Another thing you really need to be careful with when Trail braking is, letting off the brakes smoothly, as you add more lean. If you let off in an erratic fashion, you will cause that front suspension to unload too quickly causing the loss of traction.
Actually Nick is an advocate of learning trail braking even for novice riders on the street and track. He believes this strongly. All his R6 student bikes have the brake light working so they can see it being used. I have heard him profess this in person at the IMS show and in his YCRS class (I was fortunate enough to observe last year). He is a "you can do it!!" kind of guy; he does not believe in assuming people cant learn an advanced technique from the start. The argument being more skills = more safety on street or track. I have also observed a very diverse level of skilled riders in attendance, from budding racers to first time track day riders. Rider to coach ratio was about 5 to 1 and there is a LOT of class time I his course. I hope to one day take his course. Will I be trail-braking? Probably not. Maybe if I had learned this skill when I was younger things would be different.
There are not enough O’s in “smooooooooth” to describe how you have to be when trail braking. I stole that line from Col. Potter, he was talking whisky but it fits trail braking. I noticed that a few guys posted that they want to try trail braking this year. I was in your shoes this time last year saying the same thing. I borrowed a GoPro in 2011 and mounted it on my tank where you could see the gauges and when I watched the vid and saw how much coasting I was doing it made me gasp. So I decided I was going try to learn how in 2012. I bought my first sport bike in 2009 and I can tell you I had no business even thinking about braking at lean for the first couple of years and didn't on the street or the track. I believe it is a more advanced skill. But, I can see both points of view on the issue. I think there are some that could learn how quickly but I think most new riders would grab a handful in a panic and be on their ear. I would have been. At the IMS in Feb’ 2012 in Chicago I saw Nick, Ken and Scott do their presentation on trail braking and it was eye opening. Nick said, “you do it every day in your car or truck. At every corner you trail brake and every stop sign or light you brake hard at first and then trail off to a smooth stop. If you can do it in a car, you can do it on your bike with proper training.” After that I read every article I could find on trail braking and bugged everyone that I knew that was doing it for info and advice. Last March I took the JDSA at Barber and I remember Jason DiSalvo saying “if you’re not on the throttle or the brakes, then you’re not really controlling your bike.” It made sense to me. By the way, I recommend the JDSA. I started out slowly and worked on trail braking at the track and on the street all year. It takes time and patience but you can learn to do it. I’m still learning and there are many things to consider such as loading the front tire but if I can do it, then you can too.
I haven't been on two wheels for very long, but I've been doing this very thing since I got my first car at age 16. Good to hear a pro say the technique can be transitioned across platforms. Obviously there's a lot more room for error with 4 wheels providing traction instead of two. On a side-note, big thanks for everyone chiming in with their own personal experiences and words to make us all much more knowledgeable and safer on the track and the street.