Almost witnessed an HD wreck just now

[Tal]

Dab Dab Dab....at a safe distance....

 

[1olbull]

This is why you never tailgate cars on bikes.
You cannot stop faster as physics rule, the car has more mass, more rubber on the ground so it can scrub speed faster than a smaller lighter vehicle with two small patches of grip. You can also only react after you see the lights meaning your behind the eightball already.
On a rider training course they hired a Toyota Corolla and made us do emergency braking tests from 30mph to stop, there were a range of bikes, speed triples, FJ's, ST's, BMW's etc, the car virtually stopped in half the distance of the best bike/rider combo. We then said "ah ha what if the cars loaded with people? So as many people as possible were crammed in, car stopped in same distance. I stopped one of my bad habits that day.
Best to leave the cages a bit of space or at least make sure you can veer around them

MCs can indeed stop better than cages. Testing has shown an MC (even a police Harley) can develop greater than 1.0g stopping.
Cars on average develop .75g. Some of the spendy ones are up in that 1.0 range as well.
Where the rub comes into play is that the "average" motor rider only develops about .55g to .65g due to the of lack of skill.
ABS brings that same "average" ride up ro .75g to .85g. That is why it is so critical that ABS be on motors.
Mass and rubber actually have little to do with stopping because coefficient of friction (tire to roadway) is a valueless number ratio of µ=F/W (mu = Force/Weight).
Mass = Weight / gravity so since gravity is a constant, simply using the vehicle weight divided by the Force (through the center of mass) that it takes to slide a vehicle with brake locked tires.
Changes in rubber, aerodynamics, etc are very minor and insignificant for calculations (hydraulic brake systems). Air brake systems and hard high mileage tires found in large commercial vehicles are a different ballgame and develop roughly 75% to 85% that of other vehicles.
I hope this helps . . .

 

[1olbull]

Not saying they were bad riders but I am saying they need to practice braking more often, modern day bikes with ABS should stop / beat a car at braking the big difference is in a car any yahoo can stomp on the brake on a bike it takes practice to get better.

I would say with ABS the beginner to intermediate can stop as well as a cage.
An expert rider w/o ABS can easily stop sooner than a car.
In testing I have seen some cars hit .9g to 1.0 g.
I have seen way more motors hit 1.0g to 1.2g.
BTW - this is from 30 mph to 60 mph testing.