Polo Bikes

A couple of problems with that hypothesis:
1) As you brake, your weight moves toward the front, unweighting the rear end.
2) If you lose traction (i.e. skid) there's less force going through the system. Maximum braking force is being applied at the point just before the tyre loses traction and starts to skid.
I've no idea why Jon's rear brakes break more often.

Oi there smarty pants. Neither of your points counters what I said. As Popper would say, you have failed to falsify my hypothesis. They are, therefore, not "problems." (As far as I can work out from what you've said).

1: you may lesson the weight on the rear-end, but you do not totally unweight it. If you did you would be endoing (if you were engaging the front brake as well) or floating (if you were only using a rear brake). Does the front brake take more forces because of momentum when using two brakes? I guess the answer is it depends on your brake setup.

2: I don't think I ever said it was the skid that puts the most pressure on the rear wheel. I did say locking up the rear wheel does. Maybe I should have said "the point before you begin to skid." Meh. In any case, the action of locking up your rear wheel is what I was describing. You're right that pressure is released when you start to skid. However, it doesn't change the fact that locking/unlocking again and again is a force which is put into the rear brake, but not really the front (unless you endo a lot. And you could say the rotation of the wheel in an endo relieves some pressure, just as a skid does).

Anyway, I also don't know what's causing Jono's brake fails. But there's no harm in imagining possibilities.

#notaphysicist,talkingoutofmyassprobably