You guys are overestimating the rear brake's effectiveness hugely.
The balance is more like 90% Front, 10% rear for sporty motormacycles.
Most other road going motormacycles would be in the 80% Front, 20% rear ratio.
The most important thing to remember is that as you brake harder at the front, there is less and less weight on the rear wheel. As your front suspension compresses it un-weights the rear making the rear brake less and less effective the harder you apply the front brakes. You have to practice modulating brake pressure front and rear, as the most effective emergency stops use both brakes initially and then more front and less rear, until the bias is 100% front and no rear.
Make sure you at least think about how you would cope with heavy braking mid-corner. Stand the bike up, then brake. Leaned over your tyres have already used up a considerable amount of their traction budget and heavy braking while cranked over will cause an almost inevitable lowside.
I've participated in some very fun braking demos and it always amuses me how sick people look when you stop from 50 km/hr with the front brake only in a very short space, and just how friggin long it stops to take on the rear alone.
Cruisers because of their weight distribution and low centre of mass would be in the 60% front, 40% rear range.
As everyone else has said, practice, practice, practice.
I still get caught out though. Especially if I exceed my maximum tasks per second limit.
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Originally Posted by Kittyhawk
was pretty worn when i picked it up from red baron?? but i ssumed they wouldnt sell me a bike with a badly worn disc.. will get it checked out just in case!
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