If you can, always break while being upright. Make sure you enter a turn with the correct speed so that when something happens you are still able to respond to it.
What I find the most effective braking technique is the following:
When braking hard, the first 0.5 to 1 second progressively squeeze the brake lever so that the suspension can compress smoothly. After the suspension has settled you can continue to increase the power of the front brake as much as you like until you are just short of a sliding tire. You MUST practice, practice, practice to know how an impeding skid feels like, the front becomes "mushy" you'll know it when you go out to practice. Never overstep your boundaries while practicing this though, it hurts
Hammering the front brake without letting the suspension settle first will slide your tire right away as suspension might bottom out and "knock" the tire out of it's available grip..
Depending on the bike you are riding, there might still be some rear braking power left that you can use to shorten your stopping distance still.. If you ride a sports bike and are pulling a stoppie (rear wheel in the air) then there is 0% rear braking power left to use.. On our harley's stoppies are rare
, and most of the time the rear brake can
and should! be used.
same story here, be smooth when you apply the rear brake! In a hard stop most of the weight of the bike is loaded on the front tire so it does not take that much effort to slide your rear tire form under you. (Watch some Superbike crashes on youtube to see what I mean..)
If you do slide the rear tire and the bike is still traveling in a straight line, release the rear brake immediately and recover, before applying it again. If you feel the bike going sideways as the rear is sliding, DON'T release it unless you ride on the race circuit on a weekly basis as there is a good chance the rear tire will instantaneously snap back and throw you off.. Try to ride it out with your foot on the rear brake if this happens..
So, use both brakes! That's what they are there for.
Interesting topic this.
Ride safe!