Quote Originally Posted by MartianDestiny View Post
But if you ONLY reach for the front one in an emergency you are GOING to crash (that is, if your brakes are set up to actually stop your bike in reasonable time). Sorry, if it's an "emergency" then I'm going fast enough that no amount of locking my arms is going to compensate for locking the front wheel up and I'm not likely to have time to lock my body out behind the seat (and if you have that much skill and time you are going to be grabbing both brakes anyway!). You MIGHT crash if you grab just the rear. Also the crash resulting from a fishtail is much less painful than an endo the majority of the time (I'd rather slide out and get some road rash any day if the alternative is flipping over the bars onto my collarbone or head...)

Of course the answer is to grab both and learn not to lock the wheels down (if you manage that you won't fishtail or endo). I tend to grab my rear a fraction of a second sooner, just to be sure.

And that's coming from someone who routinely uses just the front brake as appropriate for non-emergency slowing and stopping. I rarely if ever use just the rear. So I'm plenty comfortable with my front brake. No way in heck I'm "slamming on the brakes" with just the front though.
Yeah, this is right. Of course, it is a balance of both brakes that works best...and if it works for whomever to use the front brake, I guess you got the skills. But as an instructor, it is taught that back brake is the safe way to execute an emergency stop, and back brake is what you want in a steep or dangerous descent if you must (keeping the tires rolling is better). Yes, if you just lock up your back brake, you are going to slide, but this is not a tragic scenario as an endo is (and a road bike or cantilever brake scenario is not as tragic as disc brakes on a mountain bike which tend to be sharper). We do a skid and run exercise involving the deliberate lock of the back brake. A prime example is one guy in a class who chickened out at the top of a steep staircase we were practicing on...he grabbed BOTH brakes, but used too much front and, although his weight was back, the momentum carried him over the front end and down the stairs. Ouch.

Anyhow, it is important to know which is which and know what will produce what. I hope I never hop on someone's bike whose brakes are reversed!! I could survive on the road bike, where I almost always use both or front because most often I am not in an "Oh, crap" moment, but on the Mountain bike, where I often leap before I look, I'd be in trouble.