In article . net,
says...
"Bernie" wrote in message
...


Luigi de Guzman wrote:

So i've got to get to the library and return books. Somewhere in the
middle of the City, in crowded stop-and-go traffic, my front brake
cable snaps. apply my rear coaster brake (yuk). Limp to the library,
return books, get bike to shop where a shopdude fits me up with new
cable for GBP 1.80. great.

I observe from my brief trip without a front brake that I am more or
less utterly dependent on it. it's very hard for me to imagine riding
without one. And yet when I got back to my room, I had an interesting
AIM conversation with a friend fo mine from home:

"you mean you use your *front* brake?" he said, somewhat incredulous.
"I never use my front brake."

I explain all the usual things--quote sheldon brown and my own
experience, tell him to watch the beloki crash film again. but he
persists. "Besides, all of my riding has been trail-riding, and I
hardly ever use my front brake there."

A statement I found very hard to believe.

Then, out of curiosity, I went to see what our fossil-fueled brothers
on motorbikes have to say about braking. They say to brake with both
at the same time:

"Use both brakes whenever slowing or stopping

To stop, the hands and feet work together in a coordinated and smooth
fashion. Squeeze the clutch and the front brake lever while pressing
on the rear brake pedal and downshifting to first gear. The front
brake provides around 70% of the stopping power for your motorcycle.

Both brakes should be applied at the same time when stopping. Even
though the full braking potential of each wheel may not be required
for normal, planned stops, it is important to develop the habit of
using both brakes so that your reflexes will be ready to respond
quickly and properly when an emergency situation occurs."

they even have a diagram:

http://www.msf-usa.org/CourseReview/assets/RiderHandbook_27_1.gif

In light of all of this I make a few observations & questions

1) Those big Flying Pigeons or Dutch roadsters, with only coaster
brakes, were probably never intended to go very fast at all. My
braking distance with only a rear coaster was scary, and my ability to
brake depended largely on where my feet were in the pedal stroke.
unnerving. [and I'm not very fast--the messengers and a lot of
commuters, indeed, at at least one little girl can all beat me,
speedwise]

2) Is there some sort of maximum speed, or some other purely physical
limit to front-brake only braking? Why do the motorcycle guys
recommend two-brake braking? [this will probably require me to do
some tests when I go home, with the assistance of my science-minded
younger brother]

3) If trail riders don't use their front brakes much--as my friend,
who was a sometime MTBer, seems to allege--why do I see so many
front-wheel disk brakes?

-Luigi

Hey Luigi
As a person who was a kid on a CCM coaster brake bike in the mid 50's to
early 60's, I can say those brakes (I think we called them Bendix brakes)
worked very well. They withstood a lot of abuse, and kid cyclists learned
to use them very well. I remember lots of sliding stops, often just for
show, sometimes to save one's life.

No way! What you kids didn't know is that slamming on the rear brake and
sliding did little to nothing in regards to saving your lives. You only
think it did.

My brakes never failed and I don't remember ever hearing about bad coaster
brakes. In that day we were all aware that "racing" bikes with lever
brakes were death traps because if you applied the front brakes too hard
you would fly over the bars. (!!!)

Uh, do you still believe this?

Why not? It's true? In this case, "too hard" means hard enough to lock
the front, therby causing an endo (on most bikes, anyway).


--
Dave Kerber
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