"However good a fixie rider is, stopping distance is roughly doubled without a front brake"

old news but relevant:

Fixies outlawed?

By John Stevenson
*
There's been a bit of hoo-ha in various bike forums around the net in the last few days about a case in Portland, Oregon where a rider was fined for not having a separate brake on her fixed-gear bike. According to bikeportland.org, bike messenger Ayla Holland was ticketed on June 1 and charged with violating Oregon Revised Statute (ORS) 815.280(2)(a) which states:

A bicycle must be equipped with a brake that enables the operator to make the braked wheels skid on dry, level, clean pavement. strong enough to skid tire.

Ms Holland's lawyer Mark Ginsberg attempted to argue that a fixie's transmission constituted a brake. The judge was having none of it, and in his decision said:

"The brake must be a device separate from the musculature of the rider. Take me for instance. I don't have leg muscles as strong as a messenger… how would I stop safely?"

This has led to some rather alarmist talk about the future of fixies. "Will the cops now feel emboldened to go out and ticket everyone on a fixed-gear? Are fixed-gears now essentially illegal? Are fixed-gears truly a public safety hazard?" asks Jonathan Maus in bikeportland.org.

Well, no. The issue here is a badly-written piece of legislation being interpreted by a judge so that it achieves its aims, rather than what the absolute letter of the law says.

A fixed-gear bike with no brakes cannot stop in as short a space as one with a front brake, because only the rear wheel is providing the braking force. As a vehicle on the road, it's therefore clearly less safe.

This is a matter of simple physics. In the third edition of Bicycling Science, David Gordon Wilson demonstrates that the maximum deceleration of a crouched rider on a standard bike (that is, not a recumbent) on a dry road is 0.56g. Try to brake any harder than that and you go over the handlebars, which is the limit condition, as the limit from tyre adhesion of vehicles that don't pitch over (tandems, recumbents and cars) is about 0.8g.

If you brake with only the rear wheel, according to Wilson, the limit is 0.256g, because braking effectively shifts your weight forward, reducing the load on the rear wheel to the point that it skids at that deceleration. Once a tyre is skidding, its braking effectiveness is reduced because you no longer have sticky solid rubber in contact with the road, but a lubricating layer of molten rubber. (Which incidentally demonstrates that the Oregon legislation was written by someone with no clue at all about bikes.)

Therefore, however good a fixie rider is, stopping distance is roughly doubled without a front brake. In practice, it's probably more than that.

In some jurisdictions, better-written laws make this issue moot. In the UK, for example, the law requires a bike to have two independent braking systems. I used to ride a fixie in the winter in the UK, and I knew quite a few fixie riders who dispensed with a rear brake on the grounds that the transmission was a braking system, but I never met anyone daft enough to have just a rear brake.

This judge has clearly decided to ignore the letter of the law in favour of enforcing its obvious intent, that bikes have at least one maximally effective brake. That's the sort of thing judges are handy for: turning idiotically badly-written legislation into rules that make sense in the real world.

All that fixie riders have to do to conform is slap on a front brake; hardly rocket surgery, and a long way from fixies being suddenly illegal. And to fixie riders who are about to reach for the email to defend riding brakeless fixies, I refer you to Cmdr Montgomery Scott: "You canna change the laws of physics!"

I'm not saying ppl should ride with brakes, I have brakes though, just pointing out the article. I know lots of ppl ride brakeless just fine, good for them.*

This article is OLD. -sorry you said that- :p

Before we get into a brakes Vs brakeless etc just let me say:

Know your body
Know your bike
Know your abilities
Know your limitations
Know the street

Ride accordingly

oh no. wait for it.

dogsballs oh no. wait for it.

I feel a rumble comming along the internet....

and we're...........off!!

sinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksinksink.

lol, why do you think I posted it.

It's an old article but that doesn't make it any less relevant.

then stop twice as early or jump off

More posts about the possible smoke, not so much fire yet.

I use a parachute brake.

Ggggggggrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!

no-one else noticed that all the black cabs in London have gone brakeless?
One of the charming fellas nearly did for me earlier today, but thankfully ploughed into a queue of bus watchers.

(I'm only joking, of course).

I witnessed a motor bike speeding through Greenwhich last night, through all of the red lights weaving through traffic with a police car hot on it's heals. Exciting.

They were probably just filming a bit for police camera action.

TheBrick(Tommy) I witnessed a motor bike speeding through Greenwhich last night, through all of the red lights weaving through traffic with a police car hot on it's heals. Exciting.

Maybe he was riding brakeless.
lol

Ridin' Fixy
Lyrics:

they know that I be ridin’ fixy
Try to catch me ridin’ fixy …Won’t see me coastin’
or brakin’
you trippin’ if you think I’ll quit ridin’ fixy
Try to catch me ridin’ fixy …

Y’all fools gonna make me do it
Trackstand at the light in front of your Buick
Motha****as wanna run me off the road
I’ll grab my lock, take a swing and make your window explode
You might see me out ridin’ with my club
We roll about 20 then we hit the pub
Chillin’ out drinkin’ beers til we can’t see straight
Hit the streets with a lean why you suckas gotta hate
‘Cuz you know we crazy like lunatics
We got no brakes but we still do skids
Got them *****es in lycra throwin’ fits
Doing tricks in the park like a bunch of kids
Circle backwards: you can’t hang with this
No-handed skid, now you gettin’ pissed
Gotta fat chrome bag hangin’ on my back
with some spare intertubes and a cold six pack
Alleycat race, now I’m ridin’ fast
You freewheel hoes gonna finish last
Comin’ up on your left, now I’m gonna pass
Won’t see me coastin’ or draggin’ ass
Brooks on my jock be fittin’ tight
40 oz in my left, bullhorns in my right
Cuttin’ through traffic, got the haters cussin’
Rollin’ past the ****in’ po-po like it’s nothin’.

Chorus

We been critical massin’
Blockin’ the street so your car ain’t passin’
Now I’m ****faced off the 2-for-1s
Drinkin’ double long islands means double the fun
Now we back on the street and we bringin’ the game
Titanium wheels on my steel frame
48 up front, 15 in the back
Gotta tackle this hill
Won’t be cuttin’ no slack
Now I’m comin’ back down,
leg over the bars.
Skiddin’ long, one hand flippin’ off the cars
Skid patch smokin’ like a big ol’ blunt
Gotta shift my weight to get more up front
Pop my foot back into the clip
and I gotta put my hand back down on the grip
Nitto bars be shinin’ like a gem
Chrome seatpost with matchin’ stem
*with no regard for your cars we dodge em like **** ‘em all*
Don’t push us too far…
step out your car, and we’ll have a brawl
We gotta right to ride
So step aside
Unless you want my SPDs applied
To your doors, your fenders and then your grille
**** with my fixy and you’ll get killed

Chorus X 2

Nitto bars be shinin’ like a gem.
Chrome seatpost with matching stem.

maybe it should be performed as a rap !

londonfixedrappers.com

lol

that is fucking horrible

I'm getting gears. tomorrow.

where has the argument gone?

it hasn't gone

asm where has the argument gone?

the argument is a sink....

helmets, brakes & redlight jumping are tabu-thread

i is all over I am getting 21 gears !

wtf? Why is this thread being sunk?

Gay.

Unsink it then, like this:

oh yippee - two threads about the same boring old toss