First I'd like to tell you that I think you have one of the best "Safety" sites for motorcycles I have come across. Well done!

I just finished reading your article (I believe it was #64) regarding braking. I have a comment and a story for you.

The comment is that I disagree that the MSF classes incorrectly teach the use of the rear brake. (Or at least the particular course I took taught it correctly and prevented me from crashing). It is possible that, like most things involving people, it depends more on who is teaching the course and how well they understand its importance than on the way the course is structured. When I took their course I knew absolutely nothing about motorcycles (sometimes I feel I still don't) but remembered the "braking" lesson well enough to recover from a very egregious mistake.

The story:

3 Years ago I decided I was going to finally get a bike. Because I had never been on one, and am old enough to fear death, I looked for a course and happily found and signed up for the local MSF beginning rider's course. At some point during the course we were taught how to use the brakes to come to a stop. This included quite a bit of preaching and story telling about why it is bad to lock the rear brake.

After the course I immediately went out and purchased a used '82 Honda Nighthawk 650, similar but larger than one of the bikes I had used in the course. Living in Arizona where the boulevards are wide and straight and the weather is great, I began riding everyday so I would quickly accumulate enough expertise to start wandering all over the state (which I am now happily doing).

About 2 weeks into my new found glee I had an experience that immediately (in the space of about 3 nanoseconds) caused me to search through all the information I had stuck in my brain (and then promptly forgot) during the course. Lucky for me the old search engine remembered the braking lessons.

I was stopped at a red light with no cars in front of me. Three cars entering the intersection turned and proceeded up the road I was about to travel just before the light turned green and I hit the accelerator to follow. As I left the light I decided to place some distance between myself and the half dozen cars that had pulled up behind me at the light. The cars ahead were about 100 yards in front and I had some room so why not!

Being new to motorcycles and having a whole 2 weeks of experience under my belt, I zoomed up the road grinning from ear to ear, way too fast. When I was about 40 yards from the leading vehicles I suddenly realized they were no longer moving! The lead car had stalled and I was approaching VERY quickly. At this point my inexperience took over. I'm still not 100% percent sure what I did, but I think I hit the brakes "without" engaging the clutch, possibly locking the real wheel, and stalled the engine. I'm guessing that I was traveling at close to 50 mph (maybe a little more), the engine was stalled, there was stopped traffic ahead, cars coming up from behind, and I could hear tires screeching. This kind of thing can ruin your whole day.

Somewhere in my cob web encrusted mind, a video played of me getting a lecture about why it is very bad to lock up the rear wheel, and even worse to unlock it after you do. I remember thinking that maybe the screeching tire was mine, and being surprised because I didn't recall hitting the rear brake. I even released it just to be sure! (Ooops). At the same time I was checking the mirrors and I determined the cars behind were neither close enough for me to hear their brakes, nor had they even noticed what was happening in front of me. Then I finally noticed the engine had stalled because it didn't feel right when I finally engaged the clutch. Mind you, all this happened in well less than a second.

At this point the bike became very unstable. It wiggled wildly to the right (really just a few inches but it felt like several feet). Again recalling the braking lesson from my MSF "beginner's" course - how can you get more beginner than this - I immediately locked the rear brake, this time on purpose, and checked my proximity to the cars in front.

Realizing I was not going to collide with the vehicles in front, which had started away again, I began thinking about how to re-start the engine. Again, being inexperienced, I made a mistake and released the rear brake as I hit the electric starter. But once again luck saved me. I was only going about 15 mph at this point so the violent wiggling and pitching didn't last long. Surprised and still rolling straight ahead, I applied power to the real wheel just in time to avoid being overtaken by the following cars.

The five miles to the next intersection were uneventful but I was clearly shaken by almost having lost control on a straight, wide, flat street that should have been a piece of cake.

Now when I talk to other beginner's I always remind them to "be very careful with that rear brake"!

I was lucky. I made a very bad mistake and still didn't lay the bike down. Maybe it was because I remembered the course. Maybe it was just the laws of physics. I am convinced that the MSF course I took kept me from going "high side".

Oh and, "look through it lads"!

Safe Riding. Thanks for a great site.

Woody Phillips