Effect of rear braking on chain?

Hi ,

Here is a question that I have been trying to figure out and have thought about it . when riding and the bike is in gear and you apply the brake , does that put pressure on the chain as the engine is trying to spin it and the brake to stop it ?

for instance when I pull the clutch in, it feels like the rear is much stronger on braking but again you need the engine braking so I tend not to do that .

so if I am riding at 60mph and use rear brake without the clutch pulled in, could that cause chain snap etc ?

or lets say lockup the rear with clutch engaged in low speed, would that cause any issues on the chain ? what are the negatives to be aware of ?
I asked above as I occasionally lock the rear on 20-30 miles as a little drifting experience
thanks

No.


Longer answer? If your chain was to snap because of using the rear brake whilst the engine is still going then bikes would be (even worse) deathtraps. I believe there is much more stress on the chain during acceleration, so if it can handle this then it can handle a little hard braking.

[Fallout]

Yeah, they're proper tough. To give you an example, to undo/do up the front sprocket nut, typically you need to stop the rear wheel from moving and the chain then holds the front sprocket still. The chain then takes the strain as you wrench on that nut. I've never been able to get the rear brake on hard enough to stop the rear wheel moving when I have a breaker bar on the front sprocket nut. I normally have to put a steel bar between the wheel and swing arm to stop the rear wheel moving, and then jump up and down on the breaker bar to undo the nut. Even then the chain doesn't snap.

Your brakes will almost never be more effective with the clutch pulled in. Unless of course you still have the throttle open. If this is the case you're either a professional racer or you're doing it wrong.

[Red Herring]

If you're locking up the rear to get the drifting experience then you're a crash waiting to happen and I wouldn't be the slightest bit worried about any increased strain on your chain.... If you want to drift the rear into a corner properly you need to be hard on the front brakes and turning slightly so that the unloaded rear wants to overtake the front, then you control just how much it slides by either easing the front brake so that the rear grips a bit more (provided you're not racing and/or need to make the corner) or slipping the clutch to ease the amount of engine braking going to the rear wheel. I hardly ever touch the back brake when racing on tarmac.

Originally Posted by Red Herring

If you're locking up the rear to get the drifting experience then you're a crash waiting to happen and I wouldn't be the slightest bit worried about any increased strain on your chain.... If you want to drift the rear into a corner properly you need to be hard on the front brakes and turning slightly so that the unloaded rear wants to overtake the front, then you control just how much it slides by either easing the front brake so that the rear grips a bit more (provided you're not racing and/or need to make the corner) or slipping the clutch to ease the amount of engine braking going to the rear wheel. I hardly ever touch the back brake when racing on tarmac.

^^^^^^ this.
+99999999

[timwilky]

Had a total lockup of the rear causing the tyre to burst big style.

Never even though to do anything with the chain even though it stalled the engine.

WTF...???

Originally Posted by timwilky

Had a total lockup of the rear causing the tyre to burst big style.

Never even though to do anything with the chain even though it stalled the engine.

Jeez Tim, did you think of letting go of the rear brake before that happened?

To the op, Don't rear brake with clutch in, it will lock, the drive of the rear wheel stops or reduces this happening, same as a car, you don't /shouldnt slam the anchors with the clutch in, you only put that in just as you pull up to stop it stalling.

[ophic]

Originally Posted by Red Herring

If you're locking up the rear to get the drifting experience then you're a crash waiting to happen and I wouldn't be the slightest bit worried about any increased strain on your chain.... If you want to drift the rear into a corner properly you need to be hard on the front brakes and turning slightly so that the unloaded rear wants to overtake the front, then you control just how much it slides by either easing the front brake so that the rear grips a bit more (provided you're not racing and/or need to make the corner) or slipping the clutch to ease the amount of engine braking going to the rear wheel. I hardly ever touch the back brake when racing on tarmac.

To drift shouldn't the rear wheel be spinning? Or is this just Tokyo Drift?