Quote Originally Posted by oneskineejosie View Post
Hi Everyone! I am a TOTAL biking newbie...just got my first bike in over 10 years a couple of weeks ago. Long story short, I fell in love with spinning at the gym, decided to try some sprint triathalons, and my super wonderful boyfriend bought me my new Trek 2.3 WSD Anyhoo, I have been taking it out for 20-30 mile rides a few times a week since I got it, and I'm getting used to it (even had my first clipless pedal no-speed fall!) except....I am a bit confused about braking. Should I be using my front brake primarily? What about on hills? Hills scare me quite a bit, but I'm often afraid to brake hard, 'cuz I'm afraid of skidding or flying over the handlebars. Any advice you can give me would be TOTALLY appreciated. I love, love, love riding my bike and I want to get better and more comfortable. Thanks all!!!
Use your front and rear brakes pretty much equally to come to a smooth stop. As others have mentioned, about 60 to 70% of your stopping power rides with your front brake, so this is a key thing to learn how to manage... when you need your stoppers, you usually need 'em pretty bad.

When you and your bike are traveling forward, due to your momentum you will slow down only if something pushes back at you from the front. The brakes cause the road surface to push back on the tires, and that push slows the bike down. Because you are up higher on your bike, and the push is down at the road surface level, while the push slows the bike, your momentum tends to make you feel like you're going to somersault over the handlebars.

The tendency to throw the rider over the bars is resisted by changes in the forces on the wheels on the road. The front wheel carries more weight, the back wheel carries less. The stronger the braking force on the front wheel, the more weight is shifted forward. If too much braking force is applied, the weight on the rear wheel tries to come up instead of pushing down on the road, and since there is nothing to hold the rear wheel down, the back end of the bike comes up and over you go...

The harder you apply the brakes, the greater the weight on the front wheels and the less the weight on the rear wheel. As long as both brakes are applied together, the rear wheel will eventually lock and start to skid while it is still bearing weight. When you feel the rear wheel start to skid or lock up, it's the signal to lessen the pressure on the front brake in order to maintain a controlled stop. Shifting your weight to the rear of the saddle helps counteract the natural tendency for the rider to keep going forward, and places more weight on the rear wheel to increase its braking effectiveness.

In the League bike courses, we cover braking in the parking lot drills; letting the students get used to how their brakes respond when used indepently, then used together. Finally we teach them the Emergency Stop or "panic stop," when you need to shut 'er down as quickly as possible to avoid a hazard.

To execute an emergency stop, level your pedals parallel to the ground, rise off the saddle and move your butt back as far behind the saddle as possible in order to shift your weight and center of gravity toward the rear of the bike, and tightly squeeze the brake levers in order to slow and stop. The front brake has the most stopping power, and you should squeeze the front brake lever much harder (~ 3 times as hard) as the rear brake levers. If coming to a complete stop, unclip one foot and put it down to complete the stop; however it’s often effective to panic stop enough to significantly slow down and buy you some reaction time, then execute a quick turn to avoid whatever it was that caused you to panic stop. It's a good skill to go out in a quiet parking lot and practice from time to time... as I mentioned, when you need it, you really need it ;-)