This Is How To Brake On A Road Bike

Many of us take braking for granted, but there is a real skill to it, which will help you ride faster, more safely and with more confidence. Having your brakes set up correctly and knowing how to use them properly will vastly improve your riding experience. In this video, Si explains everything you need to know about how to brake on a road bike.

Chapters:
0:00 Intro
1:09 Do Your Brakes Work?
1:58 Emergency Stops
3:06 Cornering
4:54 Don’t Brake
5:50 Conditions
6:40 Brake Set Up
8:10 Summary

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Where will you be going on your next ride to practice and apply these top tips? Let us know in the comments below! 💬

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🎵 Music - licensed by Epidemic Sound 🎵
Cardio (Instrumental Version) - Superintendent McCupcakes
Dansez - Fasion
Grudges (Instrumental Version) - Roof
Hemisphere - Ooyy
HVPER - Squiid
Tell Me Again What I'm Missing - oomiee
The Style - Scoobadive

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[gcn]

Where will you be going on your next ride to practice and apply these top tips?

[Mincher]

If you need to shave off a little bit of speed on descents, get less aero. Using your body as a wind break will skim off a couple of km/h.

[DoNuT_]

I actually managed to trigger the Garmin crash warning when coming to a stop from about 60 kph after a descent, so you can stop pretty hard without locking up. One more thing on braking in corners - it doesn't only cause you to skid out, it also shifts weight (pulls you back upright countering you leaning into the corner), so you might go wider than when trusting in your grip and line and make the bend. Or go straight (when the situation allows it), brake and shave off some speed, then turn again roll out of the corner annoyingly slow but upright.

[esenel]

A few small pieces of advice I'd like to add:
For every ride, before you get on, apply more power to each brake handle than you would during an emergency stop(test front and back separately), and try moving the bike forward and backwards while applying that force.
First of all, most of us rarely do emergency stops, so a cable or hose/connector might have a weak spot. It's better to have it blow/snap when you're standing next to the bike, than when you actually need to brake for your life, and the cable/hose says "NOPE!".
Secondly when then moving the bike with a lot of force applied, look for play in the brakes/wheels. you'll see/hear/feel it when something's wrong. Just make a habit out of doing it every time before you get on the bike, even after a short stop somewhere.

Secondly, if you have cable actuated brakes, have them set up so they start braking early on in the movement of the levers. If a bunch of strands of the brake cable decide to snap, the cable will "stretch", and you might not be able to brake anymore because the levers are at the limit of their movement. The connection between the lever and caliper will still be there, you're just unable to actually use it.

[lordraiden]

From 18 to 21 I worked at a 7-11 in Los Angeles. I was heavily in to cycling back then. Now in my mid 50's I use cycling mostly for fitness. One day we got some training videos in from the 7-11 cycling team. One section of the video focused on emergency stops. Learning to slide off the back of that seat and pull those levers hard saved my butt on the street many times.

[sstaj]

This was immensely helpful to me. I recently had a 'right of passage' fall over my handlebars due to breaking wrong.I've been in my head ever since, worried I'll fall again. I'm hoping with time and educating myself more I can prevent something like that happening again. Thank you for the knowledge you shared.

[yisraels]

For real emergency braking I was taught to apply the rear brake VERY lightly - and then apply the front brake as hard as possible. If (when) the rear wheel starts to skid you are at maximum possible braking and about to go over the handlebar. Moving your weight back will help increase braking. Obviously this needs allot of practice but the theoretical maximum for braking on a bike is around 0.65G any more and the rear wheel lifts up. The closer and more consistently you can get to that maximum, the faster you stop.

[gerkerkhoven]

Thx! 👌tips! Practice 3 till 10 of august ‘22 on holiday in Limburg, the Netherlands and Belgium.

[santiagobenites]

I raced motocross for a few years before I got into road cycling, and I was able to carry over many braking skills, with the most important being 'only brake when it's absolutely necessary'.

[richcrompton]

Great video and great handling skills from the Si twins. Even after 50+ years of riding, this sort of content gives me really useful info to cross check if I’m still doing the most efficient thing and also fantastic comments which deliver even more tips to keep me from pain, injury and disaster!

[truvc]

I’ve always thought of my front brakes as only for when I need to stop really quickly. I’ll have to practice with them now

[davymark]

I would love it if you guys could do a video on how to descend fast without fear. I'm one of those riders who is on the brakes when the roads get steep and would love to get over this - knowing it's a psychological issue, but I'm not sure how to get over the fear factor of going very fast.

[KenSmith-bvsi]

I'm glad it was a nice day for ya Si, I don't ride in the rain I'm old and I like staying dry beside rain days I get to do two yoga classes. Seriously you wanna feel better on your bike, practice yoga Hot yoga and don't wuss out go 4x a week. The good thing about yoga you get stronger without the need for large non-aero muscles.

[cathalkenneally]

I’ve just ridden 37 miles. A fairly decent ride by my standards and after watching this video I used only the front brake. It actually works out better. My ride was faster and I didn’t have any panic moments where I needed to jam them really hard. It was probably one of my most satisfying rides and a little chain issue didn’t derail a good day. Excuse the pun. 🤦‍♂️

[frankjohnson]

You guys have me learning new things all the time. Thanks very much 😀 👍 😊

[dhanso]

Here's something to consider:. Disc brake pads are temperature-sensitive. When they're cold they have less grip. When hot, more grip. And, various discs will have different stopping force depending on what the compound is, and they'll heat up at different rates.
So, if you ride in UK in winter you'll want pads that are for cold and if you're riding in hot mountains you'll want pads that like to work at very high temps.
But, your first hairpin corner, you'll need to apply big force because the brakes will be cold, then 5 miles on, you need less force on the lever, and 6 or 7 miles on, the pads may again change behavior because they've gotten really hot and are beyond their heat range...Also the rotors can/will warp as they get hot.
Keep this in mind.

[sybianorgasms]

Very well explained, very well done and well needed lesson on braking on a road bike.

[asteele]

1. That’s a good looking bike
2. I tend to do a fair bit of controlled stoppies on both road and mountain bikes. This is pretty effective to slow speed fast and get back on the power.

[distancejunkiemonkey]

Pretty good video. Just a couple things.
1. Wait for the weight, in other words wait for the weight transfer to really make the front brake work, this will load up the front tire and increase the contact patch and the weight will increase the traction. Brakes, especially front brakes, don’t like to be surprised.
2. Water- water is not a lubricant. What’s actually happening is the rain gets in the texture of the surface and floats the tiny debris up to the surface. The debris then is the lubricant. Additionally g load in a turn for a two wheel vehicle is not a concern until 1g is achieved, which happens around 41 degrees of lean angle. Clean wet roadway is going to lower the friction available from 1g to about .08-.09 g. So unless you are leaning the bike to 40 degrees just ride as normal, if the surface is clean and wet.
So since lean angle is part of the equation then limiting lean angle is important. When turning use your head to the inside to positively weight the bike. This will allow the bike to remain more upright, which is safer and allows an earlier power delivery, exactly why MotoGP riders have all their body weight to the inside of the motorcycle, no I’m not saying to look like Valentino Rossi, lol, on your bicycle. I am saying do not counter lean your body. Counter leaning feels more secure, because your body is more upright but it causes excessive lean angles of the bike.
And most importantly keep your head and eyes up when riding, braking, and turning. No matter what happens keep looking where you want to go and fight to get there !

[nigeldavies]

Old (motor) bikers saying relating to cornering efficiently comes to mind.

In slow out fast. In fast out feet first.

Same principle is true for bicycles as well.

Very good video by the way.

Diolch.