Lets say you are doing 60+ on highway in 6th and you need to take a turn to a side road (20mph in 2nd gear). What would be your actions to slow down (in details please)?

I would:
1. Let off the gas.
2. Put 4 fingers on the brake and start braking to 20mph.
3. At the end of braking, before releasing the brake, pull the clutch and shift 4 gears down.
4. Release brakes, rev engine a bit to match the speed and release the clutch.
5. Take the turn.

I feel like this is not the best technique, especially would be on a track. On videos I see that they brake and downshift at the same time. How it's done and does it give advantage?

 

You should be able to downshift while braking. Apply your brake and decelerate. As you are slowing down, just pull in the cluth and downshift to the appropriate gear. You will have to be more comfortable on the bike to know what gear to downshift to, so when you let our the clutch, you are not engine braking too much.

 

This is typically what I do as well. Ill ease on the fronts (I only use my back break in case of a sudden stop), and start downshifting.

I also let the engine brake some as well if I have some open road. If Im getting off an exit ramp and there are not a lot of cars taking up room, ill just go into 5th, then 4th, 3rd, then 2nd. I dont usually pop it into 1st until Ive started on the front brake a bit.

 

So you mean that you don't go in order 6-5-4-3-2, but skip some gears? It makes sence, because if I start downshifting and releasing clutch in every gear, it's hard to keep up with braking.

 

Yeah, just hold the clutch in and downshift to the gear you want. You don't have to engage each gear in between.

 

What about reving the engine in process?

 

definately rev match like it sounds you are already doing. if you need to you can also rev match while remaining on the front brake. it may be a little tricky at first but it allows you to extend your braking period. keep a couple fingers on the front brake and use the middle of your throttle hand to "blip" the throttle. finish your shift, off the brake and make your turn.

here is an article from sportrider - downshifting and braking

p.s. i personally like to keep the engine engaged as much as possible. so i personally wouldnt hold the clutch in and skip multiple gears, like 6-2. I may go from like 3-1 at most. just personal preference.

 

I don't think I read anyone blipping to rev match? I also read a few people skipping gears...

To brake - I use two fingers on the front.
Throttle I use the palm or the edge of thumb and palm. This means you can brake and blip at the same time... two fingers is all the F4 needs to stand on it's nose.


I don't skip gears unless I'm emergancy braking and then I don't shift...

To slow down normally:
- EASE off throttle - clutch - blip - shift - off clutch - repeat

To slow down more quickly:
- ease off throttle, onto both brakes, clutch, blip with my right thumb (maintaining front brake), off clutch - repeat

To slow down quickly
- off throttle, hard on the front brake and reduce rear brake as it balances, clutch, good blip to keep the revs up, and repeat the shift downs as quickly as you can to keep the revs high... the engine will keep the rear tire spinning nicely instead of getting lock happy.

when I'm slowing down hard you'll hear it... both engine and front brake.

 

ONLY do that when slowly cruising around, say your doing 4,000 RPMs in 6th gear

if your actually riding semi-fast, you should downshift into each gear. NEVER downshift more than one gear at a time on the track! It makes false neutrals more likely and if you downshift say 3 gears at a time you might not even know between which gears it caught the false neutral. It also eliminates the feel you have for what gear you should be in going into a particular corner. Also, if your at any significant RPMs when you begin downshifting, you can VERY easily wind up in too low of a gear for the speed your travelling causing the rear wheel to skip and possibly lock up. Downshifting each gear while braking allows you to slow down and do your shifting progressively so that for each downshift you get to the right speed for that new gear and when you get to the turn in point, your at the right gear and right speed for the corner

for track technique only:
brake and blip technique takes some practice and requires confortable gloves to do it properly
I've seen a lot of people have trouble with this. Many notice that when they do the blip, it causes their fingers to pull tighter on the brake lever so the front end does a quick dive. That usually means your weren't using enough brake pressure in the first place and you could be braking later and harder.

 

Great advice woody, from my experience if you arent very talented at blipping dont do it. Before I got the hang of it I kept chirpingmy back tire. Blipping takes lots of practice, learn to blip w/o braking, then introduce them together. And I dunno about anyonen else, but i never use more than 2 fingers on the brake, street = 1 finger / track = 2. three fingers on the clutch b/c of my barnett springs and im no popeye. But again, I'd say get blipping down before u start braking and blipping