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Comment by jackowayed | Hacker News Reader

Well, the front brake has ~70% of the stopping power (both on bikes and cars), so while that will work (assuming you don't skid in the back), it won't be the fastest. You can get quite a bit of stopping out of your front brake without going over, you just have to be precise.

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You also have to keep in mind road bikes don't have disc brakes so precision is not part of road bike brakes. Those are most likely caliper brakes, which actually lock up fairly quickly when pressure is applied to the brakes.

I think a lot of higher end road bikes do have disc brakes these days. I'm not sure how prevalent or good they are though.

That isn't generally the case, partly because higher end road bikes are concerned with weight reduction, and disk brakes are substantially heavier.

Modern road bike brakes are plenty powerful enough with adequate modulation.

The real limiting factor on road bikes is traction.

Disc brakes on road bikes might give a distinctive advantage, even with greater weight. Disc brake rims need not have a braking surface and thus can be lighter having less angular momentum.

Even so, your center of gravity is much higher than in a car so you are not going to be able to brake as fast without flipping.

Your mass is far lower, though.

You can adjust your center of gravity on a bike.

It's still nowhere near as stable as a car with 4 wheels and all that metal close to the road.

You've got a lot more ability to shift your weight on a bike than on a car.

The only time my rear wheel has left the ground while braking is when I've tried to do it intentionally. And I've made plenty of hard stops in thousands of miles of riding.

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