Riding Style Question

[ophic]

Originally Posted by sinbad

I can easily lock the front wheel on my 650 with standard brakes with just 2 fingers. Broken brakes are a different issue entirely- do you hand signal whenever you turn, just in case your indicator isn't working? No, you know your equipment.

The best part about only using 2 fingers is that you can ride along through town with your fingers already on the lever, reducing reaction time significantly, whilst still having complete and full throttle control.
Can you?

Spot on. When I'm on the cruiser I have to use 3 fingers, cos its a heavy bike with only a single front disc, but on the SV, 2 is all I ever need.

[5hort5]

If a child runs into the road I'll brake otherwise the engine and gears take care of it, I own an SV for ****s sake not a 4 pot

can't say i've ever bothered too check how i'm slowing down just do it automatic.

Originally Posted by Amanda

Mine is affectionately used by those young whipper snappers.

With 30 years riding you have a few years on me mate!! lol

47 last birthday

Originally Posted by 5hort5

If a child runs into the road I'll brake otherwise the engine and gears take care of it, I own an SV for ****s sake not a 4 pot

Brakes are there to be used for slowing and stopping, gearboxes are for adjusting the revs to suit the road speed/conditions

Originally Posted by sunshine

Are you saying your unable to lock the wheel with only 2 fingers on the brake lever, and the rear brake is the useless one the front seems good to me, but then what do i know i have ridden motocross bikes mainly.

I didn't say the rear brake was useless, just the opposite.

Braking is not about locking the wheels, if fact it's more about not locking them I suppose. I'ts actually very easy to lock the front wheel with very little power, just grab a hadfull (or even 2 fingers full) when there is not much weight on it! I noticed one response extolled the virtues of 2 finger braking becasue it lets you keep 2 fingers on the lever all the time so you can get on the brakes early in town, but is that a good thing? You are far better using the (usually unused) rear brake (and on a V twin the throttle) to initiate braking and get onto the front once the weight has transferred even in an E stop situation. Unless the brakes have improved out of all proportion since the curvy I think you're doing well to lock the front when it's been firmly planted into grippy tarmac (assuming a decent tyre) with only 2 fingers.

At the end of the day if you have tried bot methods and have worked out that for your style 2 fingers is best I'm not trying to convince you otherwise but I am concious that some visitors here are in thier early days of riding and it may be helpful to understand that there are alternatives which may suit them. Also, although this site is dedicated to the SV most people will move onto (and possibly already ride) other bike types which may work better with other techniques due to aspects such as less engine braking.
In my case some reasons are physical and some historical. I find braking more controlled when the lever is closer to the bars (fingers closed rather than open) so even though my brakes are in good nick the lever can come close to the bars, i also find control easier when using less power which is possible with 4 fingers working at 50% rather than 2 at 100%. My early bikes were older technology and older physically (I'm not even going to put a figure on it!) so the brakes never had enough power even if you used both hands, they were also 2 strokes so I guess I didn't learn much about engine braking in my formative years.

I use the rear brake alot, mainly at speeds below 15 mph. Keeps my throttle hand free to operate just the throttle and do some of that niiiiccceee slow control stuff

You shouldnt be able to lock the brakes if you brake correctly. As YC said earlier on, if you grab a handfull, the front will lock, its not hard (I almost managed it the other day ). But if you are progressive, then you will get good effective braking. Its still possible to lock the brakes though, so you have to practise and find the limits

[ophic]

Originally Posted by Alpinestarhero

You shouldnt be able to lock the brakes if you brake correctly.

I'm assuming that's just worded badly.

You should be able to avoid locking the brakes if you brake correctly.

You should be able to lock the brakes, if you want to (except for ABS bikes).

Originally Posted by ophic

I'm assuming that's just worded badly.

Originally Posted by Alpinestarhero

You shouldnt be able to lock the brakes if you brake correctly...

...Its still possible to lock the brakes though

Looks like it did just come out wrong.

Originally Posted by merlin427

I noticed one response extolled the virtues of 2 finger braking becasue it lets you keep 2 fingers on the lever all the time so you can get on the brakes early in town, but is that a good thing? You are far better using the (usually unused) rear brake (and on a V twin the throttle) to initiate braking and get onto the front once the weight has transferred even in an E stop situation.

Well since you ask, imo it is a good thing to be able to react immediately to something happening in front of you rather than not, every millisecond counts. I obviously won't be yanking on it really hard straight away, but in the time it takes you to move your four fingers to the front brake lever I've already applied it and am stopping the bike. I'll be pressing the rear too of course, but no e-stop instruction will advise solid application of the rear before you even touch the front.

Certainly if you can't apply enough brake pressure with 2 fingers you shouldn't just use 2.

Your first post said you don't understand why some people use 2 fingers on the brake, but if you can control the lever properly with 2 fingers it doesn't make much sense to use 4 imo.