Cadence braking - old habits die hard!

[napster]

On the way into work this morning along my usual route - braked for a left hand turn. Skidded and ABS kicked in which surprised me as I wasn't going any faster than normal. I don't normally skid. In fact it's only ever happened a handful of times in a year of ownership. I like to think I drive for the conditions. I've since checked the road and can see nothing spilt so put it down to not reading the road conditions right for the speed I was travelling (light drizzle, damp, etc). :oops:

Trouble is my previous car did not have ABS and I learnt to cadence brake with great effect (never locked up on the brakes even when skidding). I drove that car for eight years and it is proving very hard to 'unlearn' taking my foot off the brake pedal when the car starts to skid.

The Owner's Manual states: "For optimum braking, keep the brake pedal fully depressed throughout the braking process, despite the fact that the pedal is pulsating. Do not reduce the pressure on the pedal." That is proving difficult!

I still made this morning's turn okay but was not happy I'd taken my foot off the brake pedal - could have made matters worse.

Any ideas how to 'correct' this entrenched driving technique?

[Nathan]

i had the same thing with my old car, had it 3 years, i managed to shake the habbit of braking without abs., if this doesnt work tho, try to learn left foot breaking lol (as a last resort tho if you cant shake the habbit).

(be warned do not try this with any1 around and do it in a clear area as your left foot isnt used to applying gentle pressure and may take you a while to grasp). When you do tho you may be the next best touring car driver lol :cool:

I just thought of ABS everytime i used the brakes and that seemed to have worked.

hope this helped some what.

[ads_green]

Even though modern ABS's are getting better you can still "help it out" by threshold braking at the limit. Very few ABS systems have a pre-lock detection system and these don't have massive vibrations through the pedal.

The advice in the manual and emergency brake assist systems are there for the people who get surprised about ABS and panic by taking their foot completely off the pedal when it starts to vibrate. The EBA system once triggered keeps maximum braking even if pedal pressure is reduced slightly - you have to take your foot completely off (or nearly). With modern cars if you are unsure or not experienced it's generally the best option to keep your foot planted on the brake.

Cadence braking could confuse older ABS systems as you'ld be working against what the brakes are trying to do. In some cases this could trip the ABS warning light as the ECU would believe the ABS system had failed. Modern systems are not as susceptible to this.

[randomgary]

yea mate just shoot the brake like the pros say about abs. hit it hard and fast to activate the abs straight away and you shoud be able to steer the vehicle to some degree

[vxr c dave]

the quicker and harder you hit it the quicker it stops.bloody amazing on full stoppers,the back end kicks out quickly but soon pulls itself back in.scares a few passengers

[stevenandalex]

ABS is fab it allows you to forget about braking and give 100% concentration to the steering.

[mfurse]

was going to say - as above, I was taught how to do threshold braking on my VXR on a carlimits.com day. It reduced braking distance by 25% and I could still steer under braking - brilliant technique and recommend the course!