Emergency braking with the scooter

Hello everyone! At this point, an informative post about scooter riding, or more precisely: emergency braking with the scooter.

First of all: Yes! We fell on our faces.

What happened: We were driving on a relatively busy road from Krabi towards Ao Nang to have a nice day at the beach. But no luck! We were about 40 km/h when another scooter came from the left into our lane. We couldn't swerve because there were cars parked on the left and cars driving on the right... so we had to brake hard!

I must admit my (Sergey's) shame at this point. We have covered several thousand kilometers on scooters during our various vacations, over leaves, sand, potholes, wet roads, etc. and deep down I considered myself an "experienced" scooter rider. I always looked at bandaged tourists with pity, but with the certainty that something like that wouldn't happen to me... fail!

But the fact is: in all those years of riding scooters, we have never been in a situation where we had to make an emergency stop. So, zero experience.

But let's continue with the story: For emergency braking, I intuitively (like with a car: brake with everything you have) pulled both brakes (front and rear wheel) at the same time and kept the pressure. It took only a second and we fell sideways with the scooter... we then braked the rest of the way with our skin. Ouch.

The ambulance came quickly... first aid, hospital... blah blah blah - we are fine!!! 😊

But that incident bothered me... in order to live up to the responsibility towards my girlfriend, myself, and other road users, I then intensively studied the physical processes that occur on a scooter during emergency braking.

What I found out: With my above-described intuitive "braking routine", I was completely wrong and it is quite logical that we crashed.

Let me try to explain it (for dummies): With a scooter in general, but especially when two people are riding, the main weight is on the rear axle (~80% of the total weight with two people). This means that, under normal driving conditions, there is hardly any force transfer to the road via the front wheel. However, wheels that transfer little force are counterproductive for emergency braking, as they quickly lock (who the fuck is ABS?).

But that's exactly what I did, I braked the front wheel with full force and thus locked it. When our weight shifted to the front axle due to the braking effect, there was nothing else but a locked front wheel... goodbye cocoa 👋.

So, how do you do it right? When you have to make an emergency stop: Slam on the rear brake!! Shortly after, the weight shifts to the front axle and ONLY THEN can you control the front wheel brake!

A locked rear wheel or the rear end of the scooter skidding can be compensated quite well with good balance and moving your hips. Keep your eyes straight ahead on the horizon (not on the object you are emergency braking for).

Ok! Drive carefully, folks, and wear a helmet!!! A smashed head will ruin your hairstyle too...

Peace and Love, Mine & Sergey