which brake do you use?

[huh]

I've heard that you should only use the rear when going through a curve,
it seems to work well enough. is there a particular reason for this?

using the front brake results in fork dive which upsets the chassie. not good for cornering. so can the rear but not as severe. braking through a corner is called trail braking and takes practices to be safe but if done correctly can make you much faster.

also the most important thing is contact patch and weight transfer. you have a much smaller contact area with your front tire. in dirt bike racing you want to load the front end going into the corner to dig the front tire in to the dirt.
but much different for street riding. due to the limited contact are of the front and loads imposed on it during cornering. so on the street you want to load the rear tire a little with the throttle and take the stress of the smaller contact area off the front tire.

so using the front brake will load the front tire and may over stress the tires means of griping the road!!!

[Gilfy650a]

Ok, cool. thanks for all the feedback.

Now i know, and knowing is half the battle....

[keysman]

I think the MSF course tells you to apply both brakes equally when coming to a stop. This is what I do. If you're following the MSF rules your also not on the brakes during a corner. The mantra is Slow, Look, Lean and Roll. This is how you are supposed to handle a corner. 1. Slow the bike before entering the corner. 2. Look through the corner, if your at an intersection that may mean turning your head up to 90 degrees from the direction of travel. 3. Lean into the corner will pushing / pulling on the bars. 4. Roll on the throttle as you are midway or exiting the corner.

If you get on the brakes had during a corner, the bike will straighten up and when that happens in a corner your going to end up in a bad place, usually in a lane of traffic going the wrong way or worse against a guard rail or over a cliff. If you make a boo boo and enter the corner too fast the rear brake can scrub off some speed with out upsetting the suspension of the bike like a number of other people have pointed out already.

[chickenhawk]

Both always, but sometimes in a fast-braking situation I lock up the rear- OOPS!

[CentralOzzy]

In good conditions....I just can't imagine using only one brake, that would be weird.

As you may know, Harley's need all the Help that they can get in that department....

[grussem]

Use both brakes all the time. If you only use one or the other most of the time, you'll fail to use them both when you really need to. We are creatures of habit and it's best to have good safe habits all the time, so when you need to rely on your instincts, you react accordingly.

[Randy]

For the normal everyday driving around in traffic, I use both. I found out through trial and error that breaking with the rear brake when going to fast in corners was the way to go.

When hitting corners, I always try to go into it with the engine revving low, that way if I have to drop a gear, I can bleed off speed, and if I wanna give it the juice, I can rocket through it. It seems to be working so far.

[sv-wolf]

I just use engine/gears and front brake most of the time - my v-twin has amazing engine and gear braking, so I often don't need any brakes at all. I occasionally use the back in corners and both at slow speeds or in emergency stops. At very slow speeds in traffic I use the back and clutch. That's always worked for me so far. No. Once I locked up the back on a panic stop - but that's all.

[iwannadie]

does engine braking wear out the clutch/trans faster? is there a wrong way to engine brake that will hurt them?

my bro used to engine brake alot in his car, he was always replacing the trans in it as well. not sure if engine braking was the cause or something else. but makes me think about doing it alot.

ive had people tell me here in AZ that the heat combined with the engine heat will kill the trans fast. also people say why use the engine to brake when replacing brake pads is alot cheaper than any trans/engine repair and maintenance.

[earwig]

You are supposed to use both breaks at the same time, ALL of the time, no exceptions. Getting into the habbit of using both breaks will ensure you are comfortable to use both when you really NEED to. The front break gives you about 70 percent of the stopping power, and the back 30 percent. Any motorcycle manual, or MSF manual or rider coach will tel you the same thing. I hope this helps.

When I learned to ride, I was told that you use the front brake to stop, and the back brake only to assist in hard stops. Now, I was helping a buddy get his permit the other day, and I read that the front brake should only be used for emergencies. Personally, I like the physics of stopping with a front brake ( not to mention I've a pair of disc brakes on the front ). What method is generally more accepted?