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Old 08-06-14, 10:23 AM
  #38  
thechemist
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Originally Posted by globecanvas
On a motorcycle at least, trail braking gives you better control over the turn because the weight distributes more onto the front wheel. You can turn in and generally react much more quickly.

Having said that, it only takes one incident of breaking the front wheel loose on a bicycle to put you off of trail braking for a good long time But IMO it's far easier to redistribute weight to the front wheel on a bicycle than a motorcycle without using the brakes at all, just by getting your body forward, which is also a natural side effect of strong countersteering.

As shovelhd suggested, probably 90% of racers think they are above average at cornering, so threads like this turn into everybody giving advice to everybody else and it starts to seem sort of obnoxious. Having said that... this season alone I won 3 races entirely due to being able to rail the last corner, in one case putting a full second between me and a much stronger breakmate on a 120 degree turn in the rain. IMO it's all about weight distribution. You've got to get forward on the bike and aggressively weight the front wheel.

We are way past the scope of the OP question and into navelgazing mode at this point, so, sorry about that :/

I fully agree with this and really think this is one reason why I have started pushing such a long stem for bike fit. So, I began to wonder if the ideal bike distribution is 50/50 (for setup). Can one turn and push weight to the front to the point where the back end slides out? I wonder as I consider moving to a zero setback seatpost if messing with the weight distribution is going to jack things up.

Not trying to derail the thread as I think it is pertinent. Obviously, one can put too much weight forward to the point of the back wheel sliding out or is that mitigated by having the outside leg locked out?
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