Originally Posted by Jeff Neese

The first thing that popped out at me was "I had to use both of my brakes to stop." That implies that you normally only use your rear brake, and that when you had to stop suddenly, you did something you don't normally do, which was engage the front brake.

Always use both hands for braking. Always, always, always. Even if you're just slowing down or coming to a gentle stop, you want to train your muscle memory to be reaching for both brakes. And you should exercise those brakes by practicing your panic stops occasionally. Know how your bike (and you) are going to behave when you have to stop suddenly. What happened to you is exactly why. You're not used to using the front brake and so your brain had to "remember" that it was there - you didn't reach for it instinctively. And then you discovered that your front brake wasn't working correctly anyway. And even if it had been, you're not used to engaging the front brake and under the panic-stop situation, you might have sent yourself over the handlebars.

Fix your brakes, then find a nice place to practice hard breaking. Use both brakes and get a feel for it. Most of all, make sure your brakes are fully operational before you hit the road. When you're about to hit something is not the time to find out your brakes don't work right, or that you don't know how to handle the bike under sudden stops.