Ahh, I like this. Trail braking is one of those things people will argue about like Ford VS Chevy, Helmans or Dukes, lol. My racing school instructor back in the day, said the super fast guys were either braking or accelerating, lol, not much coasting. Now, I trail brake pretty hard, with the front and occasionally with the rear brake. I will admit, I will back the rear tire in, sliding it a little to set up a corner, or sometimes because I'm trying to pass someone aggressively and brake super late, and the rear tire just has no weight on it, (sometimes the rear will be off the ground because I'm braking so hard). Most of the time, I trail brake with the front to about the "tip in" of the corner, but I'm sometimes also using the rear brake to help settle the bike and hunker it down a little. I will actually be on the rear brake, and accelerating at the same time....yeah, I know, doesn't sound like it makes any sense huh, lol. When you have a bike that's notorious for front fork dive, hit the back just before the front, and it will settle the bike down some, lower the center of gravity, and they usually won't dive so much.
Now, where I get some back talk is on using the rear brake to tighten up a corner. Yes, anytime you use brakes in a corner, the bike wants to stand up, but that also goes with just riding through a corner. If you quit leaning and counter steering, the bike will want to stand up. BUT, if you use the rear brake in a corner you're hot in, while pushing on the bars counter steering, the bike will slow down, and you can tighten up the corner. I do this sometimes when I'm trying to lay down some fast laps, and get in a little hot. I also bleed air into my rear brakes. If you go straight on my track bike, and stand on the rear brake, most of the time it will not lock up the tire unless you're braking with the front at the same time. It's just a little insurance to not lock up the rear tire while bent over in a corner. On the street, trail braking is/can be very beneficial. It's one of those things that you just have to get past the "built in" limitations in your brain of what you and the bike can do.
A couple things that I always remembered from my road race school was:
1--If you're not dragging hard parts or sliding the tires, you can go faster.
2--When you get to the turn-----turn. Don't stand the bike up and ride off the road/track.
We all have built in limitations on how fast we "think" we can go through a corner. Well, if you haven't crashed in that turn/corner at your current speed, how in the hell do you know you won't make it. It's just that you "think" you won't make it.
Some of you have watched some of my videos from track days, but on these, you can see a little of my right hand, and can see some of the front trail braking. It obviously varies on how far in the corner I trail brake, but I like to be accelerating as fast as possible.
In this one, after the close moment, you can see on some of the corners, especially turn 4 and 11, left hander's, where I'll trail in a little deeper.