+-70% of your most "efficient" braking "ability" lies in your front brake, this has been tested and covered in many technical/semi-scientific articles over. time. So you should do all the good things that has been said here, i.e brake before the corner, in ratio of 3:1 front/rear braking, you should practice this and it becomes second nature after 20-30 hours of riding time... also don't forget to have a good cockpit setup, your brakes should not be level to the ground, but rather at an angle so that your wrist is not bent while in your cruising postion, you should also move your level inside towards your stem to give you good 1 finger braking grip but allow some space to have you get both fingers on there if your in trouble. the reach of your brake lever should also be adjusted so that your braking finger is not over extended or over cramped in neutral postion. MTBaaisikilist gives a very good basic description of a very good braking strategy, however, I don't think the OP or anyone else for that matter has really taken the other "guys chrip" into context. If we are talking switchback, braking into them is not so much an issue of slowing down, dragging wheels, or braking ratio's/technique, I actually think where most people get it wrong is with their lines. if you line doesn't allow you to "turn" around the apex of the switchback with a path for your back wheel to follow through, you are going to get it wrong and then you will end up over braking as a natural response and find yourself with 70% of your braking system power IN FRONT, on a downhill swichback, with you on a bad line, probably in a bad seating/balance postion... you will crash... Just as braking is important into a corner, so is your line... Bad braking + Bad line + Bad turning technique = Disaster You need to do them all right, imo.
