this-day believe the culprit was the front brake that caused the front slide-out. Anyone else have this happen to them? Again, I repeat myself but speed was very slow. I managed to scrub a lot of speed before hitting the gravel patch. I have had to stop suddenly once before to avoid a collison under similar circumstances. And yet no slide out.
Trail braking is a most useful technique for both road and dirt, applying the back brake but also throttle at the same time. Very useful in washing off speed mid turn without loading up the front end or causing the bike to feel unstable. Practice this technique on good roads, it may save your life. Every time my bro-in-law runs off the road in a straight line on his VFR, he crashes.
Hi guys Imtiaz from South Africa here I just puchased a VFR 400 NC30 . I am nw to riding and i i have not stared the bike in 2 days.I tried last night to start it but it seems as though the battery has run flat.How do i open the seat to get to the battery if the battery is under the seat.Please help as i need to start the bike so i can ride it ever day
Imtiaz, i only had a race rvf400 with race glass etc. My seat had 2 holes near the back edge which were for access to screws that held the seat down, your road bike might have a keyed lock somwhere on the back end of the bike, have a look.
