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Comment by lowbloodsugar | Hacker News Reader

The front brakes do most of the work. It is not the case, as you assume, that both front and rear contribute equally to braking. If you didn't use the front brakes, or even if you tried to have them apply the same force, the rear wheels would absolutely skid.

If you want an extreme visual example, check out stunt cyclists who brake so hard the rear wheel comes off the ground. Pretty easy to see that the rear wheel isn't contributing to braking when it's in the air.

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Bingo. When I was a kid, I once flipped my bike because I was only braking with the front. I learned not to do that, but to an extreme — I then braked almost always with just the back.

It wasn't until I got older and faster that I realized that braking just in the back is not as effective, since the braking action makes your nose dive and puts more weight over your front tire. I now brake with both sides, but always first in the back.

My commuter bike only has a front brake. You can shift body position to make it pretty much impossible to go OTB. Meanwhile my DJ bike only has a rear brake, which at best "strongly suggests" you slow down.

Why would a commuter bike (or any bike) have only a front brake?

Having only front brake is almost common for fixed gear bikes because they can break rear by retention and fixie counts as a commuter bike.

Also it might be a decent config for learning some BMX tricks because if you want to be able to do a barspin you can not have both brakes.

And if you have a bicycle with a coaster hub and a front brake and your chain is off than you are effectively having only front brakes.

Ironically the law pretty much everywhere in north America mandates that bikes have at least a rear brake.

The trick is to lean your body backward while braking.

Unless you are in a big rush to stop, you can keep the balance pretty even between wheels.

In cars that only have rear motors, unless you apply the brakes (or they have some blended braking setup) then ALL regen is via the rear motor.

Obviously, front brakes are capable of more braking, but the limit at the end of the day is the regen of the battery itself and how much the inverter can handle regen. RWD-only EVs are already capable of ~75kW of regen. Moving to FWD to try to gain regen is only marginally going to give you better efficiency, if anything. It only matters for harder braking.

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