Why you should NEVER use the rear brake!

A buddy of mine recently returned from a weekends Motorcycle control course.. think he did MC1 + MC3??

He came back with a huge grin and hasn't stopped talking about what he'd learnt.

Jumping a fully laden WING over concrete slabs.... with no hands,
emergency stops, centrifugal force, gyroscopic effect balancing, super counter steering, ultra slow speed control etc etc etc..

He then went on to tell me that from what he'd learnt, he will NEVER use his rear brake again....EVER.

When I asked him to explain, he couldn't. He just kept saying "you don't have to if you understand gyroscopes, but I cant remember why, it just works"

So, learned gentlemen/ladies, who can give me the answer... sounds like a loads of old Bollix to me?



I guess every World Champion in every branch of 2 wheeled motor sport, (except Speedway), is rushing to remove their back brakes after this revelation!!!

NOT!!!
 
They don't teach you to never use the back brake. That's rubbish.

They do teach you not to cover the back brake so that, if you find yourself panic braking, you don't stamp on the back brake and lock the wheel. Then you still have one rotating wheel which gives you a much better chance of staying on. (Which is a heavily simplified and shortened version of what they train).

Well worth doing. Good fun and you learn a lot (well I did).
 
I learned that from racing - much better to enter the corner without the locked back wheel fishtailing all over the place, so my right toe went on the footpeg, and there it stayed.

However, on the road, I cover my rear all the time... :eek:
 
oops forgot the new (old) mz

u turns , wet roads and off road thats all i use my back brake for

oop's forgot about my new purchase , different technique required as its only got sls drums and i'm 17st plus...both 100% at all times on the mz!!!!!!
 
oop's forgot about my new purchase , different technique required as its only got sls drums and i'm 17st plus...both 100% at all times on the mz!!!!!!

the old Honda CB250 drum brake is a straight fit on MZs - and it actually works.
i.e; slows the feckin thing down.

as for no rear brake use, the technical terms for that has been mentioned in previous posts. What was it called.....? :mmmm

ah - yes, now i remember;

Bollox! :D
 
They don't teach you to never use the back brake. That's rubbish.

They do teach you not to cover the back brake so that, if you find yourself panic braking, you don't stamp on the back brake and lock the wheel. Then you still have one rotating wheel which gives you a much better chance of staying on. (Which is a heavily simplified and shortened version of what they train).

Well worth doing. Good fun and you learn a lot (well I did).

+1

P
 
the old Honda CB250 drum brake is a straight fit on MZs - and it actually works.
i.e; slows the feckin thing down.

Not quite a "straight fit" but close - you have to swap over the fork legs as the torque arm for the Honda brake is on the opposite side to the original MZ one and ISTR that you have to mess about with spacers. CB72 TLS front drum works as well. Mine's laced into the OE MZ alloy rim and with AM4 green linings it's overbraked if anything. :eek:
 
As a penniless yoof I spent a lot of time riding an early CG125. The front brake wasn't connected to the brake light. I quickly learned to use the back brake at all times. :D
 
A buddy of mine recently returned from a weekends Motorcycle control course.. think he did MC1 + MC3??

He came back with a huge grin and hasn't stopped talking about what he'd learnt.

Jumping a fully laden WING over concrete slabs.... with no hands,
emergency stops, centrifugal force, gyroscopic effect balancing, super counter steering, ultra slow speed control etc etc etc..

He then went on to tell me that from what he'd learnt, he will NEVER use his rear brake again....EVER.

When I asked him to explain, he couldn't. He just kept saying "you don't have to if you understand gyroscopes, but I cant remember why, it just works"

So, learned gentlemen/ladies, who can give me the answer... sounds like a loads of old Bollix to me?


I think you have the answer in one.
Never say never.
At basic level trainees are told (and sometimes taught!) to avoid using the front brake when banked over or turning, because of the perils of washing out the front - a lowside.
Compare and contrast with the level of expertise in MotoGP - any name your care to use - where it appears that significant braking is carried out on the initial turn approach, eased off at the turn in, and sometimes a dab on the back to keep th rear tucked in/slipped out whatever. Or, using the Wide Bike on the approach, dabbing the back to get it to step out and scare the following riders.
And as noted above using the front on the dirt can be an a problem!
 
Not quite a "straight fit" but close - you have to swap over the fork legs as the torque arm for the Honda brake is on the opposite side to the original MZ one and ISTR that you have to mess about with spacers. CB72 TLS front drum works as well. Mine's laced into the OE MZ alloy rim and with AM4 green linings it's overbraked if anything. :eek:

All i had to do on mine was turn the forks around and fit a spacer (i think, off the donor Honda) - the difference was stunning :thumb2
................
ANYhow,
rear brake is one tool of many tools.
Just a matter of picking which tool for the job. :)
 
There must be some relevance to the fact that the front brakes are fookin mahoosive compared to the'weedy' looking rear brake on many 'sport bikes'.

I would conclude that the front brake takes most of the speed off and the rear is there for some purpose.


To say never use the rear is a load of nonsense.
 
All i had to do on mine was turn the forks around and fit a spacer (i think, off the donor Honda) - the difference was stunning :thumb2
................
ANYhow,
rear brake is one tool of many tools.
Just a matter of picking which tool for the job. :)

ISTR swapping the fork legs over, everything else was donated by the honda CB250K4 donor, much better.
Stewart
 
When manouvering slowly in tight spaces, you should only use the throttle, clutch and rear brake

Use what you want that suits you, no such thing as "must do this and mustn't do that".

Be adaptable, don't ride to a set of rigid rules.
 
And people pay good money to learn this type of crap.

I did one of their courses a couple of weeks ago (highly recommended by the way) and they categorically don't teach this.

They do teach that in most circumstances your back brake is of little use compared to the front and, when under hard front braking, the rear tyre is in such light contact with the ground that hard rear braking risks locking it up and putting you in an awkward (!) situation.

They specifically teach skills that allows you to assess your situation as you go and also, in a similar vein to Keith Code's survival reaction stuff, that the things you are often most likely to do instinctively in a panic situation are generally the things that you don't want to do. They emphasise the innate stability of a motorbike in motion (gyroscope wheels etc) in theory and practical exercise and point by point build your skills to work on new ways to control your machine. By showing you point by point how stable the bike is and how unstable it becomes with your panic reactions you, hopefully learn that the ways they show you to overcome this are worth implementing in your riding.

We were told that if we didn't understand anything fully we should keep asking questions until we did, and were always given ample opportunity to discuss everything we did with the instructors.

The OP didn't do the course and it seems that the person who did obviously wasn't thinking that much about what was said. Despite 25 years of riding, advanced courses and much reading, I learned things that I apply daily now and I'm looking forward to going and doing more of their courses. I think their teaching is very well structured and paced.

Just because you teach something doesn't mean everyone will learn :augie

J.
 


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