Aww I just had my first crash a few days ago too, I can feel the love.

My lesson? No matter how much you may wish it were true, your bike just wont grip the ground if you try to make a sharp 90 degree turn on a wet road at a 45 degree lean angle. Oddly enough I always road with my full finger gloves on except this one time when I wanted to just "cruise" around.

The Injuries? ruined my favorite pants that I had forever with a hole in the knee and skined off a pretty good portion of skin on two of my knuckles. The pinky one goes a good 1/8th an inch deep.

Oh well didnt hurt too bad, derailed the chain. I got up and went riding some more and then walked around the store later bleeding all over the place.

As far as braking goes, remember most of your brake power is in the front, but in a panic stop you can use the rear as a rear brake wont make you skid or vear off course (if your going straight) I use exclusevly the front brake on road but I use rear brakes offroad if I am on unfamilar territory somtimes.