-> ->> I always did 'take care to do it right' and never have had
-> ->> my brakes fail before on any automobile I have owned. This
-> ->> was a new experience (twice) for me. 

-> WC> Never actually happened to me. Spongy a few times but never
-> WC> a complete or major failure. 

-> As a kid my friends and I learned to drive cars with no brakes
-> at all in order to move them to where we could work on them
-> (across town or wherever). If not for my extensive experience
-> driving without brakes I think someone would've died as I was
-> in traffic just a few miles north of Detroit not on a lonely
-> country road. 

As a used motorcycle buyer and rider I'd learned to drive motorcycles
without brakes to get them across town.

You leave LOTS of following distance, you rely primarily on downshifting
and engine compression slowing you off throttle and finally a
"Flintstones stop" 

during the trip believer or not a good bit of prayer no-one else
on the road didn't do  anything unexpectedly on short notice was a good
thing too 

Oh yeah, NEVER try it with a two stroke as I guess the reed valves
don't provide enough compression braking.

Never could stand or owned a two stroke however, the sound of the things
drive me nuts.
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