Oh, look, 44 new posts in the Unpopular Opinions thread! I’m sure this will be a fun, light-hearted romp through …
… oh. oh, no. oh, god no. 
19 Likes
1 Like
That’s the kicker though. It’s NOT equal. Moving weight rearwards allows you to increase braking force, which pushes weight distribution further forwards.
No matter how you cut it and where your weight is, if you’re braking optimally for minimum stopping distance, you’re putting as much braking force as you can into the front, just short of lifting the rear wheel, and you’re braking as much as possible with the rear just short of skidding (which is minimal).
That’s probably convoluted. My point is that moving weight rearward just allows you to squeeze the front brake harder, not the rear.
4 Likes
Unpopular, or popular?
Hook-less rims are a crude/cunning method for population control.
Car rims are hook-less, but a bike isn’t a car. The car tires have a really thick bead, and a machine is needed to install tires on the rim. If car rims were hooked, tire manufacturers could make the bead on their tires thinner as the pressure would ‘lock’ the tire in. 
And yet when I brake I use more rear, and will add front after the rear brake, and use less front than rear because after using the rear brake, the implied weight on the front wheel increases adding to the braking effect of the braking system. I would NEVER start with the front brake as people have pointed out, it risks causing a lever function that drives the rider into the ground in front of the bike.
I’m with you on this one, as a fellow ME. Max braking creates a moment about the front wheel, as that moment increases, the normal force on the rear wheel decreases. Even if you move back on the saddle, that just changes the magnitude of the moment that your bike can have without going over the bars.
I think the loss of traction part of the argument may be where the disagreement is coming from? However, on dry clean pavement I feel like I can go over the bars before I lose traction on the front wheel-but I’m not sure about that.
2 Likes
It’s pretty easy to lock up a front wheel. You should try it, just to know where the edge is.
1 Like
Really? On a road? Genuinely asking…I’ve never done it a single time. Not on dry pavement
I mean one is nothing, you can lock up two wheels easy on dry pavement.
Our experiences are very, very different…
I struggle to believe that the rear brake does nothing 
If the rear tyre is in contact with the ground with a braking force applied I can’t see how it isn’t contributing to stopping distance?
Very interested by the statement “you will stop as quick if not quicker with just the front brake”
FFS I’m going to go and spend actual time testing this now 
Sheldon Brown has settled this one already:
Maximum Deceleration–Emergency Stops
The fastest that you can stop any bike of normal wheelbase is to apply the front brake so hard that the rear wheel is just about to lift off the ground. In this situation, the rear wheel cannot contribute to stopping power, since it has no traction.
4 Likes
You don’t believe you can endo if you’re going 30mph and lock up the front brake? That was what I said way back in the beginning with the “breaking” 
1 Like
What? No. I’m saying I’ve never made a front wheel skid on dry pavement.
1 Like
I was just thinking about Sheldon today. Never met him, but sure miss his wisdom.
1 Like
“On good, dry pavement, unless leaning in a turn, it is impossible to skid the front wheel by braking”
I’m happy being on the side of Sheldon Brown on this 
RIP
2 Likes
Well, I have front wheel skidded a handful of times, upright on “good pavement” so despite how good Sheldon was, he is not infallible. Considering the tiny contact patch it’s totally reasonable to experience when things go right (or wrong).
1 Like
I can confirm by the skid marks I left on the sidewalk in front of the house as a kid that the rear break does indeed help you stop. 
6 Likes
Your pavement was clearly not good enough for Sheldon! :-p
3 Likes
Sheldon was a true expert when it came to the technical and mechanical aspects of bikes…that doesn’t necessarily make him an expert on all things bike related. That said…
Which is why we are talking about shifting weight backwards when braking to counterbalance this effect.
1 Like