Front or Rear?

mog812

been riding on and off for a few months now...
and was thinking... when you are flying along, on a downward slope, and are in need of applying the brakes...
you use more front, or rear, or about the same for both ?
I know from my time being off road, it was mostly front brake, because of the back wheel bouncing all over the place, but naturally both wheels are in contact with the ground while riding on the road...
and no doubt I have probably just answered my own question...
so opinions/thoughts would be nice too

many thanks.

Mog.

ThatBikeGuy

More front than rear, i have made the mistake on a few occasions of applying too much rear brake and nearly losing the back wheel around corners. Best method is to try some downhills and see how you get on and learn the limits of the brakes and tires before you start losing grip.

sungod

this covers many aspects of descending, including braking technique...

http://www.flammerouge.je/content/3_fac ... escend.htm

simon_masterson

I never use the rear brake and consider it to be a backup for the front brake. Thankfully it is seldom that I can't use my front brake.

As ever, Sheldon Brown's advice on the subject is good. I would link to it but I'm sat at the station using my phone.

Gizmodo

Simon Masterson wrote:

I never use the rear brake and consider it to be a backup for the front brake. Thankfully it is seldom that I can't use my front brake.

As ever, Sheldon Brown's advice on the subject is good. I would link to it but I'm sat at the station using my phone.

Here it is http://sheldonbrown.com/brakturn.html

When I was a lad (no I didn't have a penny farthing) we were always told rear brake first, front just afterwards, to stop you from going over the handle bars. This thinking now seems to have changed but it takes a lot of re-learning.

Bobbinogs

Here is the Sheldon link.

I must admit that I grew up cycling and always used the rear brake first so it took a while to break that habit and use the front instead. Definitely seems to work better though.

Bobbinogs

Blimey, almost an exact carbon copy of the post above. I must type faster

snoopsmydogg

that's a habit i need to break. I used to always use the front brake then rear on my motorbike until a near miss when I needed to scrub speed mid corner thanks to a car coming the opposite way using half of my lane cutting the corner.

Ever since I went back to using both but with more pressure on the back brake as it seems to help with stability and the front is left for direction.

mog812

thank you all...
more front, less rear...

nickel

Both but more front than rear, I try to shift my wait around put more wait over the back wheel when Im breaking hard to prevent it locking up.

Bozman

Due to riding motorbikes i always use the front in the dry and never touch the rear, if it's wet or damp i'll use more rear brake to stop the front locking and folding.

plowmar

As with Bozman, but I've never rid a motor bike, always front I don't think I've ever used rear. I'm keeping them as spares.

As well as a lot of useless things I was always taught to always brake in a straight line, wet or dry. Is this wrong?

MattyyP

I balance them both... Always more front than rear though! Nothing like balancing it on the fine line of nearly having the bike wheel in the air!!

keef66

Most of the time on a dry road the front alone is enough. In the wet I use both but still more front than rear. Any emergency braking and I throw my @rse off the back of the seat and heave on both until something locks up.

nickellis

It depends for me. On a straight decent with A good clear field of vision I use the rear to regulate my speed along with weight shifting.

I found I went through a pair of front brakes in three months because I was always hard on the front and not using the rears.

MattyyP

keef66 wrote:

Any emergency braking and I throw my @rse off the back of the seat and heave on both until something locks up.

Nothing better than doing this!