96 braking system on '95 ST1100

Of course, the other practical use of rear (trail) braking in a curve is to shave off some speed safely, say in the case of an unexpected decreasing radius curve, but never using the front brake, unless you have learned to feather it so lightly that you won't give up your front tire traction in that curve.

I consider an ABS just like other safety equipment - I want all the advantages I can get for the day when my skills are insufficient for the situation - and those days come when you least expect it and are the least prepared. My ABS story - leaned over in a left hander at about 60 mph in a pretty good lean. Front wheel hits either a small round rock or nut colored the same as the pavement so it was 'unseen'. A couple of fingers of my right hand are lightly covering the front brake lever. The handlebars violently jerk to the left almost out of my grasp causing me to unintentionally grab a big handful of front brake as the bars start to move beyond my reach (your hand tends to close around anything trying to keep them from going full lock). Then the unexpected happens - instead of a front wheel lockup at 60+ mph while leaned over, the ABS kicks in. There's quite a bit of 'back and forth' and shudder motion, but I am able to stay upright and recover. If I had been on my STD, I have no doubt I would have unintentionally locked the front wheel and it would not have been pretty. You don't need it until you need it then it becomes an A(utomatic) B(utt) S(aver). Also, when your brain is confronted with the fact that the closing distance between you and an object in front is not sufficient to allow a proper stop, your muscles will tighten from the tension as 'survival instinct' screams in your head to grab all the brake you got. There will be a good chance, regardless of practice and training, that you will grab the brake lever and squeeze harder than you intended from the adrenalin rush. I also find on a STD, locking the rear brake on an ST1100 is quite easy and can launch you off the bike when you let off if you are not careful. Again, the 'threat' will make your leg muscles 'stronger' from the adrenalin rush and you will tend to push the rear brake harder than intended. These are just my observations from almost 300,000 miles on ST1100s in all sorts of roads and riding conditions. YMMV. ;-)

ST1100Y said:

To quote the instructors:
why give away those couple percent of braking power? At the end they could make the difference in hitting or not hitting an obstacle on the road...

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That would be one of the times when I did use the rear brake, but in reality I was never in that situation anyway, so purely theoretical at this point. Just because I didn't use the rear brake 100% of the time back then wouldn't imply that I was incompetent at using it occasionally. I used it enough so that I had a reasonably good feeling for its effectiveness and lockup point. I've passed the same incompetent sport riders on my ST like you describe, I'm not in that category. In that era I was probably a 95th percentile rider who had no interest in working harder to become a 99th percentile rider. I don't dispute what the instructors/experts suggest, just not all that motivated to hone my skills that last little tiny bit just for street riding.

Bush said:

Of course, the other practical use of rear (trail) braking in a curve is to shave off some speed safely, say in the case of an unexpected decreasing radius curve, but never using the front brake, unless you have learned to feather it so lightly that you won't give up your front tire traction in that curve.

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Over the years I learned to slightly advance on the rear brake, use the CG shift and then go on the front lever.
And just for that ability to actually use them while leaned, I prefer them standard, non-ABS brakes so much.
Their so precise, so sensitive, providing such a direct connection to the tire patch on the road, its simply amazing... enables me to to use both brakes into the entrance/1st third of a turn, release the front before the vertex, maintaining only trail brake through there, to seamlessly change to "max power" once past it.
And I also love them over that sensible "analogue" feeling and feedback, one can use/apply them so gently, use the rear brake for speed control in the tight corner, thus "pre-loading" the tranny line, so there is no slag, no "turtle kiss" during the change from deceleration to acceleration, the bike's suspension stays levelled, no "bounce" from sudden load changes... kinda like flying

dwalby said:

That would be one of the times when I did use the rear brake, but in reality I was never in that situation anyway, so purely theoretical at this point.

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Them instructors always tease the attendees there...
There is a track with a marker + cones where you've to start your brake practice, with an electronic metering device, logging your approach speed and stopping distance.
Any then it starts:
- use front brake only! Runs with 30mph, 45, 50... (depending on the skill level of the group...)
then:
- now rear brake only! Again with 30, 45... (uhhh, at first you see a lot of skidding and blue smoke there ;-) . Its repeated till all have learned how to use the rear brake only without locking it up)
Finally:
- now both brakes, aways! Again starting slow at 30mph approach, once the folks get the hang of not over-breaking the rear, they increase to 45, 50 and beyond...
Coming in hot with 60 or 75mph after a few runs is common and they log your gained best stopping distance...

Sure, controlled conditions, dry road, abrasive tarmac... the goal of this practice is to learn and memorize your ideal pressure points (and experience what your brakes can really do), and loose the fear of reaching into them binders; over fear of going down many are just too gentle on the brakes and need to overcome that mental barrier...

In regular road use one would hardly come near of 100% capacity on the front brake, road surface never perfect, etc... so assistance of rear brake has to be "automated"...

And none of us is a 100th percentile rider, there is always headroom to learn and improve... daily, every mile we go...