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Old 05-12-2003, 10:41 AM
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Join Date: Dec 2001
Location: Olympia/Lacey, WA
Cobra Make, Engine: West Coast. 514 / 6 speed Richmond overdrive
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Default Motorcycle vs Cobra

In my experience, high performance street bike vs high performance cobra (my west coast) the cobra brakes much better in general (admittedly with some large power discs all around) Much of this is also due to the larger contact patch and the sticky Pirellis. This would be much more so on wet pavement.
A bike (Or car) gets most of it's braking power from the front brakes, and this, on a bike is a tenuous, unstable, small patch of rubber to clamp a pair of disc brakes onto in a crisis. Add road sand or grit and a bike loses it completely. Mayhaps the apparent better traction on motorcycles with higher HP/weight ratios is due to the relative weight ratio on the rear tire, vs a car? Someone could do the math and see if that makes sense. But it seems with similar power to wt ratios, a bike has a bit better traction off the line, and does not seem to "lose it" as easily when opened up fully in a corner. Could be bike geometry also ?
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