I'm. It sure of all the technical details, but the instructor of my MSC stated that nine braking was acceptable and he preached using it to slow dwn when approaching turns.

 

The laws are against unmuffled compression release brakes used on diesel engines. That is an entirely different thing than simply closing the throttle with the engine in gear. In fact, there is no gasoline engine in the history of gasoline engines that has EVER been fitted with this type of brake. None. Zip. Zero. Zilch.

If your "friend" got a ticket for this, the officer had the law wrong and it would have been trivial for a lawyer to overturn. More likely your "friend" had an exhaust that was too loud regardless of engine braking and got popped for that instead. That's assuming the incident even happened at all.

 

Girls. GIRLS!!!

'Very entertaining thread!

Ok, engine brakers to one side, brake brakers to the other.

Time outs for the trouble makers; now in your respective corners you go

Ah hahahahaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!

[sorry, my contribution is earlier in this thread, now I'm just having some fun]

=8^)

 

No I don't agree with you! You have written a lot in this thread, much of which is just plain wrong - or nonsense as I chose to say. But others have dealt with the matter.

 

Just let this thread die already

 

It dont work that way. You say much of which is wrong or nonsense, then leave it at that. You need to make a point to prove a point. You just cant say Im right, your wrong, then use 350 more words to say the same exact thing I said. LMFAO at your simple minded attempt to maybe prove a point, with no counter evidence, then say the same thing I did.

Effing hilarious!!

 

Rode with many old school Harley boys (1940's-1960's), and when coming to a stop, pulled in the clutch, released the throttle, and dropped gears, while matching their speed, all the while lightly applying both brakes. Easier on the clutch, and avoids the annoying popping exhaust sounds. Just the opposite of the jap crap riders.

 

The laws are against unmuffled- wrong kiddo. NC has no noise restriction on motorcycles. The way the local ordinance is written is engine braking is not legal, no matter the noise level. Local ordinances can be a real bitch sometimes. But hey man, if you are going to say the laws, as in all the engine braking laws in the USA are the same, do yourself a favor and quote each and every law. Dont generalize them from information you learned from wikipedia.

 

It's your bike, do as you want, engine braking or not is not that big of a deal for casual riding.

But, a few things to think about:

- Engine braking is good to keep your brakes cool going down hills

- Engine braking should be thought of as using your rear brake only because it only slows from the rear, powered, tire. It has the same disadvantages, for example it will cause you to wipe out easier than the front brake since weight transfers forward instead of backward in hard braking, especially an issue when cornering.

- Engine braking wears out your rear tire the same as only using your rear brake and not the front, the tire wear benefit is more when you use both tires to stop instead of just one.

- Engine braking together with brakes does not help you stop faster. The traction break point (skid point) can be met on both tires with or without engine braking by using brakes alone unless your rear brake is extremely weak. So logically the fastest way to brake is to focus on using only your brakes which gives you complete control of how much pressure on front to rear braking.

- The comment about what the MSF course teaches said to brake while downshifting. They forgot to mention that they also teach you to pull in the clutch. That is by far the preferred way to stop, using the brakes only to stop and downshift so you can take off again quickly if needed. The argument that you can take off quicker after engine braking is silly since everyone who rides should be familiar with the basic skill of shifting down when slowing.

- One final point that you can take how you want: changing the brake pads on the sportster is relatively easy. Doing transmission work on modern sportsters is a huge pain in the *** and a huge project.


Basically, in my opinion, engine braking when casually riding to slow in a straight line is not harmful. But don't get confused, engine braking has no place in being able to quickly and safely stop your motorcycle and all emergency braking practice should be done with clutch in and making it automatic to downshift (with the clutch in) and brake all at once.

 

Not saying it didn't happen but it sounds like the officer who wrote the ticket is a fool or the courts don't know what the intent of the law was in your area. Engine braking laws were created for and are universally assumed to be applied to "jake brakes" on diesel trucks.