Be one with your brakes

[gearjunky13]

I only posted this because no one else has posted hear yet, but any ways to make it a actual topic i find a good riding technique is a ballanced braking of the rear and front brake and the only reason i say this is i know people that eather use just the front or rear brake most of the time, now normaly this wouldent matter but if you dont get into a habbet of using both brakes together on a regular basis you might not be pron in a hevy braking situation to use both brakes when you realy need to stop fast. We all know the front brake gives you the most stopping power on good pavment and the rear will stop you with more stibility and control mostly proven on loose ground but together you can get the max braking out of your bike and maby save you from an acident. Now i have only ridden street for a fuw years but if off road riding teaches you anything its that proper braking can mean the difrence between a good day and a bad one, so a good thing to practis is hevy braking with both brakes together with out skidding the rear tire while mantaning a good stedy presher to the front brakes Like a car would. If you have ABS on your bike this will be alot more easy

[highoctane]

I dont know why someone would just use one or the other especialy on the street. I try to apply a little more pressure on the front brake but balance it out with the rear. interested to hear what others do.

[SpunkyTheTuna]

Not to be a grammar nazi, but here's some punctuation. Might want to use them to make your posts easier to read.

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You're welcome.

[gearjunky13]

Ya ya i wrote it on a ipad and im not one to use much grammer in my post any ways, but i will try to be better with it in the future

[Hoover]

I use a ton of rear brakes when I am riding hard. This bike is so light that when you are really pushing it, you can stomp on the back brake and break the rear end loose and power slide it through the corners on full throttle.

However, when the wife and I are off to the grocery store or the mall, front brake only, nice and gentle.

[gearjunky13]

Normaly Your fine to use ether one individually and i definetly can give respect to the power slide, but i think if you were a dirtbiker befor you got a bike on the street i would be willing to bet most would be pron to only use the rear brake in a hard stop, my theory is that when your off road you cant trust the front brakes as much as the rear in loose sand and graval because it will, if you use them to hard slide out from under you, and this is ware alot of novice off roaders kinda opt out of ever using the front brake, so when you start going oon road you got to learn to use both brakes.

[calscrazy]

i am a heavy front braker. i only use the rear if i enter a corner to hot and need to scrub speed mid way through. i will also use it in emergency situation.

[hypo]

I balance my braking fairly evenly and wish that I had some experience in the dirt. However my experience with cruisers is that the rear brake has less braking power, so its more of a balancer for the fronts. and by less braking power I mean it doesn't get good grip for a solid reliable braking. sure the wheel will stop moving, and then you start sliding which isn't always desireable.

[gearjunky13]

The thing about off road is you do the compleat opposit then on road, in dirt the rear brake is your go too brake and you fether the front brake, and on street you manly use front and fether the rear, but it still its all about the ballance of front and rear together depending on the serface your on. With the fz8 i would say 90% of you wont see off roading with this bike so its safe to assume that the gole for a hard stop for this bike is like 80-90% front and 10-20% rear brake on smooth dry pavement, but that changes with the conditions of the road, the shotest stop you can get is dependent on the road your on and your ability to not skid your tires but still mantane controle without letting off the brakes,

[Speedo007]

I use the rear brake more when I have a passenger as it reduces some weight transfer. I still use it all the time though, just less when I'm solo. I did avoid a deer last summer with heavy breaking both rear and front as hard as I could without losing it and agree with the importance of getting to know your brakes well cause when it happens, its all about conditioned reflexes. If you don't have the experience, the reflex will tell you to lock both wheels...and thats not good.