Thoughts on braking

(Luigi de Guzman) wrote in message
I had an interesting
AIM conversation with a friend fo mine from home:

"you mean you use your *front* brake?" he said, somewhat incredulous.
"I never use my front brake."

I explain all the usual things--quote sheldon brown and my own
experience, tell him to watch the beloki crash film again. but he
persists. "Besides, all of my riding has been trail-riding, and I
hardly ever use my front brake there."

interesting.

im a new mtn biker, i suppose. i built myself a zero dollar
singlespeed out of discarded parts from the shop i work at, and an old
'tunturi' frame (which i hear is a maker of exercise bikes

until now, i have been a road rider throguh and through. i ride mostly
fixed, and almost always without a rear brake. when with a rear brake,
i rarely use it, and even then mostly to give me something else to do
when im bored.

however, when i took up this new offroad hobby, i suddenly loved the
rear brake. i wouldnt go so far as to say i never use the front, but
it just doesnt seem appropraite a lot of the time. as fast as i am
going, on a rigid fork, with all the rocks and roots and mud, the
front seems to need all the traction and bounce it can get without me
trying to brake with it. ive skidded the front a few times, not an
experience i am used to for day to day road riding, and i do almost
all my speed modulation with the rear now. just seems like its cutting
it too close with the front.

then again, the few places ive been riding this beast around dont have
much in the way of straightaways, and the surface is loose. ymmv.

i guess my point is that even a person who is (hopefully) skilled in
the use of the front brake might see fit to lay on the rear for
offroad. then again, it might just be my inexperience. time will tell.

On 1 Aug 2003 20:48:22 -0700, ant wrote:
it just doesnt seem appropraite a lot of the time. as fast as i am
going, on a rigid fork, with all the rocks and roots and mud, the
front seems to need all the traction and bounce it can get without me
trying to brake with it. ive skidded the front a few times, not an
experience i am used to for day to day road riding, and i do almost
all my speed modulation with the rear now. just seems like its cutting
it too close with the front.

then again, the few places ive been riding this beast around dont have
much in the way of straightaways, and the surface is loose. ymmv.

I used to ride rigid in the same type of terrain. Give the
front brake a chance, spend some time on it. It's still more
useful, even in those conditions.

--
Rick Onanian

well, we're still loooking for the lab/computer machine to quantify
the misc. ramblings on braking.
BUT i begin noticing a trend that suggest alotta guys haven't
developed a two hand braking capacity with enough ottolith to sense
polar moment inertia from rear and front and then COORDINATE MAX BRAKE
AND MAX BALANCE with all due respect to gary nixon's broken bones the
discussion proceeds without a bottle to hold it in?
don't take this as an insult or that I have superior reflexs that's
absolutely untrue. ima ground sloth. on the other hand I can heal and
toe and slide and snap gears up and down but that's practice.
so to suggest the discussion(without the lab model to quantify)
revolves hehehe around an unexperienced sensation. and that gary nixon
et al may not be forthcoming for one reason or another.
????????????????????????????=T

On 2 Aug 2003 08:17:48 -0700, g.daniels wrote:
BUT i begin noticing a trend that suggest alotta guys haven't
developed a two hand braking capacity with enough ottolith to sense

What's ottolith?

polar moment inertia from rear and front and then COORDINATE MAX BRAKE
AND MAX BALANCE with all due respect to gary nixon's broken bones the

I suspect that many people have, in fact, developed the
abilities described above; but many of the front-brake-only
people choose that method for personal reasons.

For me, it was a habit I got into as a child after wearing
through too many rear tires; I had a bike for which I
couldn't find a new tire, and so needed to use the front
brake only.

Since then, I was out of biking for awhile, then got into
mountain biking a few years back, and found that I feel
more efficient using mostly the front brake, and some rear
(sometimes just one or the other).

On my road bike, I generally only need the front brake,
though I've used the rear out of reflex in panic stops.

discussion proceeds without a bottle to hold it in?

What does that mean? A bottle to hold the discussion?

absolutely untrue. ima ground sloth. on the other hand I can heal and
toe and slide and snap gears up and down but that's practice.

Sounds like you've been listening to too much Brooks & Dunn.
"Heel toe doe-see-doe come on baby let's go down"

so to suggest the discussion(without the lab model to quantify)
revolves hehehe around an unexperienced sensation. and that gary nixon

What?

????????????????????????????=T

My feelings exactly. I was only able to interpret parts of
your message; for better readability, you could use the Enter
key, and near-correct punctuation; and you could use easier
language to understand.

...."Caddilac blackjack baby meet me outback, we're gonna boogie"...

--
Rick "country bumpkin / grammar nazi" Onanian

What's ottolith?

He means "otolith".

Look it up, you're on the internet.

:-)

--

_______________________ALL AMIGA IN MY MIND_______________________
------------------"Buddy Holly, the Texas Elvis"------------------
in.edu__________

"Mike S." mikeshaw2@coxDOTnet wrote in message news:dfIWa.60541
You just hit the nail on the head. Once you get to the point where you
aren't too freaked out to use the front brake, you'll find that you can just
about use it to go down anything AND have more control doing it. Going down
steeps here in San Diego, I brake using the front, feathering it so that it
is almost but not quite locking. The rear is barely useful since all my
weight is forward.


'went for another short ride. as luck would have it, it seems that i
use the front more than i recalled. it was a natural reflex when i
actually had some serious stopping to do, and of course a standard
method for the straight and true bits. still a little hairy on the
rough downhills, thoguh, what with the rigid fork and roots and rocks
and all. i guess i remember using the rear more becuase this is the
first time ive ever really wanted it. and on some of those
aforementioned rocked, rooted, and rutted downhills, i really want it.
i suppose it is the same thing as when i am zipping down a sandy
descent on the fixie. front brake begins to get the wee-est bit iffy,
for once.

You do a lot less damage to the trails when you aren't skidding your wheels
around.

in my few offroad rides, (coutn 'em on my hands few) ive locked the
wheels only a handful of times. ill keep the trails nice for my kids,
'promise.

cheers

"g.daniels" wrote in message
m...
well, we're still loooking for the lab/computer machine to quantify
the misc. ramblings on braking.
BUT i begin noticing a trend that suggest alotta guys haven't
developed a two hand braking capacity with enough ottolith to sense
polar moment inertia from rear and front and then COORDINATE MAX BRAKE
AND MAX BALANCE

Hey g.daniels... even though you're relatively illiterate, I agree very much
with you on this one. How many people (on pedal-bikes) can maintain their
rolling stoppies? Or simply have a stoppie where the wheel is a centimeter
off the ground?

Motorcycles are a lot heavier, have a lot more inertia, and therefore are
probably easier to control in this respect.

--
Phil, Squid-in-Training