Stay off that rear break, it will hurt you one day!

Let us know what your buddy finds on your bike, hope its nothing major!

 

whys that?

 

sometimes whenthe rear wheel regains traction after being locked up, can high side your arss.

This is a topic that can cause a great deal ofdebate and arguments. Most for the rear break like to say how some of the pros use the rear break to corner and slide the bike, my answer is i am not a pro and most of us are not as well, so for now I will leave the rearbreak a lone besides the front brake does 99.9% of your stopping anyway.

The rear brake on my track bike does not even have atank on it, just a tube with air and fluid.

It all boils down to preference, just be careful!

 

See, I'm a big fan of the rear brake but I do agree be very careful not to hammer it because if you do lock the tire up Notstock is 100% once it looses traction once it regains it if your bike isn't perfectly in a straight line it will high side you. Not exactly a fun way to go down, especially from simply using your brake. I don't use it for the whole sliding the bike type thing I'm very far from even being mistaken for a pro lol so I don't use it for any of that nonsense I just like to use it for small corrections in turns as using the front brake when your handle bars aren't straight isn't recommended almost dropped my bike from that a few times. I try to use both brakes at the same time with coming to stops cars are 70/30 front to back on brake ratio bikes are probably even more so on the front dare I say 90-10 or 80-20 atleast that's what it feels like. Considering the big weight change and suspension change that doesn't seem to far off. So you can easily go without ever using the back brake I suppose I know plenty of people who do it and are just fine with it. I consider it good habit to always do both though (Had an accident were I locked the front and went flying over the bars and the bike flipped behind me so due to that I'm a bit bias lol.. guess that's all it comes down to.

 

I love my rear brake....I love hammering it and making it fishtail I think it is so fun. A few of my supermotard friends say I should ride a supermotard since I love my rear brakes so much, good excuse to try it at least right? Let's put it this way I have changed my rear brakes 3 times in 20,000 miles, my original OEM front brakes still look good.

I am not encouraging the use of rear brakes with this post. I just think its funny that I prefer my rear brake. I have my MSF instructor to blame he made the class get use to fish tailing but I ended up really enjoying it instead of just taking a lesson from it .

And I have seen 2 guys go down at the drag strip from using there front brake just this season. But I have been trying to use both brakes more often lately just because I have been told over, over to use the front and rear evenly.

 

to each there own...but personally, i do not use the rear break except sitting at a light...or if I want fishtail on purpose...

 

SKG, you should try practicing with the front brakes also like you practiced with the rear. Everyone needs to be able to master the front brakes IMO. The harder you brake, the less effective the rear brake is. I used to lift the rear wheel going into a turn on the brakes while racing. I even pushed the rearpads apart. I think the rearpads are the original ones the bike came with in 85. Don't get me wrong; the rear brake can be used to steer a bike and in case of emergency. I have had to lock-up my rear brakes to avoid hitting a car and get the bike sideways to go around a car that pulled out in front of me and then stopped. If I didn't use the rear brake, I would have T-boned the car Head On! Also the rear brake useis good when riding in the rain or on a wet track. So practice with the rear can also come in handy; one day.

 

to each his own i guess but its justa simple fact that if you use both brakes your bike is going to stop quicker. the only time you can high side using the rear brake is if you actually lock it up which should not happen if you are using it properly. but if you DO lock it up DONT let off unitl your stopped or your bikes gonna send you flying!!!

 

I guess learning the rear brake isn't important, but when someone pulls out in front of you, those extra 2 feet can save you.

I was "lucky" I guess in that when I bought my bike my front went out quickly, while I waited for pads I used a lot more the rear brake (since it was more powerful), this also gave me time to learn blipping the throttle on downshifts, didn't have to worry about the front brake.

Now this gives me time to bring up an opinion of mine which is very important I think. LEARN TO DOWNSHIFT PROPERLY.A lot of people, especiallyafter they gun it, ride out that gear until they slow down enough to pull in the clutch and stop, then find first gear or neutral. If you learn to downshift and blip the throttle as you brake it's much safer than when someone pulls out or wants to cut into your part of the lane. If your in 5th gear doing 30 and braking when someone cuts over into you, you won't have enough power to scoot by quickly, and sometimes braking doesn't matter, there won't be enough stopping distance or time. This has saved me several times from being t-boned and cut into, you just zip around the situation.

 

You think you use it alot? Mine was worn so badly that I burned through the ceramic material and into the plate about a mm deep! Then again I should have paid more attention to that