Quote Originally Posted by spazzdog
If you "feather" the back as you are squeezing the front, you'll be good... at least on the road. No sure what the technique is off-road.
Pretty much the same. The back brake slows you down, the front brakes stops you. So, they need to be used together and each feathered based on the terrain and speed. I'm surprised anyone told you to mainly use the front brakes. If you use today's linear V-brakes, you could defintely take a tumbler by only using the front brake.

Go out to the park or low traffic area and use each brake independently to see how they behave. If you have much speed, the back brake will slow you down but you can't stop quickly. The front brake can stop you easily but has to be feathered very gently for speed control.