Bike Forums

So there's a bazillion out there. You can go with general ones, club ones, bike specific ones, location specific ones. Whatever you choose.

My experience of them is they're good for factual, technical stuff but above and beyond that they're not worth my time and effort.

Why's this? Because the majority of them are chock-a-block full of wankers. Boy racers who talk about how fast they can go, how they're so renegade and practising vigilantes, how they evaded the police, rah rah rah.

They're quick to turn on you, make harsh uncalled for comments and blatantly flout the rules because they know the owners or you'd be a "whinger" to complain. Sure - most people are cool and some are fantastic but there'll always be one. He won't be far away with his vicious snipey comment making you feel very small.

Maybe I'm the problem, maybe I complain too much, maybe I ask stupid questions or maybe whatever. Regardless of whose fault it is, at the end of the day I have to put up with it so I'd just rather not go there.

Quite frankly, I can find my friends elsewhere and I've been burned too many times to open myself up to a bunch of strangers so I'll be attempting to keep my posts on forums straight down the line.

Front brake vs. Back brake

I know the old adage about front vs. back braking and I've seen that your front brake will stop you horrendously faster than your back brake but as a general rule I don't find a fast brake required. I therefore feel comfortable relying more heavily on my back back.

Scenario: Cars slowing in front of me. I use my back brake, touch my front brake minutely and change down a gear. Problem solved.

I've always been a bit militant about my back brake and using it more than my front brake. It feels more controlled.

Yesterday, however, I was forced to perform 2 emergency stops and locked it up both times.

Scenario: Cars putting along at 50kph, large gap ahead of me and suddenly traffic stops. I'm not expecting traffic to stop where it did and am completely caught by surprise. Emergency brake. Lock up the back wheel and keep careering towards the back of the car, release the back brake and take a firmer hold of the front, reapply the back brake and lock it up again. Stop with an inch to spare. Traffic moves on straight away and I'm forced to let out a deep breath and go again or be run over.

Traffic heads off fast and I'm all shaky from the fright. Traffic stops suddenly again and although I've got plenty of room this time (and paying attention) I still lock up my back brake.

So why did I lock it up? Getting so used to using my back brake, in an emergency, I go straight for the back brake. But because I'm also pulling in my front brake more and therefore displacing all the weight of the bike onto the front wheel then a harder than normal back brake results in a locked up back wheel because there's no weight there.

Solution - retraining myself to use my front brake more.

My mood - annoyed that I have to relearn something that I've purposely taught myself not to rely on. There's nothing wrong with using my back brake as I have, except that when push comes to shove in an emergency situation, a locked up back wheel doesn't help to slow you much at all.