Brakeless riding in Birmingham?

Remove brakes then ask lbs to fit you a freewheel......

What a load of complete and utter bollocks.

Ride brakeless if you really feel you must, but don't try to justify it. Six years of no incident doesn't make it any less of a twattish thing to do.

A valid point eloquently made.
no justification made and no approval sought.
Thank you.

Brake it up

don't brake the law

Brakes don't allow you to go faster, you can go as fast as someone who rides brakeless

People who ride with out brakes rule!

Tbf I'm about the only here that truely comment on riding brakeless because I'm an effing mad man and ride every single around town brakeless

I'm an effing mad man and ride every single around town

easy

I try not to use mine, but it has got me out of a few jams. Can't compensate for drivers that don't look

My knees dictate I use a brake. Stupid broken body.

Tbf I'm about the only here that truely comment on riding brakeless because I'm an effing mad man and ride every single around town brakeless

Have you been drinking scoblejuice?

I avoid the Birmingham Forum because of threads like this.......

I meant to say day, but being a madman I missed it

I have a brakeless trackbike here in Atlanta that I have no choice but to ride brakeless, when I was living in Birmingham I had a brake on my other track bike.. until the brake cable snapped and living in such a flat city with no major hills I didnt find it all that bad..

Riding a track bike involves the use of momentum, you just have to adjust your momentum to suit riding without brakes, the hazards you face are exactly the same as they would be brake or not... you just have to think more about how you intend to approach them. But, OF COURSE it is a stupid idea to ride without a brake... but you know, its the whole experience of doing such dumb ass things that make riding my bike without a brake all the more exhilarating and fun. Make up your own mind about it, its your life.

Your not the only one Mr bombings, My bicycle remains utterly brakeless and is ridden everyday.
-10 Kudos from the hipster scorecard.

In fairness my front brakefell off on the way home from Critcal mass if anyone finds it on the rea valley route can I have it back please (to drunk to notice)

Brakes don't allow you to go faster, you can go as fast as someone who rides brakeless
On a track maybe. But on the road, no. You can safely go faster on the road if you have two brakes because with two brakes your stopping distance is considerably lower. If you want to argue with that I suggest you enter a road race on your brakeless fixie and try to ride as fast as everyone else. I guarantee you will be slowing down for corners much earlier than all the other riders, but if you want to make a fool of yourself trying to prove me wrong then go ahead.

....Make up your own mind about it, its your life.

What a perfect example. This is the kind of mentality that drink drivers use to justify getting behind the wheel pissed.

Yeah, it's your life, but if you take your head out of your arse you'll notice that there are other people around when you're cycling on the road. Do you not think of anyone else but yourself? Do you not think it's selfish not to consider that you're putting other people at a greater risk by effectively riding with only a back brake (and, for that matter, not a very effective one).

You might be a lucky person and you might never hit anyone, you might never have to do an emergency stop to prevent colliding with some div who pushes their baby in a pram into the road from behind a transit van without looking, or some numpty in a car who pulls out of a junction in front of you because they didn't see you as you're spinning out at 39mph down a steep hill. If you are that lucky then I envy you. You're obviously invincible and superior to all other bike riders. But it's a no-brainer that being able to stop as quickly as possible is a good thing, is it not? Without wanting this to sound like a boring lecture, a front brake could be the difference between stopping in time, and ending yours or someone else's life... I hope you never get to find out.

Another good (purely selfish) reason to have two brakes: a courier I met in London got knocked off his bike while working. No fault of his own - an oncoming car turned right into him. Front brake would have made no difference. The driver stopped and apologised, "sorry, I didn't see you" blah blah blah. He called an ambulance , gave his details etc. The guy's shoulder was broken. 6 weeks+ off work, £2k out of pocket and could claim fuck all off the driver's insurance because the driver had taken photos of the (brakeless) bike and sent them to the insurance company.

This brakes argument is so lame.

Pastry get off your high horse dude, I ride all day everyday round town at ridculous speeds delivering and picking up stuff, I can stop on a dime if I have to

Pastry loves a good argument. All his points are pretty true though. Each to their own obviously, no sense in arguing it.

Keyboard warrior

Pastry get off your high horse dude, I ride all day everyday round town at ridculous speeds delivering and picking up stuff, I can stop on a dime if I have to
Oh, wow, really? Wow, amazing, I've never rode all day every day around town delivering stuff before, that must make you a really superior cyclist to everyone else.

Don't make me laugh, I know for a fact that you ride below 30mph for the vast majority of the time, and I wouldn't call that 'ridiculous speeds'. Unless you meant ridiculously slow.

And as for stopping on a dime: no, actually, you can't - at least not in the real world. In the real world - the world that most of us live in - *you *have to backpedal and skip and skid before you can stop. Because you don't have a front brake.

You'll never win B. Grabs popcorn anywayz...

I never said I was superior you moron.
You should wind your neck in before it gets you into trouble