To make sure that you have maximum friction
available, keep your wheel rims and brake pads
clean and free of lubricants and polishes.
Make sure that your hands can reach and
squeeze the brake levers comfortably.
If your hands are too small to operate the levers comfortably,
consult your dealer before going for a ride. Perhaps, your brake
levers can be adjusted, or you may need another model.
Most brakes have some form of quick release mechanism to allow
the brake pads to clear the tyre when a wheel is removed or
reinstalled. When the brake quick release is in the open position,
the brakes are inoperative. Ask your dealer to make sure that you
understand the way the brake quick release works on your bicycle
(fig. 12–15), and make sure both brakes are functioning before
each ride.
Brakes are designed to control your speed, not just to stop the
bicycle. Maximum braking force occurs at the point just before the
wheel “locks up” and starts to skid. Once the wheel locks up and
starts skidding, the braking efficiency drops, and you lose control
of the bicycle. You need to practice slowing and stopping smoothly
without locking up the wheels. This technique is called progressive
braking. Instead of jerking the brake levers as hard as you can,
squeeze them smoothly, gradually increasing the applied force. If
you feel the wheel begin to lock up, release pressure just a little to
keep the wheel turning just short of lockup. It’s important to
develop a feel for the amount of brake lever pressure required for
each wheel at different speeds and on different surfaces.
To better understand this, try walking your
bicycle and applying different amounts of
pressure to each brake lever, until the wheel
locks.
When you start to apply the brakes, the bicycle
slows down, but your body tends to go forward
at the initial speed due to inertia. This causes
the centre of gravity to shift to the front of the
bicycle (hard and abrupt braking could send
you “flying” over the handlebar). A wheel with
more weight on it will accept greater brake
pressure before lockup; a wheel with less
weight will lock up with less brake pressure. As
you apply brakes and your weight is shifted
forward, you need to shift your body toward the
rear of the bicycle, to transfer weight back onto
the rear wheel. At the same time, you need
both to decrease rear braking and increase
front braking force. This is especially important
on descents, as the cyclist’s weight is already
shifted forward.
Two keys to effective speed control and
stopping are controlling wheel lockup and
weight transfer. This weight transfer is even
more pronounced if your bicycle has a front
suspension fork, as it dips under braking (see
section 5.F).Practice braking and weight
transfer techniques where there is no traffic,
away from other road users.
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