Front or Rear Brake?
DylanM
Posts: 26
It may seem a strange question, but in your opinion if you could only have one brake, either front or rear for general road riding, which would you choose?
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It may seem a strange question, but in your opinion if you could only have one brake, either front or rear for general road riding, which would you choose?
front brake, left lever.
You can the just jam your left foot in between the seat tube and the back wheel as a back brake.0 -
front without a shadow of doubt.
Technically illegal as you have to have 2 working brakes in the UK I believe.0 -
You should be able to stop the bike completely with the front brake. The rear brake can be very useful though, both for supplementing the front brake and for rear wheel control.0
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Front brake does 60-70% of the work, rear brake really to keep the back wheel in line. Back brake more useful offroad to go a bit sideways into corners!Make mine an Italian, with Campagnolo on the side..0
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Unless you're riding fixed, of course.front without a shadow of doubt.
Technically illegal as you have to have 2 working brakes in the UK I believe.
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I haven't read the letter of the law, but something tells me that it probably doesn't say '...unless it has a fixed gear'.0
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Try stopping the bike quickly with each one on its own, then you'll have your answer.It may seem a strange question, but in your opinion if you could only have one brake, either front or rear for general road riding, which would you choose?Is the gorilla tired yet?0 -
Fixed counts as a working back brake in the eyes of the law.
Unless you're riding fixed, of course.front without a shadow of doubt.
Technically illegal as you have to have 2 working brakes in the UK I believe.0 -
Front. When you brake, your weight starts to load the front wheel considerably. This means the front wheel has a lot more pressure on the ground, is being 'forced' round by the momentum and therefore is much harder to lock up. Your rear wheel has less weight on it and is much easier to lock up, then you fish tail and crash and break bones and lie on the cold floor crying and bleeding and... anyways, the same applies in corners on a normal surface. I once heard it said that in a corner your front brake straightens you up, the rear brake locks up, I know what I prefer!
N.B. I've explained this terribly but my science is sound; someone can probably do a better job of it.I'm on Twitter! Follow @olake92 for updates on my racing, my team's performance and some generic tweets.0 -
It may seem a strange question, but in your opinion if you could only have one brake, either front or rear for general road riding, which would you choose?
It certainly is a strange question. I can not think of a single rational reason to ask it.0 -
I think for anyone that's ridden a motor bike it's always going to be the front. Whenever I see questions like this I'm reminded of something Foggy said years ago - 'There's a back brake?'
Good enough for WSB World Champion, good enough for me, the physics is the same, just not the velocity.0 -
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Good old Sheldon Brown. I knew someone would be able to articulate it more eloquently than me!I'm on Twitter! Follow @olake92 for updates on my racing, my team's performance and some generic tweets.0 -
Me and my mates like to ride as fast as we can, jam on the rear brake and see who can pull the biggest skid.
So rear brake for me0 -
It depends on the weather0
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Me and my mates like to ride as fast as we can, jam on the rear brake and see who can pull the biggest skid.
So rear brake for me
ha, we used to do this as kids but without using the brakes, just throw the back end out and you could do a "broady".0 -
Front brake, for all the reasons above.
If I had just a rear brake, I'm sure I'd leave many more skid marks :shock:0 -
[url=http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19722955#p19722955]Simon Masterson[/url] wrote:I haven't read the letter of the law, but something tells me that it probably doesn't say '...unless it has a fixed gear'.
It actually does (or words to that effect)- UK legislation 1983 No. 1176 "ROAD TRAFFIC The Pedal Cycles (Construction and use) Regulations 1983, regulation 7.(1)(b)(ii)
There are a couple of exceptions, such as bikes under a certain size (i.e. toddler's bikes), bikes with pedals fitted to the wheel axles (think Penny Farthing and very early bikes) or temporary international visitors and their machines as long as it complies with the Geneva Road Traffic conventions.
Regulation 10 states it is an offence to ride or permit to be ridden a machine where the braking systems are not in good working order.
All of that was surprisingly easy to find on Gov.UK from the online Highway Code- the legislation is also very simple because after all, bicycles are simple machines.
And now we know...
(Front brake for me as well due to the physics of braking on single track vehicles.0 -
anyways, the same applies in corners on a normal surface. I once heard it said that in a corner your front brake straightens you up, the rear brake locks up, I know what I prefer!
I was always under the impression it was a bad idea to brake whilst cornering, especially front braking because it could cause the front wheel slide out underneath you.0 -
I was always under the impression it was a bad idea to brake whilst cornering, especially front braking because it could cause the front wheel slide out underneath you.
Of course braking heavily mid corner is inadvisable, but sometimes it's unavoidable. In such a situation, the above-mentioned weight 'redistribution' still applies, so front braking is less like to result in a locked up wheel. As you slow, you'll want to stand the bike up anyway; if you don't stand the bike up, you'll slide out.
When you look at motogp and fast motor cycling in general, a good practice is trail braking, which means you continue to brake as you lean over, gradually coming off the brake until you're at the steepest lean on the apex, where you're most likely to lock up/skid/crash. It means you have the fastest possible cornering speed because you don't scrub off excess speed too early, plus some other things to do with weight, stability and bla bla (sorry if you already know about trail braking). I can't be the only one who employs something similar to this in cycling.I'm on Twitter! Follow @olake92 for updates on my racing, my team's performance and some generic tweets.0 -
I can only use one arm so either I adapt both brakes to work off one lever like I have done on my mountain bike, or I just stick to the one brake, or I don't ride a road bike which would be a shame. The simplest thing is to just use the front brake and be careful!It may seem a strange question, but in your opinion if you could only have one brake, either front or rear for general road riding, which would you choose?
It certainly is a strange question. I can not think of a single rational reason to ask it.0 -
I can only use one arm so either I adapt both brakes to work off one lever like I have done on my mountain bike, or I just stick to the one brake, or I don't ride a road bike which would be a shame. The simplest thing is to just use the front brake and be careful!It may seem a strange question, but in your opinion if you could only have one brake, either front or rear for general road riding, which would you choose?
It certainly is a strange question. I can not think of a single rational reason to ask it.
I should have used a bit of lateral thinking,that never occurred to me.Sorry mate I thought you were some sort of nutter.0 -
How do you know he isn't that too?I should have used a bit of lateral thinking,that never occurred to me.Sorry mate I thought you were some sort of nutter.
Given the situation I would have the bike set up so you can use the front brake. Have the rear brake fitted so the bike is legal, it's just that you don't use it.
Out of curiosity how do you have the brakes set up on the MTB? Does it pull both brakes equally? If you eventually do the same on the road bike I would set it up so the majority of braking is on the front.0 -
I'm sure if you look around, someone might be selling coaster brakes for road bikes(?) That way you could back pedal to engage the rear brake. Although probably better suited to a town bike than hammering around on the road.0
