So my long time riding friend who has many many years of riding experience uses his front brake to turn into a roadside park, and over he goes, damaging the bike, and damaging him as well, but all turned out okay.....This happened early last year, and for some reason, the front brake on MY bike seems to be taboo to operate ever since! His incident stuck in my brain, and taught me about this whole "complex" that your (or MY) brain will be stored and decided (without my permission) to use as a defense mechanism! This is a real phenomena that nearly got me seriously injured a few weeks ago...Topping a hill at 65 mph, traffic completely stopped, and that defense mechanism kicks in, rendering my front brake "off limits", therefore locking up the rear tire putting me into a uncontrollable "fish tale" that was only corrected when the rear brake was released...Fortunately, I was barely able to maneuver my bike around the traffic, "over the valley and through the Dale" at about 45 mph, and receiving a "stress test" in the process! We both came out unscathed, this time... Took the bike out last Saturday, duplicated the conditions, and hit the front brake really hard, along with the rear brake, and the bike promptly stopped well within the distance encountered before. Lesson learned: Don't let other peoples incidents have an effect on your riding skills..As silly as that sounds, it happens, and it happened to me. The mind is a complex thing, and will play tricks on you that you would never imagine...Just my 2 cents~!
