And that comes from practicing good threshold combination braking in a regular basis. Once a month for 15 mins is all you need.

 

I started riding in the '60s when brakes were far less efficient. I did subscibe to the "laydown" theory thru the '70s with choppers w/no front brakes. With those early machines and drum brakes the best you could do is lock up the rear and laydown. In '80 I got a Yam RD400 with discs front/rear. I discovered nose wheelies and high G stopping power. Not only did I learn to stop fast, but also how to make a hard turn and brake at the same time. Rode it for 10 yrs and ingrained that knowledge til it was instinct.
When I built my present Evo chopper I was very careful in my brake choices, early WG dual disc front/ single Wilwood rear.
The combination of very controllable braking and the automatic reactions trained in, I was able to avoid a Tbone with a left turningteen. I was able to both slow and execute my own left turn, just catching the rear of the car with my leg. There was no lockup front or rear and I moved a whole lane to the left before contact. With no signal from the car on the 2 lane country road I had no chance to just stop.
The chop ain't no racer, but the same procedure applied. Better to not run into cars at all!

 

Paniolo, those are very thought out, well ridden reponses with some great information. Thanks to others for their input. There was alot of good information here.

 

Yep I think thats the one.

 

Paniolo, are you the "Motorman"? If so I got one of your CD's and its great.

 

I have had my fair share of panic stops over the years. My back brake has locked up on probably every one of them. I never gave it any thought abouthigh siding off the bike, until I started reading about it on this forum. I have always automatically eased up enough on the pedal to gain control and then reapply the brakes as hard as I can. I was never trained to brake to the limit and momentarily ease up, it is just instinct I guess. It is not much different then stopping a car without ABS.

The problem a lot of riders have is they don't initially apply both brakes, hard enough, in a panic stop. The same is true with people driving cars. For some reason people don't fully commit the brakes, for the first second or more when they are involved in a panic stop. Then there are the people that once they do fully commit, white knuckle it and stay on the brakes until they are flipped off the bike.
Tom

 

No.
That would be Jerry Palladino of Florida. I know Jerryand he lets me teach his established course out here on the west coast.

Mark

 

gas it

 

This is what the MSF course teaches, not to let off of a locked rear brake, and they have an exercise in the course that requires student riders to ride the locked brake. That's fine if the bike continues to travel in a straight line, but often (especially on the Harley) the rear end begins to step out. Continuing to ride with the rear wheel locked will likely result in a low side crash. I instinctively let off the brake as soon as I feel the rear stepping out of line. Yeah, there's a risk of high-siding, but I have done it many times without incident. As some have mentioned previously, it is important to catch it early. I re-apply the brake after the bike straightens up.

Consider this: if your rear wheel is locked and sliding due to hitting a patch of slick stuff, and the rear end gets sideways on you, what will happen when you get past the slick spot and hit dry pavement? If your rear end is still kicked out and your tire grabs, you might just get a high-side even if you are on the brake the whole time. I think if you are letting the tire roll you have a better chance of saving it.

 

Nine out of ten times, if you have to brake hard enough to lock something up it means *you* screwed up. Nine out of ten times (actually, it's more like 99 out of 100). There are times when hard braking is required (can't think of any just now). A deer jumps out in front of you, you say? And how fast were you going? Did the deer get parachuted in from some foreign location? Or were there deer there all the time, and it was getting dark out? You need to know what might get you, and adjust your ride accordingly - even if you can't see anything at the moment. If you're not sure, then you slow down until you are.

And it's a good idea to practice braking hard using your front brake. Done properly, it is difficult to lock up a HD front brake. And it's impossible to loop the bike over the front wheel - ain't going to happen.

Having said all that - I just locked up my rear brake two days ago, and nearly dumped the bike. Why? Came flying into a parking lot, and was just starting to turn toward the group I was meeting when a curb jumped right into my path, and made me lock up the back. Scared the crap out of me. [sm=bangbang.gif] Actually, it was in shadows, I was looking where I wanted to go, not where I was going, and I was going too fast. In other words, I screwed up. And I got lucky.