That rear brake

[DGShannon_imp]

OK here's the deal ..."from my perspective". A lot of us have been riding a long time. For me personally I am coming up in May on my 50th year of riding on the street.. not on mini bikes in the neighborhood, although I did that too (I just don't count riding on minis in the dirt pre puberty as years riding YMMV, we just had to make the mini bikes using old lawn mower engines). But on the street with traffic on manufacture built dedicated street motorcycles. We grew up riding where the brakes on both ends were not that good, and we NEEDED both brakes to function and aid in the stopping process. The better the front brake, the faster we could stop, the better the rear brake, the even faster we could stop. Muscle memory and habit....and instructions from the manufacturers, said USE BOTH BRAKES AT ALL TIMES WHEN STOPPING.I believe if you open your owners manual and the little riding instruction manual that comes with your CB 1100, you will also find this printed, even today.

I have always enjoyed a bike with good brakes on both wheels, and consider them an asset to my safety when riding on the street.

Somewhere, sometime, and unbeknownst to me, someone decided rear brakes are not important. Not sure when that happened, but it is very disconcerting to me. When I complained to Honda about the rear brakes on my 13, the 30 year old service rep for Honda told me I needed to learn how to ride. Well, ok then!

Old Dog I suppose, but I still use both brakes when stopping and I suppose I always will. Can't get used to these new tricks.

and PS I know about weight transfer and all that ..depending on which report 90/10..80/20..70/30..60/40 whatever, but why give up ANY of your rear braking ability by using only the front brake?

Like you, I am at 50 years of riding, or more. A little over a year ago, I started doing track days (different bike!) with some buddies. I was amazed at the fact that we were being taught that we should NEVER use our rear brakes. It is not that rear brakes don't have a place on the track, but that would come with trail braking and such at the higher level classes. Down in the lower level classes, the focus was on ZERO rear brake in order to get folks to learn exactly how much power they had in modern, dual disc, setups. In fact, so much power, that you can lift the rear wheel off the ground!

So, here was the point... If (when) you use your front brake "correctly" you will have made your rear tire so light that there is no longer a strong enough contact with the track that your rear brake can do anything. Or worse, the contact patch is so light, that you can't modulate the rear brake well, and are at a high chance of sending it into a skid. So, their message was much like your young service rep. Learn to use your front brake "correctly" (learn how to ride) and forget all that futzing around with the rear brake.

With all that said, I would never pretend that I don't use my rear brake, on the street. But, I have to admit that after those track days I use it much less, and in an entirely different way than I used to.

I firmly believe that the vast majority of riders are scared of their front brake, fearful of using "too much" and thus losing the front end. It is a self preservation instinct which must be overcome through practice. I think you see this surface in other threads, such as the "ABS Saved Me Today" elsewhere on this forum. The idea that I can slam on the brakes as hard as I can, and ABS will kick in and prevent that from being "too much" is a palatable, and arguably safer, alternative to practicing until that skill becomes an automatic rider reaction. That tends to get verbalized with statements such as "skilled riders don't need ABS".