Braking
Bikes don't have a theoretic advantage in braking over cars, in fact, have a slight disadvantage: Contact patch, center of gravity, less margin for error (can't afford sliding)
We can, however, do a lot to tune the odds for us, since cars most often have crappy brakes, crappy tires and it takes a lot of time to react and move the foot:
Covering the brake lever with two fingers greatly reduces reaction time, good tires and good brakes, and good suspension setup and most importantly: Practice!!
ABS: I know this is controversial, but I am a strong believer in ABS. Good, modern bike ABS systems are far superior than early crappy car ABS especially when paired with crappy brakes and crappy tires. ABS allows, most of all, a lot of practice getting used to full-force braking without fear of spilling right there while practicing. It might make for better braking even just practicing with ABS, just to know the feeling of how much braking you CAN use before the front starts locking or the rear will go over. A good ABS system should "open" only once it really needs to, thus you can still threshold brake even with ABS in place and keep it just before locking by yourself. A good ABS doesn't really "open", it just releases enough pressure to prevent lock-up and quickly re-apply pressure.
In a panic situation you have to be REALLY well trained to out-brake a good ABS system as with ABS you can just slam everything you've got - back and front. Slamming both has the advantage of faster weight transfer and full braking (temporarily using rear before weight transfer) from the first instant.
On non-integrated systems, keeping rear brake applied helps keep weight transfer to the front in case ABS has to release pressure on the front to prevent lock up and thereby allow re-application of full pressure more quickly.
With ABS on both wheels, in a panic just slam both brakes and keep them slammed, good ABS systems will keep both wheels spinning but at the threshold optimizing brake performance even if circumstances change (going over bumps, manhole covers, steel plates, tar strips etc.). No way to do that manually (I think). Valentino might be able to out-brake ABS on a well known race track with well known conditions, but not with ten unknown and changing variables. Or in a non-race state of mind with full concentration, but rather cruising and not anticipating and planning a full-on maximum threshold brake.
The most important factor, though, I think is practice and the resulting confidence in actually using the brakes to the full potential. That also includes knowledge that even under very heavy braking the bike can still do an amazing amount of turning, definitely enough for most evasive maneuvers.
It is a myth that we can only do one thing at a time!
Finally - even it comes to a crash, any speed shed before impact will make a big difference in the severity of the accident and any additional tenth of a second and additional brake force will make a big difference in how much speed is shed.
Bikes don't have a theoretic advantage in braking over cars, in fact, have a slight disadvantage: Contact patch, center of gravity, less margin for error (can't afford sliding)
We can, however, do a lot to tune the odds for us, since cars most often have crappy brakes, crappy tires and it takes a lot of time to react and move the foot:
Covering the brake lever with two fingers greatly reduces reaction time, good tires and good brakes, and good suspension setup and most importantly: Practice!!
ABS: I know this is controversial, but I am a strong believer in ABS. Good, modern bike ABS systems are far superior than early crappy car ABS especially when paired with crappy brakes and crappy tires. ABS allows, most of all, a lot of practice getting used to full-force braking without fear of spilling right there while practicing. It might make for better braking even just practicing with ABS, just to know the feeling of how much braking you CAN use before the front starts locking or the rear will go over. A good ABS system should "open" only once it really needs to, thus you can still threshold brake even with ABS in place and keep it just before locking by yourself. A good ABS doesn't really "open", it just releases enough pressure to prevent lock-up and quickly re-apply pressure.
In a panic situation you have to be REALLY well trained to out-brake a good ABS system as with ABS you can just slam everything you've got - back and front. Slamming both has the advantage of faster weight transfer and full braking (temporarily using rear before weight transfer) from the first instant.
On non-integrated systems, keeping rear brake applied helps keep weight transfer to the front in case ABS has to release pressure on the front to prevent lock up and thereby allow re-application of full pressure more quickly.
With ABS on both wheels, in a panic just slam both brakes and keep them slammed, good ABS systems will keep both wheels spinning but at the threshold optimizing brake performance even if circumstances change (going over bumps, manhole covers, steel plates, tar strips etc.). No way to do that manually (I think). Valentino might be able to out-brake ABS on a well known race track with well known conditions, but not with ten unknown and changing variables. Or in a non-race state of mind with full concentration, but rather cruising and not anticipating and planning a full-on maximum threshold brake.
The most important factor, though, I think is practice and the resulting confidence in actually using the brakes to the full potential. That also includes knowledge that even under very heavy braking the bike can still do an amazing amount of turning, definitely enough for most evasive maneuvers.
It is a myth that we can only do one thing at a time!
Finally - even it comes to a crash, any speed shed before impact will make a big difference in the severity of the accident and any additional tenth of a second and additional brake force will make a big difference in how much speed is shed.
