• Stopping on a race bike with 23c tyres takes a longer distance than a disc braked MTB with 2.5" tyres so isn't it irresponsible to ride that race bike.

    Unsurprisingly, you're wrong. Once the back wheel is off the ground, you can't brake any harder. It's pretty easy to lift the back wheel on a road racing bike with short reach dual pivot brakes, and entirely possible even with old long reach single pivots like Weinmann 730s.

    The limit is the tangent of the angle between 1: a line drawn from the front tyre contact point to the centre of gravity and 2: the horizontal, and this angle varies little between common classes of modern solo safety bicycle. Tandems and some recumbents can stop quicker thanks to their length in the first case and low centre of gravity in the second, although tyre friction can become the limiting constraint and it becomes necessary to carefully modulate and balance the front and rear brakes.

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