The control of front and back brakes have to be second nature,
Every stop! Together- control, seperate- no control.

 

You may have dumped right side because you pumped hard on the rear brake. Upset your center of gravity, and down you went. People due tend to work the rear brake out on a hog. I did it at first too on my SG..... very easy to drag rubber with FLH models. Too easy almost.

What I would recommend is to head to the parking lot, and practice panic stops. I start out at 10- 15 miles an hour, pick a point, and WHAM! Get your rig stopped as quickly as possible. Learn to use that front brake. It is more powerful, and will actually stop you quicker. Then move up to 20-25 miles an hour... Make sure you have plenty of room. Keep practicing that. Keep trying to do from a faster speed. I even get my girlfriend to come with me for "parking lot" work sometimes... usually costs me Starbucks or Lunch, but keeps us both safe and teaches us a lot.

Everybody goes down now and then. You were geared up, and that was cool. But hang in there, practice, and treat everyone as a squirrel.

One other thing you might think about is an EZ brake. I am a size 14, and I had to lift my whole foot to cover the stock brake pedal. I tended to drag rubber a lot more before the EZ brake. With the EZbrake, I can lift my toe, and am MUCH more smooth and controlled.

But I still practice that stuff, because every time I ride, someone does something stupid. Just a couple of Saturdays ago, a guy tried to pass me on a double yellow, oncoming car forces him to cut me off, I end up skidding around on a muddy shoulder... I was not hurt, but decided to stop and have a smoke. Dude that ran me off the road comes back and tells me that he "just wanted to get a look at my ride". I told him I thought it looked really hot all muddy... Dude had no idea that he could have killed me or tweaked my bike!

 

Have you taken an MSF class? They teach you the proper technique for a panic stop. Doesn't matter how long you've ridden, you can learn something from the class.

 

Ahh, accident reconstruction.....thoughts of coefficient of friction and drag factors racing through my head

 

I'm not sure, but you may want to ask HD about anti lock up
I don't think HD is using it yet. Maybe others know.
But a lot of metric and europeans are using it.
Helps prevent a wheel lock up on clean dry pavement
I've noticed also on my 98 fltri and 01 flhtci and flhrpi that in a panic stop
(real or practice) the bike does tend to lean right, and rear wheel to skid left.
If rear wheel locks and starts skidding you tend to lose steering control of the bike.
But why did it. Don't know.

 

i have done the same thing w/o going down, i think the hd rear brake is much more sensitive to pressure than other bikes

 

In the short time I've had my 07 Ultra I've found that the rear break is REAL easy to lock up! Too easy in my opinion.

 

ffb,
Glad you're ok! DAWG, I know what you mean. Ditto Abnmarine.I retired after 26 years of that. ffb, Take it from me, having taughta state motorcycle academy for seven years and trainning riders for 14 what happened to you is not uncommon. REAR BRAKE ONLY LOCK-UP! When you apply rear brake onlythe rear of the bikebecomes unloaded due to weight shiftand momentum sothe footprint of the tire becomes razor thin. The slightest difference in how the bike is weighted left to right will cause it to go in that direction. Unfortunately the bike we're riding aren't like our sting-ray bikes of old where bodyweight could compensate for the rear tire wanting to swap ends.

Like mentioned before, the practice of proper braking should be never ending. I ALWAYS practice 3-4 stops EVERYTIME I jump on the bike. 80% of your braking is front brake, 20% rear brake. Unless you're committed deep into a turn, your heaviest pressure should be front brake with light to medium pressure to the rear brake. Again, I'm glad you ok and I applaud you for trying to find the reason for and learning from a mistake.

Take care,

 

+1 on the above suggestion... I would be willing to bet - you take a full MSF course and come back here and tell us what you learned. I really do not care how long a person has ridden, Everyone should take one of these. a person who says, I have been riding for 30 years may be saying "one year to learn bad habits and 29 years to perfect those bad habits??

Point being, take the course, you will be surprise all you will learn and better understand. Let us know

Glad your OK


Did a search of your posted town and zip code and came up with these

http://www.msf-usa.org/





FLORIDA M/C TRAINING OF NORTH DADE, INC.
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MIAMI
33142
MIAMI-DADE
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(305) 633-3444

Motorcycle Training Institute Inc.
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MIAMI
33167
MIAMI-DADE
ClickHere
(877) 308-7246

Motorcycle Training Institute Inc.
View
MIAMI
33176
MIAMI-DADE
ClickHere
(877) 308-7246

 

HD's have larger rear brakes than most bikes. It is very easy to stab the pedal and lock the rear. My vote is for a locked rear brake as with most of the respondants. I use the front almost exclusively because it is much easier to modulate brake pressure with your hand than your foot. It also helps to have braided hoses as they give you even better 'feel'. On much lighter sport bikes, under heavy braking, there is virtually no weight on the rear to provide any stopping assistance. I think it would be interesting to study just how much mass is still on the rear tire of, say an EG, under hard decel. I'm sure it still gets pretty light...