Rolla

If you've been using your right lever for the rear brake for as long as I have, switching to "moto" style can be a steep and painful learning curve! A lot of my friends have the front on the right, and whenever I take a spin on one of their bikes I'm always surprised at least once.

PeteHski

That's the stock setup for bikes in the UK. I'm not sure why it's different in most other countries.

_ForceD_

What this all really comes down to is that a cyclist should have sufficient knowledge and experience in how their front AND rear brakes work independently AND together in all situations. There are so many different situations that can occur while riding that could require different braking techniques…expected/planned/known, and unexpected. Sometimes modulating the brakes can be helpful, sometimes locking them up might be necessary. You need to know how the bike will react and handle in all situations.

Dan

79pmooney

Don't bring common sense into this thread. You will kill it fast (if people notice).

terrymorse 

Grabbing too much rear brake in an emergency situation is common, unless you have practiced emergency braking technique.

If you practice, grabbing the right amount of rear brake becomes second nature.

Russ Roth

I recently bled by MTB brakes, and swapped the pads from the front to back and vice-versa since the back were at about 30% remaining while the front was still at 80%. Riding the trails I only hit the front when I need to stop hard, but constantly scrub speed to maintain the flow of the trail. I ride a hardtail, not certain if a dual suspension would make a difference, but it means I stand a lot and move my weight back to let the front move, and give the rear the power they need. Even on steeper downhills, if I can see the line of travel I still only use the rear to scrub speed if I see it as necessary.
The road bike usually has the front worn out as I'm only grabbing the rear for hard stopping, I hardly ever scrub speed except on the bike path and otherwise just need to stop which the front does.
The gravel and cross bike tend to wear equally with the moves from dirt style riding to pavement.

Anyone who has ever ridden a bike through commuting, regular city or who just piles on the miles on the road has had a "genuine emergency stop," they're not that rare or special sadly enough. From my experience the moment I see it developing my weight moves straight back even as I'm grabbing handfuls of both brakes, if the rear starts to skid I either let go or use it to go sideways. Hurt like hell but I body slammed a car that pulled out in front of me by going with the skid, a skill learned as a kid seeing who could skid their BMX bikes the best, and it beat a head first crash into the car. But I've also let go of the rear just so I could regrab it.
Physics would alsosuggest you can't stop faster, assuming two people of the same weight, in the same position, on the exact same bikes, grabbing the front brake with the same amount of force, the person introducing the friction of the rear brake, either through controlled stop or skid, will be reducing their speed faster. It might not be a "significant" difference under most circumstances but any reduction in speed will reduce the force of the impact and the stopping distance in an emergency.

In my college days, when I was younger and dumber, I rode with a group and we would ride brakeless fixies, panic stopping meant popping up the rear wheel or hopping and landing into a skip. No weight on the wheel meant it could be stopped fast with just leg power.

79pmooney

Brakeless fix gears and stopping distance (and ramblings). I used to hang out at the bike shop of the fix gear guru of Portland, recognized both by the hip street crowd and at the velodrome. (I'd been riding fixed for years and I learned a lot from him.) Anyway, he acquired some heavy, treaded tires that looked like good bulletproof all-winter tires. Bought a pair. (Ultimately decided they were just too much work to ride but they lived up to all the rest.)

I went back to the shop to report on my impressions of the tires. Owner told me right up front he'd stopped carrying them and sent the rest back. Too much grip. The hip crowd were hurting themselves trying to initiate skids! (Scratches head. What a concept. Bikes where the reduced traction of skidding is the only way to aggressively stop and too much traction is such an issue you return the tire.)

And another fun observation - the fun of blasting past brakeless young riders going down steep hills with an intersection at the bottom as a 60+ on my winter/rain/city fix gear with its excellent brakes. Less fun: reading about the brakeless fixie rider in (I recall) Toronto who tail-ended a left turning car, planted himself in the hatchback window and didn't make it.

rydabent

Up till approx 1960 all we had except for racing bikes was the rear coaster brake. Many of us survived!!!!

terrymorse 

Most kid's bike were coaster brake-only, both before and long after 1960 (see the Sting-Ray).

Many non-racing grownup bikes had hand brakes, long before 1960.

79pmooney

We also did competitions to see who could stop the worst with full braking action. (Longest skid. Every town with a worthwhile hill had those skds proudly displayed at the bottom.)

tomato coupe

The most important question raised by this thread is still "What common physics word was censored?" I vow to bump this thread every day until we have an answer to that question.

SkinGriz

https://theradavist.com/the-coaster-...-were-a-freak/

Not for these people.

redshift1

Sorry tomato coupe .

Post #1, Line 4, middle. ( I had to single space the letters. )

tyrion

The word was ***********

tomato coupe

Wow, that's odd. There are so many legitimate uses of that word, but it gets censored.

veganbikes

What? There were spoon brakes (which I am not saying were good) back in the 1800s and you also had plenty of rod brakes pre-1960 as well as other brakes on bikes including various rim brakes (typically using cork pads on wooden rims and rubber on steel rims in early stuff) and drum brakes and other stuff. If you don't know about a topic it is OK to say I don't know let me check.

From 1920s: (40 years before the 1960s)


Also while technically late 60s and early 70s Shimano had Hydraulic brakes and also a disc brake which I think was mostly used on shopping bikes and kids bikes ironically and it used DOT fluid rather than the Mineral oil they are so known for these days.

I won't deny that coaster brakes were popular on some bikes and certainly Repack Rider and a whole group of other awesome folks made history with coaster brakes and a certain little hill in Marin County to the point we now have official mountain bikes. However saying they were the only brakes unless you were racing before 1960 is patently false and unneeded when the facts are out there and easily found. That picture from the 1920s took me all of the time it took to type early bicycle brakes and click a link.

Here is a few fun links about early bicycle brakes which not all of were for racing bikes or coaster brakes:
https://www.renehersecycles.com/the-...icycle-brakes/
History of bicycle brakes at Classic Cycle | Classic Cycle Bainbridge Island Kitsap County
https://onlinebicyclemuseum.co.uk/to...icycle-brakes/ (they have a ton of neat vintage bikes shown though probably most of them if not all are British bikes being a British website)