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I think you should listen (and so should some of the other posters who thought it was a good idea to talk about "what they do").  Some of you guys are going to get hurt with some of these dangerous philosophies.  Remember to separate technique and philosophy.

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and remember not to get too tied down to doing things one way every time

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dangerous philosophies

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ORIGINAL: Jaybird180

I think Keith Code is the master explainer on this subject.  This article is from where I cite as my references for my above comments.

http://forums.superbikeschool.com/index.php?showtopic=258

I'd be happy to discuss further.  I've read this article (and many others) several times over the years.

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ORIGINAL: woot


I personally always use both brakes* all of the time. Using the rear brake you can help the bike's suspension. Dragging the rear tire the bike won't transfer the weight to the front as harshly. You do want to let the weight transfer, but you want to minimize the instability in the suspension.

As always - it is a matter of being smooth and firm. Going hard on either brake will not stop you as efficiently as coming onto the brakes and increasing preasure... Grabbing a mitt full will never give you a chance to modulate the brake preasure. If anything is going to go wrong and you're giving it a full mitt - you'll hit the deck before you even knew what happened.

I have a number of exercises I do every spring. One is a no-brakes ride (low straight speed, moderate turn speed) and another is a braking exercise.

Start riding at ~30mph - and stop with both brakes easily. Do it again, increase preasure. Do it again, increase pressure. As you keep repeating the exercise the tires are getting warmer, you're getting more comfortable, and things are starting to come back to you. The last few runs are full on braking - and you want to do it without locking or lifting anything. This is a pretty hard full body workout. Repition does a few things - you get smoother, you learn the limit, and you train your body to do the right thing. Next time an emergancy stop pops up - your body will know better what to do... and it might shave enough feet off the stopping distance that you'll ride away shaking your head, instead of crashing/falling.

Just my $0.02.

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ORIGINAL: woot

* - things change given road conditions. I will use almost all rear brake downhill at low speeds in deep gravel for example... with a rear tire failure it's all front brake. In wet weather the front is used more gradually than ever...

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ORIGINAL: Jaybird180


My point as above is, the F4i is a SPORTBIKE, and as general (here I go) they are ridden with a different technique than the standards we learned on at MSF.  The front brake has the ability to do 100% of the braking.  That's not my words, those are the words of experts like Mr. Code.  This is why we can endo an F4i.  We can also use the rear brake to good effect as well, and as WOOT pointed out, by applying a bit just before front application to reduce weight transfer or to tighten lines mid-corner.