so I still have the habit of relying mainly on the rear brakes, but now I use front brakes too, especially during hard braking or very sharp turns.
Really? I wouldn't have thought they would be wanting to go anywhere near the rear brake when cornering that hard.
Which is why I am always messing about, braking hard, braking late, trying to lift the rear wheel when braking, skidding a little on purpose when it is wet and slippy. It is all good practice and gives you a feel for how a bike behaves. When it is time to perform that emergency stop for real then it is all ingrained second nature and you barely need to 'think'. The choice is simply 'Do I need to stop and how quickly can I stop?', all the rest just happens because you have done it a thousand times before. You will also be sure that your brakes work fully and your handlebars are not loose....I wish I could think quick enough to consider using the front 3x more than the rear in an emergency
When I had a small herd of chickens run across the road at the bottom of a hill, I just grabbed two handfuls and pulled as hard as I could! I pulled so hard my bars twisted down, even though the stem bolts were torqued correctly
Very good. I would hazard a guess this is used on a turbo or rollers?
Wow, Amazing. I hadn't heard of that but it just goes to prove that the riders that explore the limits will develop the best handling and control skills and techniques.
I've been cycling for 55 years, when I started riding we had steel rims and virtually no stopping power in even slightly damp conditions!Which is why I am always messing about, braking hard, braking late, trying to lift the rear wheel when braking, skidding a little on purpose when it is wet and slippy. It is all good practice and gives you a feel for how a bike behaves. When it is time to perform that emergency stop for real then it is all ingrained second nature and you barely need to 'think'. The choice is simply 'Do I need to stop and how quickly can I stop?', all the rest just happens because you have done it a thousand times before. You will also be sure that your brakes work fully and your handlebars are not loose....
The people that potter around, braking early and carefully well before they need to, always going slowly around corners and never exploring the limits of grip, handling and control will almost always be the ones that have the worst outcomes when faced with an emergency manoeuvre. The same applies to driving a car. If you have no idea when you are approaching the limits of grip, or how your car handles with a wheel locked up in a skid, or two wheels, then you cannot drive safely as you do not know if you are going to do something that the car cannot actually do (this is never more apparent than when it snows and people suddenly find themselves sliding off the road).
Yes, but you improve your chances.But I still argue that when you're doing 30mph+ on a completely empty road which is suddenly full of chickens, instinctively or otherwise, you grab a handful of brakes and squeeze...…. I didn't fall off and I didn't kill any chickens so I must've done something right
I'd have to go looking for the answer on t'internet but @Jody kindly did it for me, my knowledge of this technique goes back to an interview with Barry Sheene who used the back brake to tame the power under acceleration on the vicious 500/750 2 strokes, if you shut the throttle the bike slows too much whereas hitting the back brake keeps the engine 'on song' but brings the front end back down.
I don't think the bead can get hot enough to weaken. Tyres generally pop off under sustained braking because the air inside heats up, and therefore so does the pressure (Boyle's Law). If your tyre goes from 20 deg C to 100 deg C (which is plausible), that's a pressure increase of 27%* which could be enough to pop a tyre if it was close to the max when you pumped it up.
