locolobo13 

When braking hard, not necessarily a panic stop, I apply both brakes until the back tire starts skidding. Then back off the back brake. Never had any problems with the technique. Unless I'm in a turn, the road is wet or some other condition causing problems.

I can only remember having 3 "cartwheels" in my biking life. That's not counting meetings with autos, side slipping in the corner, etc.

The first at 12 yrs, I was riding down a steep bumpy path in a quarry. Too steep. I never touched the brakes. But I hit something! Never knew what.

The second at 19 yrs another quarry, we were using a steep downslope and a small berm to do jumps on our 10spds. The other kids were jumping higher than me! So I pedalled down hard hit the berm and really flew! Mid air the bike rotated forward and we landed in a face down position.

The last time at 20yrs, riding a borrowed bike, the brake lever fell off into the front wheel still hanging by the cable. I was in a hurry so I continued pedalling, leaned way over the front tire, pulling on the cable, cursing all the while. The lever slipped crossways into the spokes. The front tire stopped spinning. I managed to stop the bike by applying my face to the sidewalk.

ThermionicScott 

I didn't use any brakes on my ride to work this morning. Just thought I'd throw that out there.

Rick@OCRR

Lots of diverse topics in this thread!

1. Trolls happen, nothing you can do to prevent them, just try not to encourage them.
2. I do wear socks with my SPD sandals (okay, I have really ugly feet).
3. I do have a kickstand on my commuter bike (DaHon Curve -SL-8) but have never noticed any side drag, etc.
4. I use both brakes but favor the front.

Rick / OCRR

Stealthammer

fg?

ThermionicScott 

cyccommute 

That your weight shifts forward is certainly true...under all conditions. Even if the bike has only a coaster brake on the rear wheel, the weight shifts forward. Ask any 10 year old about skidding the rear tire with a coaster brake equipped bike. That's not the point of this thread. No one that I've seen post here is say to use only the rear brake. They are talking about using both brakes vs the idea that you should (almost) never use the back brake.

Your recumbent example is a special case, however. For regular bikes and longer wheelbase recumbents, the rear brake's contributions aren't zero until the rear wheel lifts off the ground. Even in your short wheelbase example, the contribution from the rear brake isn't zero. The time between going from contributing some deceleration to contributing zero may be shorter but that's a function of the bike geometry.

The rear brake is useful in almost all situations until you lift the rear wheel off the ground. At that point it doesn't matter.

On downhills...high speed downhills with a 50 lb touring load in mountainous terrain...I've never experienced wheel overheating because I don't drag my brakes. You will get far less wheel heating if you use both brakes to check your speed momentarily, then get off the brakes entirely. Simply sitting up can have a dramatic effect on speed too.

Therein lies the lack of understanding. Yes, you get most of your power from the front brake. But you should just throw away 20% of your deceleration because you are afraid of sliding the back wheel. As I said above, when the back wheel starts to slide, get off the front brake. You may lose a small amount of deceleration but you'll gain a lot more control of the bike.

And a skidding rear wheel doesn't necessarily mean that you are going to crash. Again, ask the 10 year old.

SonataInFSharp

Hmm, I use both brakes, but I have my front brake adjusted so that I can hit it as hard as I want to and I won't do an endo unless I move my body weight forward slightly.

But, I have the Burley 99.9% of the time, so I have to use both brakes or the rear brake will just wear out right away and only cause me to skid. Plus, I don't think I can do an endo with the trailer attached, but anything is possible, I s'pose.

Andy_K 

So rear brake only then. (That's still a brake unless you're freewheeling and coast to a stop.)

ThermionicScott 

Oh, I suppose, technically. (It does have a front handbrake installed, for emergencies.)

hiyer1

I have bad habit of using only rear brake too much...it wears down my brakes super fast, have to get pads replaced way too often.