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@pajamas
I think one of the big problems at the moment is that loads of new people are joining the fixed thing, seeing the brakeless thing too and going brakeless along with the fashion for fixed without having any of the skills the original brakeless guys were secretly hiding all along. If you look at someone like John Maek riding (brakeless) the guy will jump around like butter on a hot griddle dealing with 'emergency' situations - his bike handling is so obviously the product of years of hard riding and it's just not possible to switch to fixed from an 'ordinary' bike, go brakeless and hope to ride with the same skill. I think a lot of the newer guys who go brakeless are doing it without taking the concept seriously - ie riding slow enough to deal with any traffic situation that might suddenly happen around you. If you ride with a brake with brakeless guys who know what they're doing there will be times when you are going much faster through shit than they are. They allow for space and time and 99 per cent of them aren't at the stage where they've just learned how to do a skid.