The Ultimate Brakeless/Front/Rear/How many brakes? thread

Seeing as the posture of the rider on a low pro is different I am concerned that if I were to brake from the front I would be more likely to fly head over the handlebars ..... Is this a misconception or should I really be looking into putting in a rear brake as well?

1: If your lo-pro fits properly, your posture is not different from riding on the drops on a normal track/tt bike
2: The small front wheel and short front centres do make it more likely that you'll tip over under braking (from the science point of view, the change in the position of the fulcrum lowers the magnitude of deceleration which will initiate tipping)
3: At this point, a back brake is only providing a couple of hundred grams of ballast to keep the back wheel down

If your brakes are working properly, there will always be times when the quickest stop is the one where the back wheel is barely touching the ground. You need to be able to keep the back wheel there, neither pressing on the ground nor lifting far off it, whatever bike you're on. If the first time your back wheel comes off the ground is when a car pulls out in front of you, you will probably go over the bars, so practice somewhere quiet with nice grippy tarmac so you don't get surprised at the worst possible time.

There are circumstances when you can't use the full power of the front brake, in which case having a back brake can make a small additional contribution, so if your frame has fittings for a back brake, always fit one, whether you're riding fixed or free. Not doing so is the dumbest kind of false economy.