I'm hijacking the thread because this annoys me immensely.
Originally Posted by bdcardinal
So to expand, the braking systems are setup to engage the rear for a split second before the front. This is similar to a motorcycle where you engage the rear immediately before the front. It keeps the rear end under control as all the weight transfers to the front. Also traction control systems will use the rear to keep the car under control.
IMNSHO, this is stupid. My '04 Nissan 350Z does this and once I figured it out, I bought the cheapest rear pads I could so they'd barely work, as it was the easiest way to fix the wrong bias.
Biasing to the rear as much as they did wore out my rear tires and brakes quite a bit faster than the fronts, opposite of what it should be. It also felt funny while braking. With crap pads on the rear and good pads on the front, now the tires wear fairly evenly and the front brakes wear out faster than the rear, like it should be. Plus, the car feels correct. Hard braking works like it should.
Never once have I had the rear come around while braking. Never.
With a 2-wheeler, you may touch the rear brake first, but the majority of the braking power is on the front because it has to be. What Nissan did was wrong. Depending on the ABS to fix the rears locking up first is also wrong. The bias should be set so there's an equal chance of the rear or front locking first. To do this, there must be more braking force on the fronts.