my turn

[ka5ysy]

Originally Posted by tserts

You cannot practice panic braking, that's why it's called that... You just get better at not panicking but when faced with real out-of-control danger and get caught off guard your reactions are much worst that your actual riding abilities... If your clutch was operating normally maybe this thread wouldn't exist...

Actually you can and should practice "Quick Stops" all the time. That gets the muscle memory into the automatic reaction mode where you know instantly what to do, and more importantly, how much brake (threshold braking) you can get to quickly without locking the front tire. This skill, like swerves and stopping in curves, is a volatile skill that will go away without constant practice to refresh it. This particular episode would likely not have happened in an ABS equipped bike depending on the space cushion available between the vehicles. Like ABS or not, it would definitely have prevented the locked front wheel drop.

The other thing we can learn from this is that the preride inspection is critical: If something is not functioning correctly, fix it or do not ride.