That rear brake

[Guth_imp]

As the ferret said earlier in this thread, the rear brake should be capable of slowing you down. Whether or not you choose to do so (and I don't) you should be able to bring yourself to a stop in a "reasonable" amount of time using the only the rear brake. Sure, this is far less effective than using the front brakes, but a number of members have reported that their CB1100s failed this test — the rear brake wasn't even that good at scrubbing off speed. That's just not right. It has been reported by at least one of those members that having the rear brake system bled returned performance of the rear brake to the level expected.

As far as how we ride bikes today is concerned, the MSF basic rider training course still instructs people to use both front and rear brakes in conjunction with one another and definitely in a emergency stopping situation. In my recent close call that I documented elsewhere on this forum, you can bet that I applied both front and rear brakes when I had to stop in nothing flat and both assisted in hauling the bike to a stop in a very impressive manner. My reaction was simply force of habit. While the front brakes are far more effective at hauling the bike to a stop, properly using both front and back brakes together (modulating during weight transfer) certainly doesn't decrease braking power.