Originally Posted by
Andy_K
At the risk of committing heresy, let me quote from the
Holy Scriptures:
However, on re-reading I find that the author here is only arguing against the sufficiency of the rear brake alone and goes on to talk about weight distribution in a manner similar to what cyccommute said and mentions that tandems and recumbents don't have the same limitations related to rear wheel lift as other bikes.
Sheldon Brown's (and many others') interpretation is what is wrong. It's a trick of the math...look at the Bicycling Science reference...that when the braking force of the rear wheel goes to zero
and the rider is about to go into pitch over when you reach the maximum
possible deceleration that a bike can develop. It's not when the rear wheel is just about to lift. It's not when the rear wheel skids. Maximum deceleration occurs at that very instant before disaster. I don't know of too many people who are always stopping in a nose wheelie balanced at the point of no return.
In mountain biking, the maxim is that if your rear wheel is skidding, let up on the
front brake. This puts the rear wheel back in contact with the ground and prevents you from going over the bars. Of course, the rider would already be pushed back and down on the bike.