I can lock my rear brake up at will. When hard braking the weight shifts forward, the *** end gets lighter, and I can leave a skid mark for yard and yards. Found that out a couple times now due to close encounters with deer.

 

I've locked up the rear twice, once was when the bike was brand new and didn't realize how much the brakes sucked compared to my sporty.

The other was when i got matador'd while going 45 and almost ate the rear bumper of a stopped car.

(the matador is when the car in front of you changes lanes rapidly to get around a stopped car but leaves you with little to no stopping distance.)

 

I couldn't agree more on the brakes. If you came from a sportbike background, there's simply no comparison. I added dual brakes to the front, and EBC HH sintered pads all around, as well as stainless lines. An improvement, and I've learned to live with them. In the world of motorcycling though, HD really lacks in brakes and suspension, although I understand that newer HD's than mine have better brakes, made by Brembo. Definitely a step in the right direction.

 

Lyndall Z's helped me, although I could lock up rear very easy, Lydalls softer compound has more of a controlled stop with less pressure on pedal..

http://www.lyndallracingbrakes.com/home.htm

 

I like the idea of having to use an excessive amount of pressure to lock the brakes. Grabbing a handful knowing the brakes arent going to lock so easily beats the hell out of grabbing a handful and waking up in the hospital.

 

As odd as this may sound, the brakes on my 09 FXDC are a vast improvement over the stopping power of my 03 Honda Shadow. Just my .02

 

I just did my rider safety course two thursday's ago for my Navy renewal and it was easy to lock up the rear. I did it almost in all the hard break scenarios and I was trying not to lock up, but the more I layed into the front the easier it was to lock up the rear. It does take more to squeeze the front compared to my R6, but that bike had dual front disk and only weighed 395 wet. So IMO my bike stops fine with a single disk up front and over 200 more pounds then my R6.

 

I can lock either wheel up.... brakes work, just not like a sport bike.

 

Yeah, my brakes are afflicted by some major suckage. I've thought of going to an 11/16" bore master up front, since I use it the most. Like you, I'm not sure I could lock up the rear by standing on the pedal.

 

I have an 09 FXDC and when I first started riding it I thought the rear brake wasn't working properly. After about 100 miles with a lot of gentle braking it started working better and now works about as good as most MC 's I have ridden (I've never ridden a sportsbike so can't compare). New brake pads apparently need to be "broken in" by only doing gentle braking for a certain amount of time, and if this isn't done they might never work right, at least this is what the owners manuals say. My main complaint about the rear brake is that it sometimes seems to get a glaze on the rotor that makes the brakes moan very loudly until this glaze wears off. Not very cool to have your brakes make so much noise.