[buymenow00]

Was wondering if anyone here has done a panic stop where they locked up a wheel? Which wheel locked first - front or rear?

I am still trying to get comfortable with the brakes...seems to require a lot of pressure on the lever to get her slowed down, and I'm afraid of locking up a wheel. They do feel better than they did when brand new (close to 100 miles now)...maybe it was just glazing on the rotors?

 

[allwalk]

Yep been there done that. I locked up the front wheel very briefly on my 650. I didn't go down . This was the second day of ownership and I had a car pull out in front of me in a huge shopping mall complex. I hadn't had time to become fully use to the feel for the brakes at that time. I plan on doing a little empty parking lot practicing this spring as soon as the snows gone. I do believe though that my motocross racing experience is what prevented me from going down.

 

[Franklin]

Locking Em Up

I've done a lot of emppty parking lot time with the 650. I've found the stopping distance is one half to one third that required of my V-Star. Either front, rear or both work well when stoppping suddenly. Of course, front works better than rear and both is best. Long as you keep the handle bars straight, the bike won't go down, as best I can tell. I was runing it up to forty and locking it up, no problems at all.

 

[ladnar]

Have you locked a wheel up?

Because of the change from a 250 scoot to the An650, I did quite a bit of brake testing both solo and dual. The dual to get my wife used to any change in feel from the little Honda, which was also a good stopper.

It all worked out well when following a cage driver, doing 40 on the approach to a 40 limit, with nothing else in sight, must have suddenly seen the speed camera and hit his brakes. Not expecting a crash stop down to 15 mph, I had to take a good grip on both anchors. No wheel lock, no drama, just good solid stopping power.

 

[pauljo]

Locking Up

I got out for a long ride toward the end of January. Hadn't ridden for about two months due to snow, but got about 3 days where the roads were decent (followed by three more snow storms unfortunately).

I had been cruising rapidly on country two lanes for several hours - very little traffic. Came into a small town, slowed to about 40mph, then suddenly realized that I was about to go through a red light. (How the heck did a traffic light end up out in the middle of nowhere???). Grabbed both brake levers on the 650 hard. Heard a lot of chirping, but she stopped real quick, stayed straight, stayed upright.

I certainly can't say whether it was the front tire, rear tire, or both, that were squealing - the whole episode took just a couple of seconds. I was embarrassed that I hadn't noticed the light until I was almost under it, but I was real happy with the 650's behavior in the panic stop.

 

[BertvL]

Was wondering if anyone here has done a panic stop where they locked up a wheel? Which wheel locked first - front or rear?

I am still trying to get comfortable with the brakes...seems to require a lot of pressure on the lever to get her slowed down, and I'm afraid of locking up a wheel. They do feel better than they did when brand new (close to 100 miles now)...maybe it was just glazing on the rotors?

Yes, at relative low speed (25mi/hr) and did not drop the bike.

Due to the combination brake, it is essential to use both brake leavers.
I always start braking with the right lever (front brake only), gradually building up the braking pressure. Then I use the left lever (additonal front brake + back brake) as well to adjust the total braking power.

During lane splitting -which is legal in the Netherlands- my hand is on the left brake lever just in case.

I find the required pressure on the levers quite high, compared for instance with the AN650 which hasn't got linked brakes.

 

[ajwood]

Panic Stops / Cool Bikes

buymenow00,
Yes, those are very glazed brakes for the first 100mi. for the 400.

I'm considering replacing the brake handles on my 400 with the adjustable kinds (5 position wheel) like the 650 has.
Resting two fingers on the right handle while lane-splitting would be easier if the handle were closer to my small fingers.

A few months ago while riding my 650, I was wearing heavy riding gloves.
I needed to stop quickly and squeezed the handles. The bike slowed but as I released the front brake, the puffy
right glove caught on the rubbery throttle grip and the bike started to accelerate again
so I had to let go briefly to get the rpm's down - scarey.
-
I haven't had a lock-up or tread slippage from the 3 week old 400 and tend to think that
managed heavy braking gets 90 percent of panic stops completed.
Any more pressure and the curve rises vertically into a skid.

------
New 400K3 owner. Traded in 9 month old 650K3.