When the back wheel locks up, the rear end will swing around the headset pivot. You, the rider, can usually adjust your body weight with hip movements and steering the front wheel to keep the bike upright. If the front wheel is skidding, you can't steer the bike...well you can but it just much harder...to compensate for the change in balance. Additionally, the momentum and weight transfer on the front wheel is such that when locked, the likelyhood of going over the handlebars is much greater. Most of the time, a front wheel skid will result in you laying on the ground either in pain or in shame

I would never go headlong into a stream of traffic because I pay better attention than that That's the key to stopping anywhere. Since you are ride a mountain bike, I assume that you don't fall of cliffs with regularity. How do you avoid that? By paying attention to the trail and anticipating what is coming up. It works the same way in traffic. If anything, it's easier in traffic because traffic is generally more predictable.

So much focus on the cure. So little on prevention.

Go to A&S for the safety nanny discussion.

By making sure that when I go off a cliff my wheels are facing downwards (I suppose technically it's still falling, I just like to think it's done with a bit more style than the word generally suggests).

I do keep an eye out in traffic, this was only because a jerk sped out infront of me.

I bought mine used from a dealer, and I remember hearing about the braking situation from other riders after joining a club. If the dealer did tell me, I missed it. I had already learned how to brake before I got the goldwing, and the idea bothered me at first. After all, I had spend hours learning how to control the front and rear brakes independently and in the proper amounts, who were they to do such a thing???? But the darn thing is so massive, and I can't think of a single instance where it caused a problem. the net effect is that you can't rear only brake, and maximal front braking requires you use the rear pedal as well.

When the front wheel looses traction, it doesn't take much for it to slide out from under you - that's the real reason I would avoid a front wheel skid. You probably learned how to fish-tail a rear skid just minutes after you learned how to ride, and spent at least some time of your youth seeing who could do it the farthest. Front skids are a lot harder to control, and you can be on your side in a blink. I have locked up the front wheel of a motorcycle a few times, scares the hell out of me. That front wheel starts to go in a different direction the instant it stops rolling, if you don't get it rolling again you are going DOWN! I never locked up the front wheel on a bike other than maybe once when practicing braking.

But what really happens when its time to do or die? You do what you have trained yourself to do. I was riding a motorcycle in unfamiliar mountain territory outside of San Diego once. The cars where bombing around the roads, and I just kinda went along. Big mistake, I found myself in a turn I was going too fast for. My training taught me to suck it up and lean the bike over more. But then the turn became a decreasing radius turn, and the rock wall on the outside stopped and was replaced by a sheer dropoff of hundreds of feet. I did what I had trained myself to do - I decided EARLY that I was in too deep and too hot, I stood the bike up, braked maximally straight up until I was just shy of the shoulder with loose debris on it, then leaned the bike over further than I had ever done before in my life and finished the turn. Afterwards I realized that I had done exactly what I had trained, during the episode I was pretty sure I was going off the cliff to my death. I finished the day riding well below the speed limit. edit: oh yeah, I don't know how close I got to the edge - you never look where you don't want to go! my eyes were glued to the exit of the turn where I wanted to be, for all I know the back of the bike hung over the edge of the cliff.

As for bike training, Twice I have realized I had no way to stop in time but braked maximally anyway (might as well collide going slower, right?), then saw the room to do a hard right and escaped. A few times I have stayed straight up and maximally braked stopping just short of collision, often with the rear wheel popping off the ground when try to put a foot down. I have stopped faster in a panick situation than when I practice panick braking, I think you are willing to keep squeezing when it really counts, but for just practice you might stop at "good enough."

THANKS!

I am off to order a copy. I like reading stuff like that.