what do I do when My wheel locks up?

[Adam Harmon]

What do I do when my wheel locks up?

I just got back from a bike ride and when I was going down a hill a car in front of me started to slow down. This was no unusual thing because many people in my naborhood get lost. Then I started to break but my back wheel started to lock up. I had enough time to slow down a lot but not enough. I then went strait into the back of a pick up that right next to it because there was no where else to go. Luckily I did not get hurt other then a scrap. And also the person who owned the pick up was not mad
at me. But so I am wondering if you have any advice on how to stop a lock up or if I should be having them all together because I have been having them a lot.

Thanks

Adam

[sidewinder]

It sounds as if you may be using the rear brake too heavily. The front brake should provide most of your stopping power.

Once you lock up the rear wheel, you've actually lost traction and decreased your braking ability.

[DieselDan]

Use the rear brake to slow down, use the front brake to stop.

[Dutchy]

Having a rear brake lock isn't that bad, but be quick to release the pressure to stop it skidding. I have always been told that the front brake provides most of the stopping power. However a front lock up will be painful. I tend to use both brakes equally in emergency stop situations, pretty much maximum pressure on both levers. If you are using a lot of front brake it will unload the back wheel, causing it to lock easy. Just be aware brake locks can happen and be quick to release the brakes slightly. Alternately, read the traffic and try to predict what is going to happen, this will be of more use than good braking technique.

CHEERS.

Mark

[Chris L]

Concur with what Dutchy said, did it myself descending around a tight corner in the wet last Saturday night. The key is to react quickly to the locking of the brake, having said that, I try not to get into situations where I need to brake heavily. If I'm riding in an area where I'm likely to need to stop quickly (such as Surfers Paradise and it's daily parade of morons), I slow down a little.

[MichaelW]

Emergency braking on a downhill can be difficult. Im always alert for randomly stopping cars, so I keep my distance. If a car is slowing I often ride very wide, then I have some run-off from an over-taking manouvre.
My only rear-end collision into a car happened when I was at a stop light turing from red to green. I went; the car didn't.

[abc]

I don't even know why I have a rear brake on my bike, it just adds extra weight. When stopping (regardless of it's an emergency or not) I just hit the fronts hard making the back wheel lift up off the ground. :)

But, perhaps your rear brake is adjusted too tight? As someone mentioned, since the front wheel does the majority (80%?) of the braking, the rear wheel only needs a fraction of the brake pressure that the front wheel needs.

[greywolf]

(such as Surfers Paradise and it's daily parade of morons), I slow down a little.
Bloody gereatric surfers again :eek: :eek:

[catatonic]

I use the front brake almost exclusively.

Only time I do use the rear is if I'm on a long downhill where I ahve to regulare my speed, and my front brake is starting to make funny smells :), or when I'm screwing around in the company parking lot, pulling brodies and such (the company doesn't care...we are relocating in a few months and only 6 of us in a 200 car parking lot).

Basically, it takes time to learn to use the front properly, but once you do, you can do some seriously short stops and not worry bout going over the handlebars. Best tip is to never ride standing up, always be in your saddle so your weight is more on the back wheel than the front. This is especially crucial if you have a bike with any kind of suspension, since the front end WILL dip increasingly with how hard you brake.

I found once you get the front brake on for a second, you can really crank down on it and not have it lock up. At least that's how my bike behaves, your mileage may vary. Just practice in a parking lot and some low-traffic declines and such.

[Pat]

Well, as many other have said, the front brake provides most of the stopping power. When you slow down on a bike, your weight is transferred forward, that is why the rear wheel skids easily because it becomes unweighted. If you really clamp down on the brakes, you can flip over the front wheel. But that is pretty rare and I have never seen anyone do it. So use both brakes and your ability to stop should improve.

[townandcountry]

I found out that shifting my weight to the rear, almost hanging off the back of the seat, helps on downhills and braking. Good points about using the front more and rear brake less. I had lots of practice with this technique last Saturday.

[AndrewP]

Steering away from an emergency is more effective than braking. Learn emergency counter-steering in an empty parking lot.

[catatonic]

Keep the rear brake. It will be of great use if your front fails for whatever reason. The rear is also good for slick conditions, like rain where your rims could be slippery and thus have less effective braking...then just use your rear as well and you'll get shorter stops.

Bonus..my rear brake pads are so clean I could prolly use them as an emergency replacement for my front pads :)

[tie]

Just found this thread. I'm used to braking about equally front and back when going downhill. Braking just with the front feels slightly wrong, especially with my new bike with front suspension. With my beat-up old bike, I never had any problems in the same situations. But with my new bike, I'm finding the rear wheel skids and jumps about ten feet to one side or the other. This is with only slight pressure to slow down (not stop) and not even going very fast (on a residential street). I've always been able to stay in control by releasing the rear brake then reapplying it (when the wheel might jump again).

From this thread, it seems I should rely on the front brake more. I'll do that, and also try to keep more weight on the back wheel. Perhaps -- well, definitely -- the new brakes are more sensitive than those on my old bike. But I was still only braking to maintain speed, at a rate which I feel confident my old bike could have handled. Any comments? This just happened three times in a row (jump, jump, jump) and I am slightly freaked out.

[catatonic]

I have a front suspension as well, what you do is predict the stop, and get your front pads warmed up a bit, then when you tighten down, you don't get a more progressive stop, which reduces your chance of going over the handlebars. It wears out the front pad a bit faster, but I haven't seen any significant wear from doing that.

The key to not endoing on a front brake stop is to have no jerkiness in your deceleration. If you just slam the breaks what ahppens is you move forward and the bike slows down...so what you ahve to do is put just enough force to not have that happen. Takes some getting used to, but it's not near as bad as many think it is.

[abc]

you'll endo if you hit that front break too hard. duh.

Nah, they aren't powerful enough to do that :p

Unless going downhill of course.

[madpogue]

you'll endo if you hit that front break too hard. duh.
Nah, they aren't powerful enough to do that :p

Unless going downhill of course. Get on the drops on a road bike, and pedal up to about 40 kph on level ground. With your body still forward, grab the front brake, and only the front, as hard as you can. Report back to us the results. Extra credit: try it on a curve.

[catatonic]

If your brakes grip that hard at "sidewalk speed" (prolly about 7mph), you need to get brake levers with lower mechanical advantage, since the ones you have are gripping way too hard. If you did a caliper to cantilever conversion and didnt get new levers, that is why your having that kind of braking problem. Caliper brakes aren't as powerful per unit of force as a cantilever brake, so you need levers that make up for that....on cantilever brakes, their mechanical advantage is very high, so high you need LESS efficient levers otherwise you can lock your front wheel up easily at incredibly slow speeds.

as far as my brakes...I can only seem to endo on a downhill, and only if i get really vigorous on my brakes...just "slamming" them is the best way to endo...it's all aobut modulation...

Just remeber "It ain't the size of the brake...it's the motion of the ocean" :D

[froze]

I agree with ABC on this. I think you have the rear brake adjusted to have the same "feel" as the front-too tight; you need to loosen the adjustment so that it takes more pressure to get it to lock. The problem with panic stops is that...it's a panic stop! Your first reaction is to lock down on the brakes fast, and thus the rear wheel will lock. But by getting the calipers further from rim contact this will help prevent most of that. It's one thing to talk about what to do and it's another to it when a emergency comes up, most people cannot do what they have been told. Unless you practice everyday on the bike emergency techniques till they become 2nd nature, your not going to do well either; and loosening the brake aids you in that.

Also if you have the time to think about it, you can slide your butt rearward off the saddle thus putting more weight over the rear tire; this will increase the braking capablity of the rear which in turn will allow you to stop way shorter than just staying seated. But again, this is a technique that needs to be practiced everyday.

By the way, sometimes the LBS or even the home wrench will tighten the fronts too tight as well, so then you have a panic stop and hello, your bike is pitching forward and you land on your nose. So sometimes you may have to adjust those looser too-but not as loose as the rear.

[Dannihilator]

Ok. if you see an area that would give you a safe area for an avasive move steer the bike in that direction, as soon as you have the nose pointed in that direction let off the brake.

[tie]

I've been whizzing down some hills, and what seems to work well is putting strong pressure on the back pedal when not pedalling. On turns, back and inside is slightly more effective, but it doesn't really matter. No skids.

[catatonic]

reason that works well Tie, is that in doing so, you usually shifted your weight back slightly.

The ideal downhill body position is BEHIND the saddle, and preferably slightly lower as well. This ensures a lower center of gravity as well as moving the load the front wheel will see further out...reducing a chance of a flip.

Really stabiluity is more body positioning than anything else. Bike geometry has little to do with it...all a bike geometry will do as far as stability is make the proper position more comfortable or sustinable at certain speeds or distances.