A better braking technique ?

[Gone in 60]

On my way home every day, I ride down one section of an industrial road with no traffic. Sometimes I practice emergency braking, picking a tree as a point I start braking, then look back at the tree once I'm stopped to get a visual reference of how far it takes me to stop at a particular speed. Also, it's good to know the point that your non-ABS bike will start to skid so you can be aware of it in an emergency, and to learn the best modulation of front and rear brakes for a particular bike to keep both wheels rolling at their threshold of traction.

I started doing this after my first real-time emergency braking situation, probably a year into riding, when a moment of distraction had me look back up and see that traffic had stopped in front of me. In my panic, I mashed both brakes on my heavy cruiser, locking up the rear, almost high-siding, fishtailing, and eventually stopping on the shoulder wondering how I was still alive.

The CB stops pretty darn well. The Triumph, meh. But, it was on the Triumph that I had my only incursion with a car, which stopped broadside directly in front of me, cutting off any chance to swerve to avoid. All of the thought process of practicing threshold braking went out the window, and it might have become instinctual as I was able to haul it down to a speed that resulted in a bump rather than a thud. The officer who came to the scene commented that I must have been braking very effectively as there were no skidmarks yet the impact speed was minimal. It also negated the driver's claim that I was speeding, which was nice.