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Comment by mulligan | Hacker News Reader

I'm curious, is a bike capable of stopping on an incline at while going at 40 mph in the same amount of time as a motor vehicle?

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I'm pretty sure a bike in good condition is capable of stopping much faster than any motor vehicle, given the same speed and road. I could be mistaken, though.

Possibly, but bikes are not generally equipped with ABS and traction control. In emergency scenarios, I would wager that cars have better collision-avoidance capabilities.

When I've been going downhill with 35-40mph on a racing bike(rarely, I'm not particularly big cyclist), I've been unable to brake nearly as fast as I could on the same road with a car. Theoretically I could, but in practice the tires are very narrow and if braking anywhere near full power on non-perfect (dry, straight) conditions I could lose control while skidding, resulting in a very hazardous or deadly tumble.

Motorbikes would be a different story.

I mainly ride mountain bikes (on roads), so that might be my disconnect. The tire-width thing makes sense. I also hadn't realized before this thread that road bikes don't usually use disc brakes. Seems odd.

Disc brakes aren't always used on road bikes, because their advantages aren't excercised much - you generally don't brake so much that heat is a problem; and wheel bending isn't a problem since unlike mountain bikes, you aren't expected to hit stuff that might bend a wheel and continue riding.

For wet conditions, disc brakes would have an advantage on road bikes for others, I'm not sure.

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