FRONT BRAKES?

[MotoWolfUK]

Some great advice in this thread.
I was scared as hecc to use my front brake for the first few weeks(because all the vids of people flipping) but one day… I learn my that the front brake really does need to be used. I went from 90% back brake, 10% front if needed at end to now doing 60% back brake, 40% front if that makes sense.

Don’t be afraid to use the front brakes, just use them slowly.

 

[L. Bilious]

Google "motogp bike braking before a corner" and tell me how many pictures of bikes have their back wheel in contact with the floor.
Then look for bike crash videos on you tube and tell me how many bikes go into the back of cars with their back wheel locked and no front brake on.

Progressive braking with the front- give the suspension time to load and the tyre time to grip (literally a fraction of a second) and you can stand the bike on it's nose, even in the wet.

The back brake does come in useful for low speed control and hill starts.

 

[MotoWolfUK]

Google "motogp bike braking before a corner" and tell me how many pictures of bikes have their back wheel in contact with the floor.
Then look for bike crash videos on you tube and tell me how many bikes go into the back of cars with their back wheel locked and no front brake on.

Progressive braking with the front- give the suspension time to load and the tyre time to grip (literally a fraction of a second) and you can stand the bike on it's nose, even in the wet.

The back brake does come in useful for low speed control and hill starts.

Yeah I’ve had my back wheel lock up on me and that’s when I learnt to use the front brake better

 

[Hippo-Drones]

Even in the wet, you should always be using more front brake than back brake. I rarely use my back brake at all on my GSX-R

 

[CalmBiker]

Aye, as @humes said, it needs 70:30 ratio front to rear in the dry, 60:40 in the wet.

For regular braking, ie not in an emergency, just use one or two fingers on the lever, you'll be a lot more gentle in how much you use. For an emergency you will be surprised how much pressure you can put on the leaver to haul up.

Is this on your pit bike? That will tip forward, so be careful, and practice. If on the dirt, the front is still the most important, you will get a feel for how much grip you have.

Wait. You're supposed to use the rear brake? :-D

 

[CalmBiker]

I only use the rear when coming to the final stop and I'm off the front brake and putting my foot down, or for stability at very low speed. If braking hard it's 100% front for me. Let the rear keep spinning for stability if it lifts because when the weight comes off the rear it will lock up easily. It takes a heck of a lot of force to flip the bike and a big snatch of front brake to lock up the front.

If you are that worried about it I wouldn't give any tips for how to get better above getting some training. Just trying things in a car park won't give you improvements anywhere near as fast as training and could lead to you dropping your pride and joy. It will completely change your use of the brakes and your confidence doing something like the i2i courses.

 

[lonerockz]

How many of us don't have ABS on our bikes? It's pretty much mandated on almost everything new these days. ABS works pretty well and will deal with any front brake lockups most people encounter.

I do have a bad habit of using only two fingers on the front brake. It was picked up when I was learning to ride dirt bikes. Hard to lock the front with only the force of two fingers, and dirt bikes don't have ABS. I never lock, but I can't stop as fast as if I used my whole hand.

 

[Hippo-Drones]

How many of us don't have ABS on our bikes? It's pretty much mandated on almost everything new these days. ABS works pretty well and will deal with any front brake lockups most people encounter.

I do have a bad habit of using only two fingers on the front brake. It was picked up when I was learning to ride dirt bikes. Hard to lock the front with only the force of two fingers, and dirt bikes don't have ABS. I never lock, but I can't stop as fast as if I used my whole hand.

4 out of my 5 bikes don't have ABS, but only one of them is new

 

[CalmBiker]

I only use the rear when coming to the final stop and I'm off the front brake and putting my foot down, or for stability at very low speed. If braking hard it's 100% front for me. Let the rear keep spinning for stability if it lifts because when the weight comes off the rear it will lock up easily. It takes a heck of a lot of force to flip the bike and a big snatch of front brake to lock up the front.

If you are that worried about it I wouldn't give any tips for how to get better above getting some training. Just trying things in a car park won't give you improvements anywhere near as fast as training and could lead to you dropping your pride and joy. It will completely change your use of the brakes and your confidence doing something like the i2i courses.

I've had one bike with ABS but don't have one at the moment. I think practice is still essential to be able to get the full power of the front brake without initiating ABS but I know a lot of people think differently.

The two-finger comment's interesting. I would have thought that this was a good habit, rather than a bad one. I find I have a lot more fine control over the brake with two fingers over four, and it leaves two fingers for controlling the throttle. I can still lift the rear wheel easily with just two fingers.