.or do the big cruisers have a little more trouble due to increased weight?
The braking ability of different types bikes will vary greatly. All bikes made lately will be adequate, but some types of bike are just better at stopping quickly. I have been riding sportbikes for many years now but get a chance to ride a few different bikes every season and can say that for stopping quickly they are hands down better. The bikes are made to do only three things well, but they do they do those three things better than anything out there. Sportbikes are made to accelerate, stop and corner very quickly. They are a blast to ride but sacrifice a little in comfort, fair trade off if you ask me but some choose cruisers for their comfort. Cruisers all have brakes that are good enuogh to get the job done in a short enough distance. Driving around in town or on the highway they will stop you fast enough to keep you out of trouble. Generally the lighter a bike is the faster it will stop, but that rule of thump only works if the bikes have simular braking systems. A 2 disc front will almost always stop faster than a 1 disc front, the only way it would not would be if the bike with 2 disc front breaks weighed in about twice as heavy. If you were able to follow me this far I bet you can see why a sportbike stops so fast, They have the more powerful front brakes and a very light, often a rider and bike will weight in lighter than just the weight of a cruiser alone. I really don't see how a wider rear tire can help slow a bike down any faster than a narrower one, 85-99% of the work to stop quickly is done with the front tire. If you need to just scrub off a little speed the rear works but if you really need to stop you use the front. Every sportbike I have ever had would stop from 30 mph in like 10 feet pulling the tail of the bike off of the ground. My newest bike can stop in around 90 feet from 100 mph, these bikes can stop (accelerate and corner) very quickly, so the answer is no the big cruisers have a little more trouble due to the increase in weight.
Rockbase is more correct than the other person. First, front brakes are roughly 70% of your stopping power and 30% is your rear brake. However, other factors come into play due to little items such as LAWS OF PHYSICS: grip and make-up of tires (friction), breaking system (friction and thermodynamics), type of bike (wind resistance), and so on. I have a study done on numerous bikes (all types) that includes stopping distances etc. The thing to remember here is that these numbers are the BEST of the distances when a pro is riding and KNOWS when he/she is to stop. Reaction time is typically 1 to 2 seconds so hence you should be 3 to 4 seconds behind a vehicle and always have an out.
No they don't. They have the same problems with small brakes on the econo models as cars. Take the Dodge Grand Caravan that my wife drove during the children/car-seat years. Now those brakes sucked like nothing elese because the cheap A/H's at Dodge based the car on something that was much smaller and added weight to the chassis. It wore brake pads every 15 to 20K miles in town. Now I drive a german car and have put 40 to 50K miles on the car before they needed new pads. And the truck that I drive has 50K miles and is on the original set of pads. But back to the motorcycles, I have a heavy american bike and it have 8K miles on it and the rear pads have been replaced. Other high performance bike that I have owned and ridden for years have never burned thru a set of pads or shoes. 70% of braking is done with the front wheel.Proper sizing is the answer. Cheap low line models always have cheap brakes. I would sooner have a little less HP and better brakes.
