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

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.

Tester is, as usual, right. I haven't followed the previous 42 pages of this thread but, in a pub debate, someone will always have their 'opinion' on the best way to brake. I've often tried to explain (after a few beers) that front wheel braking is the ONLY way to stop fast in an emergency and that you should adopt it as your sole braking method when riding normally because, as Tester says, you don't want to learn in an emergency.

So, I thought I'd write a quick piece on Physics for Hipsters explaining the theory behind front wheel braking. Hopefully in laymans terms. http://ligneusbikes.wordpress.com/2012/04/23/brakeless-clueless/

If you can't be bothered to get to the end (or even the start) then the answer is that** front wheel braking, fixed or non-fixed is 2 times more effective than back wheel braking in an emergency stop**. So riding brakeless automatically halves your braking capacity even if you're totally switched on and can stop whenever you want to.

It should also be a lesson for all the rear wheel brakers to start to learn to use the front wheel brake more effectively as you might just need it one day!