While it's true the majority of braking force is managed by the front brake, if you use only the front brake the pads will wear much faster. I prefer a balance of both brakes, problem is if you are used to using just the front it might be hard to relearn how to use both effectively. Where the rear brake is most useful is in slippery conditions, if I am going to lose traction I want the rear to go first or at the same time as the front. If the front goes out from under you, that's when you get wicked face plant action, broken wrists, road rash, etc. Typically if the back goes you can just lay the bike down. It helps to think of the bike as a lever, when you apply the front brake only, the lever wants to open up, ( back wheel loses traction), but applying the rear brake causes the lever to close (front wheel is forced down). Jan's article is fun, but it focuses on panic stopping in a straight line & from high speed & how often do you do that!? Ideally or sadly hardly ever. Best way to learn good braking technique IMHO is riding off road, mountain biking or even better, Cyclecross.
Oh, yeah! and there's the wicked skids! -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
