When I was taught to drive in 1972, I was introduced to the above. It was to avoid overheating the brake drums & pads of the day. I still do it instinctively when slowing down over any appreciable distance.
Obviously today's braking systems are far superior and effective, but does anyone here habitually candence brake - ?
You've been given the wrong rationale for cadence braking. You get the most braking force (between rubber and road that is) just before the wheels lock, but once the wheel is sliding the frictional force is much reduced. In physics language the maximum "static friction" (not sliding) is a lot more than the "sliding friction". Additionally you lose all directional control once sliding.
In practical driving it is quite hard to get the force just right so you don't lock the wheels and skid (thus reducing braking and losing any steering) but you do nearly as well by rapidly pumping the brakes and only sliding momentarily but mostly getting quite a lot of hard braking in.
It is nothing to do with managing heat
My one real experience of (self taught) cadence braking was driving on snowy roads from Hertfordshire to West Wales. I found I could go quite fast on the straights but still cadence brake quite hard to get down to a crawl for the bends. Despite snow you really could knock a lot of speed off with this technique.
ABS more or less does the same all by itself; once a wheel locks it does the pumping. Whilst my car does have it, I could likely do nearly as well without (since I know how), but it's arguably a bigger benefit on the motorcycle . A motorcycle skid of the front wheel will have you sliding down the road on your arse, so you are naturally very wary of grabbing a handful in the wet. Hopefully having ABS will help me have the confidence to brake really hard in the wet if I ever need to
