Motorcycles get blamed for a lot of things. Heck, I hear it pretty much every time I tell my extended family that I ride motorcycles for a living. It's always the same story: Motorcycles are dangerous, reckless, death traps on two wheels. You’ve probably heard all that too. But let's be real for a second. The truth is a lot less dramatic.
Motorcycles themselves aren’t inherently dangerous. They’re machines made of metal and rubber, and they rely on physics to get moving. What makes them risky is the human sitting on top of them. And if we’re being honest, there are a lot of people out there who probably shouldn’t be touching a motorcycle with a ten-foot pole.
Not because they’re bad people, but because riding takes skill. Serious skill. And that part tends to get wildly underestimated. A lot of riders think twisting a throttle is the hard part. It’s not. Going fast is easy. Slowing down properly is where things get interesting. And that’s exactly where things start falling apart for riders who haven’t put in the hours to get good.
Which brings us to a recent warning from the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department. According to LVMPD, they’ve been seeing motorcycle crashes in the area where riders are trying to stop using only the rear brake. Yes. Just the rear brake.
During a demonstration, police riders showed how dramatically stopping distances increase when you rely only on the rear pedal compared to using both brakes. The difference wasn’t small. It was huge. To anyone who’s spent real time on a motorcycle, this sounds almost unbelievable. But it actually highlights a very real problem: A lot of riders are afraid of the front brake.
That fear isn’t totally irrational. Grab a handful of front brake abruptly, and you can absolutely lose the front tire. Especially on older bikes without ABS or on slippery surfaces. Once the front goes, things get ugly fast. So beginners sometimes swing too far in the other direction. They avoid the front brake almost entirely and lean heavily on the rear pedal because it feels safer.
Except it isn’t.
Here’s the physics lesson every rider should know before they ever hit public roads. When you slow down, weight transfers forward. That shift loads the front tire and increases the amount of grip it has with the pavement. More grip means more braking force can be applied. That’s why the front brake does most of the work. On many motorcycles, the front brake accounts for around 70 percent of total stopping power.
So, relying only on the rear brake is basically like trying to stop a car using the handbrake while ignoring the brake pedal. It’ll slow you down eventually. But not before you’ve burned through a lot of valuable distance. Naturally, this is also where rider training makes a massive difference. Good training programs drill emergency braking into your muscle memory. Riders practice progressively squeezing the front brake while smoothly adding rear brake pressure. Not grabbing or panicking, but building braking force smoothly and quickly.
Because here’s the thing. Panic is human nature. It happens to everyone. Even experienced riders get startled and rattled sometimes. The difference is that riders who’ve taken training seriously don’t panic in the same way. Their hands and feet already know what to do. They squeeze instead of grab. They use both brakes instead of stomping on the rear pedal and hoping for the best.
And the results are dramatic. Shorter stopping distances, more control, and an overall much better chance of avoiding whatever just jumped into your lane.
So yeah, if there’s one skill you should totally obsess over, it’s braking. Not wheelies, stoppies, getting a knee down, or top speed runs. Just good old-fashioned braking. Master your front brake before you even think about riding aggressively on the street. Practice it until smooth, controlled stops become second nature. Do that, and you won’t just make yourself a better rider. You’ll make the road a safer place for everyone around you, too.
Source: 8NewsNow
