Bonneville America Forums Forums Off Topic Discussion Forums Lounge Skid front tire.

In the spring Tunxis Community College Farmington, CT, will offer an advance motorcycle rider training course. I would like to take the course. However I understand one task to master is to lock up the front tire and of course stay upright. I have never done that. If I did lock up the front tire I was going down.
Also when I do go down the front wheel slides off to the right side, also the back wheel will pull out to the right when locked up.
Sometimes I feel I without thought I would grab for the front brake lever when startled.
I've never locked up both front and rear tires.
Clomments:

a class is good but...

Practice doing it (best without an audience) lock it up, make the bike skid in a straight line for starters. Practice the rear breaking loose in a corner. Practice riding in the rain. Think about black ice and what you are going to do. Think about counter steer and how you can reduce your turn radius to get out of a corner you came into too fast. Get used to the feel of the foot pegs grinding against the road so that it doesn't distract you in an emergency maneuver.

if you have a bike that you don't care about dropping really helps and wear all your gear so that when you do slide you just have a story not a patch of missing skin.

I almost dumped my SM on the way home from buying it by locking up the front wheel. I had gone from my 66 TR6C chopper to a modern twin disc. I can't lock the front wheel on my 66 no matter how hard I pull the brake. I have to plan ahead when I want to stop that bike.

I recall that there was at least one person (with a SM) on this site that had removed one side of their front brakes because they thought that the braking capacity was too much. I saw the bike at one of the BA rallies. Not sure if I agreed with the problem or the need for a solution.

For me it was just once the first day I owned in a situation where I had to stop hard due to a cage. I had other close calls after but knew the braking power and it was fine. I see no need for a fix myself. I also know the single disc will lock up fairly easily too if you want to.The only advantage I see to the dual disc is cooling under hard use due to less pressure needed to do the same job because of surface area.

I have been fortunate I guess to have never had to go there. I have locked up the rear and that is a situation that can go bad quickly. Just don't see how that could be a controllable situation.

locking up the rear is completely controllable, part of what I was saying about learning to ride in the dirt. Controlled rear wheel skid has gotten me out of a few tight spots where I would have otherwise crashed. It allowed me to slide the bike sideways and go off in a different direction avoiding the object in my path.

My IQ drops sharply when I get on a dirt bike. Some kids were riding on the property next door last summer and I was coaching the guys on bikes about coming in the corners hotter and powering through. They offered to let me ride one but I did the quick math of my age and condition of my knees and back plus my first statement in this post and declined.
It was fun watching them though.