Quote:
Originally Posted by Bob KellyIII
You had to have lived it to appreciate the reasoning I guess....
having dozens of front end slide outs on the dirt and face plants I found that leaving that front brake alone was the best option on dirt or street
I almost had a front end slide out on my 305 many decades ago when riding in heavy rain.... i was using both brakes because I came into the corner way too fast and the front went to the lee ward side about one foot and then stuck
and man that definitely woke me up from then on I've been leary of using the front brake !
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I suppose that's
one solution. What if Michael Jordan gave up after missing only dozen baskets when he started? Or Abraham Lincoln after losing only dozen elections? He actually faced constant defeats and setbacks his entire life… and never gave up. Don't worry that you crashed, it’s about getting up and
mastering the process.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bob KellyIII
but I have always known that a bike can stop 2 times faster than a car if both brakes are used and are used properly so I've kept with the practice of using the front brake on occasion....
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Maybe 1950s car... Depends upon specific car and bike you compare. Modern ordinary VW Golf with ABS can actually out-brake Ferrari F-40 supercar of couple decades ago. And beat most bikes too.
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Doesn't matter how fast cars can brake anyway. What really matters is how fast you can stop when car pulls out of driveway or turns left in front of you. These represents most of motorcycle crashes on roads. And in vast majority of these cases, a single skidmark is shown sliding right into crash. IF rider had used mostly front-brake and less rear-brake, they would’ve been able to stop in time before collision.
Here’s comparative study of front/rear/both braking with and without ABS:
https://msf-usa.org/downloads/imsc20...ance-Paper.pdf
Summary of biggest heaviest bike 2004 Yamaha FJR1300 from 80mph:
rear-only:
160.28m w/ABS=152.76m
front-only:
74.41m w/ABS=84.14m
both:
67.46m w/ABS=79.21m
You can see that rear-only stops bike only 40% as good as both and require 2.5x as much distance. That’s easily difference between going through car that just pulled out in front of you vs. stopping before collision.
Where ABS really comes in handy are emergency situations like these. You don’t have time to properly modulate front-brakes at limit
and steer around obstacles... in the rain. Honda’s come up with great solution, linked brakes where rear pedal activates both front and rear brakes simultaneously.
2002 Honda VFR800 from 80mph:
rear-only:
111.46m w/abs=85.59m
front-only: 82.12m w/abs=
77.86m
both: 71.84m w/abs=
70.67m
Notice that rear-only braking doesn’t require double distance like on other bikes due to linked braking system. Along with ABS, it gets maximum braking power under all conditions. The linked-brake & ABS system will vary front vs. rear balance depending upon deceleration-rate with more and more pressure going to front as braking forces increase. Similar to proportioning valve in autos. So it can modulate both front & rear brakes at limit of adhesion better than any human. Having experienced this system in rain when grabbing both brakes coming around corner and find deer in road, I'd
always get ABS on bikes whenever possible, even if it's not as good as on VFR.
Link to original page on YouTube.
To get maximum performance out of brakes, you want to do this:
