Quote:
Originally Posted by rusninja
wouldnt locking front throw me over
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When we say "locking up" we mean that the front wheel has stopped rotating but the ground beneath it is still moving... so a skid. When you make your front wheel skid you have very little time to get off the brakes before the bike goes down. This is different to a rear wheel lock up where you'll frequently find stories on this forum of people locking up the rear wheel and skidding all the way to a stop without dropping the bike: probably with the rear end fish tailing side to side all the way. At our basic level of ability I think it's reasonable to say that you should try and avoid locking up both the front and the rear wheel if you can avoid it, but the front is definitely the worse one to lock up.
To avoid locking up the front this general tips should help:
* Never brake really hard while turning. Straighten up the bike first if you want to brake really hard.
* Don't brake if you are cornering hard (lots of lean).
* When you want to brake hard, slowly and smoothly apply the front brake and continue tightening the lever until you feel the conditions wont allow any more braking or until you feel the front wheel slip (at which point you want to get off the front brake). Doing this slowly and smoothly means that the tyre can gradually get a larger contact patch on the road (as the weight squishes it into the ground) thus giving you more grip and thus allowing even harder braking. Also smoothly and slowly applying the front brake progressively harder means that the front suspension doesn't all of a sudden compress over loading the front wheel and causing all the weight of the bike onto a small area of grip on the tyre.
* like Chris said: practice in a safe environment.
* if you know this stuff completely ignore the talkative squirrel
* also: avoiding hitting squirrels in the road... even if it means you have to sacrifice yourself and your love ones to save them... or spend eternity in squirrel hell
