Singlespeed with one brake...

ffs, a new cable and housing is less than £5 in even the most money grabbing of Brick Lane Bike shops...

the fact that it snapped should probably mean you should replace it and not remove the lever and caliper from the bike entirely!

just don't want you to break your precious head. xx sorry if it has come across as mean and picking on you!

and btw, she is a perfectly capable rider - just me being safety-tom for a new member of our cool gang ;)

xx sorry if it has come across as mean and picking on you!

htfu

I don't think you was being mean Tilover, just concerned I think, and you wanted some back up to your points on the brakes, but posting her bike here on a internet forum there's going to be some criticism anyway.

htfu

i have to say this or she will kick me in the shins (kmits)

Why not cycle both find a quite road, cycle really fast beside each other, and then do an emergencey stop at the same time.

Then decide if things feel safe.

(you could try this front brake only, while cornering on a wet road, but that might be a more painful experiment)

it's funny reading peoples post saying it's ok as long as your brakes don't fail. that's the whole point! it's not ok!
i can say from first hand experience how any kind of failure on traffic filled roads is scary as shit, why run the risk? its not inconvenient to have 2 brakes in anyway...

i used to run one brake on my bmx and even ride on my mates freewheel brakeless bmxs, but bmx's dont quite gather speed on 20" wheels like a 700c road bike, you can be up to 20mph with almost no effort on the vaguest of hills and i hate the thought of losing teeth on the tarmac because 1 brake lever looked better than 2, i worry about all these new fixie kids jumping on brakeless bike and one brake singlespeeds and breaking their faces or even losing their lives.

god i am getting old. maybe i should write to the daily mail

re. velo libre - touche - i just wasn't sure there was a post already so made a specific one to this persons setup.

i think the main difference is with brakeless bmx is how easy and qickly you can jam a foot in the wheel.

if your front brake cable have snapped, surely the alarm bell are ringing at the possibility of the rear brake cable snapping as well?

With a good strong brake and weather resistant braking surface, one brake is bloody fine.

However a lousy crude single pivot caliper, on a steel rim & with crappy drop brake lever is about as effective as no brakes at all.

if your front brake cable have snapped, surely the alarm bell are ringing at the possibility of the rear brake cable snapping as well?

doesn't it just, like the time someone went over the bars on the front brake.
reasons why use a back on right? duh!

It maybe a dumb question, but why is only having 1 back brake on ss/geared any worse than brakeless?

It maybe a dumb question, but why is only having 1 back brake on ss/geared any worse than brakeless?

Very good question actually, as far as I can see, having only a rear brake is actually better than fixed brakeless.

Generally (but by no means all) those with noBreaks™ understand stopping distance and overall bike control, they should be able to react and cope with most events efficiently with only using the rear drive control of a fixed gear bike.

If you ride brakeless fixed with foot retention you can control the bike and stop it. If you ride freewheel and your brake fails you have no control over the bike other than sticking your foot on the tyre!

However you can still stop if you have a chain fail.

Up until your chain fails :)

that said it's not as efficient as breaks, despite what some will say. Both my polo bike & my track bike are breakless but my road bike has 2 breaks as it should.

i have recently begun to play polo freewheel with front brake, not only can i play fast and stop fast, but it dosnt feel too different to fixed front brake, but then again i am awesome.

What are these breaks of which you speak?

Are they related to "Fresh breaks" which I have heard youths discussing in relation to music?

Or are you referring to brakes- i.e. the things used for slowing vehicles down?

Them's the breaks.

OK cool.

Thats pretty much what I thought....

...taking the front brake off my geared bike as we speak - just really want to get that zen-like feeling everyone else has... knew it was just a marketing scam anyway.

Hopefully it will make me into a better rider... watching which way cars are indicating, looking at their brakelights...etc...etc...

Thanks guys!

OK cool.

Thats pretty much what I thought....

...taking the front brake off my geared bike as we speak - just really want to get that zen-like feeling everyone else has... knew it was just a marketing scam anyway.

Hopefully it will make me into a better rider... watching which way cars are indicating, looking at their brakelights...etc...etc...

Thanks guys!

This makes no sense.
As you were.

It maybe a dumb question, but why is only having 1 back brake on ss/geared any worse than brakeless?

It involves running a blasphemous brake cable (aka veins of satan) all the way down the top tube.

Internal cable routing for the win, clearly.

mainlining your brakes... hardcore.