rear tire locked, now what?

if you let off the rear brake then it whips back the other way, not safe, right?

if you hold on it, it continues to slide out sideways....also not safe, right?

what to do, what to do??

Read twist of the wrist II.

Practice on a dirt bike.

Lower your rear brake lever so you really have to work to use it.

Technically you are posed to stay on the brake and if the rear wheel becomes realigned you can release it. I'm not sure I would be of a mind to know when the rear was in line. When I first started riding I lost the back end twice (now I have practiced a lot more). I am big enough and the bike is light enough that I was able to keep it up. The worst was on a blind turn that had a traffic light and I was following someone. The ran the light I decided it wasn't a good idea. Got the bike completely sideways... reminded me of my old bmx bike.

The bike wants to stay upright so if you don't panic there is a good chance you will ride it out and then probably drop it after the momentum stops.

Theory is keep it locked till you stop, to avoid regaining traction while unaligned and high siding. The two times it happened to be me (both while merging right onto a freeway off ramp, looking over shoulder to see if the space I want to go into is clear, moving over to the right and then being surprised at how slow traffic in front of me is going because I was paying too much attention to what is happening behind) I released the rear brake when it started to skid. That's from bicycling habit. No big deal to release a skidding wheel on a bike, I have a hard time not doing that on the motorcycle. Nowadays I try to be extra careful going into an offramp.

wrightme43 said:

Read twist of the wrist II.

Practice on a dirt bike.

Lower your rear brake lever so you really have to work to use it.

Click to expand...

check my other thread

i guess a lot of good info must be in the final few chapters of that book.

in general tho i will shy away from my rear more until i get to borrow my cousins DRZ later this month.

thanks all for replies!!

Many moons ago, while taking an advanced police motorcycle riding school(while on motors), we practiced handling a locked up rear brake. Most of us were on Harley's.

We went to a divided straight roadway, with no traffic and practiced locking up the rear rear brake in the dirt/grass median... Speed was approx 30-40 MPH... I recall they had us keep it locked up until the bike straightened up, then gently release. Very managable with some practice....

Ride it out. unless you are straight then lightly ease up on it.
The issue with riding it out is that when you come to a stop, your foot will still be on the brake pedal, so unless the bike is leaning towards your shifting foot, the bike will start to tip.

reflex and reaction time will be the only things that will get your foot down in time with enough leverage to hold up.

just go to a parking lot and from 15-20km/h lock the rear. At that speed you wont have too much side to side movement and you can feel what its like to both release the brake without highsiding and hold the brake without dropping.

frame sliders are good piece of mind though. ATGATT

msf says ride it out. im a :squid: i lock my back up sometimes for fun

From my limited experience, I would say let off the break super slowly.

I locked mine up going down Macleod trail a few weeks ago. Back end slid right pretty hard. Was pretty sure I was going to dump it. Felt pretty similar to a RWD car in the winter. Got my senses together as I was sliding, then slowly let off the brake and it came right back.

I don't think I'll use my rear break in an emergency break anymore...

lonesoldier84 said:

check my other thread

i guess a lot of good info must be in the final few chapters of that book.

in general tho i will shy away from my rear more until i get to borrow my cousins DRZ later this month.

thanks all for replies!!

Click to expand...

didnt see this i ride a drz :thumbup:

Do whatever feels right at the time as you're skidding. In my experience I usually release it enough almost immediately so that when it snaps back, it's only snapping back a little bit, if at all.

I remember as a kid on a bike, going as fast as I could and then locking my rear, kicking it out all the way to one side so it was next to me and then back to the other side leaving big S marks on the pavement. I was so cool

wrightme43 said:

Lower your rear brake lever so you really have to work to use it.

Click to expand...

But not so low that it drags in corners

necrotimus said:

Technically you are posed to stay on the brake and if the rear wheel becomes realigned you can release it.

Click to expand...

technically?

i locked up my rear going into a turn, normaly hit it at 40 came in at 55, felt it lock started to skid i eased off till it let go and then slowly gave it some more, i kept it up but had to jump some curbs to keep from going down on the road. +1 on lowering the break, i know alot of guys who never use the back break. i used to, now not so much...

DefyInertia said:

technically?

Click to expand...

Because in a situation where the backend gets out of allignment you can release the brake when it comes back into alignment. The problem is it is difficult to remain calm enough to realize when the backend is aligned again. Practice Practice