The Ultimate Brakeless/Front/Rear/How many brakes? thread

When I said chuck yourself over the front I wasnt being literal.

However

Think about it.

When braking hard with both brakes,

The front brake in always so strong so the bike wants to rotate over the front wheel thus creating an endo and the back brake is likely to lock up because it loses grip due to having little/no weight there.

You are also moving forward and as the bike decellerates you are moving faster and your arms are going to be taking most of this force and this gets transferred to the front wheel and increases friction between the tyre and the road. (If you have a mountain bike with suspension you can see this happen, brake really hard while riding at walking pace while just sitting on the bike and the front forks will compress).

Sticking your arse over the back wheel doesn't remove this force from the front wheel, because the force is transferred via the handle bars.

Maximum Deceleration--Panic 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 brake cannot contribute to stopping power, since it has no traction.

Won't I Go Over The Bars?

The rear brake is O.K. for situations where traction is poor, or for when your front tire blows, but for stopping on dry pavement, the front brake all by itself provides the maximum stopping power, both in theory and in practice.

From the great man himself.

The more you move yourself back, the less braking force you get on the front wheel.