Originally Posted by pesty

That's kinda bizarre and scary. I'm curious as to what happened. Aside from what [MENTION=191655]rydabent[/MENTION] said, I suppose if he was riding the brakes long enough he could have glazed the pads and experienced severe brake fade, though I'd imagine it'd have to be a really steep hill to still get up to 50mph unless he let off the brakes. Only other thing I could think of is maybe they weren't properly bled and there were air bubbles?

As for stopping, I personally wouldn't take either hands off the bars, put anything in the spokes, or touch the front wheel. In that situation I'd want to keep as much control over the bike as possible, and all three of those would negate that. I'd try dragging my foot/feet and ride it out, or aim for a ditch or the softest crash site possible.