My views on bike riding and braking in particular....
first of all........engine braking means less less and less mileage......why???? since on a 5th gear with cruising rpm at 3000, u down shift to 3rd at rpm 6000....thats gonna eat up more fuel even though ur throttle is closed.......
however on a down hill slope, using engine brake is the best since for a little less mileage u get a LOT more control......just put the bike on 4th or 3rd gear and go down hill if u want speed press the clutch and dont rev and if u wanna slow down press brakes + release clutch........
on NORMAL ROADS......
whenever i approach a speed breaker and and am not in a hurry i just press the clutch and let the bike cruise on neutral......that increases mileage and by natural air resistance i slow down and near the breaker a slight brake is sufficient......
i feel theres absolutely no need for engine braking on a level straight road....however on turns maybe while cornering hard....engine braking is better since that gives more control and brakes maybe dangerous since if u brake hard, the wheels will lock and u would skid on the turn.......
plus rear brakes are always better that front disks though ideally both should be pressed simultaneously for best braking....cause if front wheels lock u loose control of bike but if rear wheels lock u can still just about control it.......(i once had to brake suddenly at 80kmph the rear wheels locked and so teh engine quit....i must have skidded for 40 feet at least but luckily the front wheels didnt lock and so i could control and dint fall.....)
also engine braking is bad for the engine, the drive train (thats the chains) and the clutch plate....
5 comments:
i really didnt get what u mean by engine break. otherwise, i always think its better to downshift rather than break...it would kill the break pads. downshift well in advance to be able to get the engine in the right speed. no?
suppose u are approaching a speed breaker in 3rd gear (in car or bike, whatever) and u down shift to 2nd...the instant deceleration u experience is called as engine braking......infact if u r in 3rd gear at 55kmph and leave the accelerator the car would pretty quickly decelerate to 30-40kmph (unless u shift to 4th)...this is also engine braking only....
actually as i said in many conditions it is always better to use engine brake since u achieve a better degree of control.....infact in superbike championships.....the bikes dont have rear brakes at all....and rely on engine braking wholly for slowing down (cause front disc brakes are obviously too dangerous)....
as far as brake pads are concerned....they are made of materials like asbestos....so they have pretty long life....unless ofcourse u brake recklessly for drifting or doing stunts etc....
ah, so i guess i was doing the right thing. altho i find myself reaching with the feet for my brake pedal more often than i should. over time i guess it would ruin my parts.
what exactly happens when i am say at 50 and in 4th, and i shift to 2nd?
the engine makes a growling noise!..what do u reckon is happening there?
see... the engine is connected to a drive shaft which is in turn connected to the wheels via the gear box (in ur car the front wheels)....thats how the engine drives the wheels....but the wheels also drive the engine....thats how the engine quits if u come to a dead stop without the clutch pressed....now the engine can only have one maximum rpm (in ur car it must be around 6000-7000rpm) so to increase the out put speed of ur car u have gears.... now for every gear the engine can go up to 6000rpm which will give u the top speed for that gear.....to go faster u'll have to change gears...
now when u are at 50kmph in 4th gear u are probably doing 2500 to 3000rpm in ur 4th gear.....when u down shift to 2nd at this speed the wheels are rotating too fast for the engine and so to match the speed of the wheels the engine rpm shoots to 5000-6000rpm (again here the wheels drive the engine rather than vice versa!!!)....thats why the growl that u hear, cause suddenly the rpm has shot up and the engine doesnt like it.......
ah...makes sense. well explained. thanks.
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