Will We Get the Brakes?

WILL WE GET THE BRAKES?

UP FRONT

Allan Girdler

Steve Kimball gets credit for the early warning. The Hurt Report. the study of motorcycle crashes that's already been the source of some surprises, was released in preliminary form some time back and a copy has been floating about the office since. So one day Steve ambles into my office and wonders if I've seen where the government could start a new campaign?

No, I hadn't. Brakes, he says. Yes, Brakes.

Begin with the median motorcycle crash. The bike is going down the Street, not speeding. in complete control, weather clear, pavement dry. visibility unlimited. when an oncoming car driven by some body who doesn't know what a motorcyc'e is turns into the bike's path and crash. another rider is hurt. The majority of road accidents take place just this way. We are the victims and the cure, if there is one, seems to be either teaching four-wheel operators about motorcycles or making us so conspicuous that anybody who can see the steering wheel will be able to know we're in their way.

Except that it isn't always that simple. We have the classic situation, that is, the motorcycle is approaching and the car or truck turns into the bike's path.

We have three possible results.

1) There is no way on earth for the motorcycle to stop in time. Crash.

2) The motorcyclist brakes to a stop.

Alerted by the yowl of tortured tires, Mr. or Mrs. Four-Wheel blinks, looks up. The rider regains control of his or her voice, tells the driver "Nearly got me that time, you *&~%$*~!`~ or "You haven't got the brains God gives to tree stumps," and rides away.

3) There should be time and space to stop. The car is maybe 100 feet from the bike. Assuming normal reaction time and braking distance for the speed involved, the bike should be able to stop in 80 feet. But it doesn't. Crash.

A warning note here. Result No. 2 in the above list does not, by its nature, show up in the statistics. The Hurt Report is a compilation of crashes that did happen. We have~no way to measure crashes that did not happen.

Now let's deal with braking.

Motorcycles stop better than cars. Fact. Simple physics and engineering. When the brakes of any road vehicle are applied, the weight of the vehicle shifts to the front. The center of gravity is above the center of traction, so to speak. This loads the front wheel and unloads the rear wheel. Or wheels, in the case of cars and trucks.

This imbalances varies with weight dis tribution and with braking effort and vehi cle load. The car people deal with this as best they can. They must allow for the worst situation, usually with the car or truck loaded to the gunwales. in a panic stop. They bias the brake size and effort, front to rear, so the front brakes do most of the work and the rears lock at all-out effort. But because the single brake pedal controls both ends, the compromise means the driver can never get the optimum from either end, under any conditions.

Motorcycle engineers do it differently and I bet their method has already popped into your head. -

Right. They give us two controls, one for the front, the other for the back.

With them we do fantastic stuff. Sepa rate brake controls give us the power to infinitely adjust effort, to make each wheel do as much as it can do. Racers can balance their machines on the front, rear wheel in the air, for incredible distances. Superhumans, witness a photo of one K. Roberts I saw in a European magazine, can stand the bike on the front wheel while leaning into a corner.

And the skilled road rider can stop a motorcycle in less distance than a car will stop.

Except that some riders don't. In those accidents that shouldn't have happened but did, one more common factor: the riders didn't use the front brake. They instead jumped on the rear brake, locked the back wheel and slid into the car.

Why?

Dr. Hurt suspects it's instinct. It's natu ral, he admits to speculãting.for the human being to draw back in fear. To grab the front brake lever is to reach out, that is. to go against instinct.

Withal! due respect. I disagree.

The riders who react wrongly don't just draw back. They jump on the brake pedal. which is reaching out as much as grabbing the brake lever would be.

I took a two-rider survey. My sons began riding when they were 10 and 12. They~ rode motorcycles for years before they drove a car or truck. And when they were learning to ride, I taught them: The front brake is your friend. I had them roll slowly down hill. to learn braking, before I let them start their engines.

Without telling them what was up. I~ checked on their reactions.

When the unexpected happens, they" grab the front brake, as naturally as those unhappy riders jump on the rear brake.

We don’t have instinct here. What we have is people who have the wrong set of trained reflexes.

I don’t know, nor does anybody know, how many motorcycle riders use their-, brakes correctly. We don’t, as mentioned, have a record of crashes that didn’f happen.

What we have is half the accidents being caused by drivers, with riders as victims. Too many of them are compounded by riders who react as drivers; they go for the, brake pedal, out of habit, I believe. They don’t use the brakes they’ve got. I am tempted to think they don’t know how’ to ride motorcycles. Enough to pass the test, sure. Enough to ride when skill isn’t needed, yes.

But when skid comes to crunch, they fail the real test.

Why have I worked out all this? Because of what Steve brought up. When the safety establishment has tired of, or succeeded in. bullying us about helmets and lights and horsepower and all the other extraneous business they’ve invented, they may well draw up more braking standards. They’ need new laws, don’t forget, else they’ll have to find gainful employment.

What they may do is look at the Hurt report. The facts are there. Other facts aren’t there, that is, for all we know most riders brake correctly and become accidents that didn’t happen.

But the safety establishment may not know. Or care. They may say “Aha! Motorcycle riders need brakes they can use. We’ll draw up new standards. We’ll design brakes any fool can use.”

Motorcycles are getting safer every year. If we can persuade people to learn to ride, they’ll be able to use the best braking system on the road. Crashes that need noH happen, won’t happen.

If we make it so people need not learn to ride, if we replace skill with rules, the inept will crash in some other way.

And the rest of us will no longer have the best brakes we can buy. H