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

DAMN YOU JAMES. I'm so tired of these goddam brake threads lol.

if that's Jesus, he rides with brakes and gears. well, if we can say rides...

bad choice.

John 6:43

i'm a fixed newbie running 2 brakes. As far as i know i haven't used the rear yet. Haven't learnt to skid yet either so its there in case of an utter ballsup.
when i eventually get a proper track frame it'll be front only but not til i'm ready for it

Definite +1, play it safe until you have the confidence.

ooh look! another break topic! i remember the fashion for no breaks in BMX. we laughed at everyones justification for that one too.

understanding of brakeless manuals fail.

understanding of brakeless manuals fail.

showing yourself up a bit there sonny aren't ya? using outdated memes you picked up from reading digg to bullet point a comment about a trick thats so niche its like saying alley oop mctwist without a hat on

showing yourself up a bit there sonny aren't ya? using outdated memes you picked up from reading digg to bullet point a comment about a trick thats so niche its like saying alley oop mctwist without a hat on

Well where to begin...

Outdated memes I picked up from Digg:

I don't read Digg

To bullet point a comment:

I can't stand idly by while someone rinses something I've been doing for 9 years

So niche:

Do you even ride BMX?

Can fixed gear bikes with either one or no brakes stop as fast as a bike with two brakes?

Pretty sure it's possible for a front brake only to stop as quickly as one with two brakes (fixed or singlespeed) but stopping with two (fixed gear counted as a rear brake) is much easier.

Well where to begin...

Outdated memes I picked up from Digg:

I don't read Digg

To bullet point a comment:

I can't stand idly by while someone rinses something I've been doing for 9 years

So niche:

Do you even ride BMX?

yep. you? deckchairing over london fields don't count

Deckchairing over London fields.... right over my head unfortunately.

Yeah I ride BMX, slightly less in recent years due to a ligament injury in my back meaning I can't twist often otherwise I end up limping home unable to straighten my back.

So I take it you've heard every single justification for riding a BMX brakeless ever existed to be able to pass off criticisms?

Can fixed gear bikes with either one or no brakes stop as fast as a bike with two brakes?

Buffalo Bill Oct 9th 2007
"A fixed-gear bike with no brakes cannot stop in as short a space as one with a front brake, because only the rear wheel is providing the braking force. As a vehicle on the road, it's therefore clearly less safe.

This is a matter of simple physics. In the third edition of Bicycling Science, David Gordon Wilson demonstrates that the maximum deceleration of a crouched rider on a standard bike (that is, not a recumbent) on a dry road is 0.56g. Try to brake any harder than that and you go over the handlebars, which is the limit condition, as the limit from tyre adhesion of vehicles that don't pitch over (tandems, recumbents and cars) is about 0.8g.

If you brake with only the rear wheel, according to Wilson, the limit is 0.256g, because braking effectively shifts your weight forward, reducing the load on the rear wheel to the point that it skids at that deceleration. Once a tyre is skidding, its braking effectiveness is reduced because you no longer have sticky solid rubber in contact with the road, but a lubricating layer of molten rubber."

John Stevenson in Cycling News.

http://www.cyclingnews.com/tech.php?id=tech/2006/news/08-04

Most of my riding is offroad and I use my front so much more than my back.
+1

nobody's disputing whether front brakes or rear provide better stopping power! the point is that two brakes provide better stopping power than one

PLUS built-in redundancy in case one fails, and it's so fucking obvious i can't believe we're still talking about it.

Deckchairing over London fields.... right over my head unfortunately.

Yeah I ride BMX, slightly less in recent years due to a ligament injury in my back meaning I can't twist often otherwise I end up limping home unable to straighten my back.

So I take it you've heard every single justification for riding a BMX brakeless ever existed to be able to pass off criticisms?

yep. don't believe any of it. try riding in here with no breaks without crashing through my bedroom wall:

Can fixed gear bikes with either one or no brakes stop as fast as a bike with two brakes?

One front brake on fixed would be close as long as the rider was good at slowing with legs combined with the full force of front brake.

No brakes? Not even close. Can't slow with legs that quickly and as soon as any sort of skid is introduced (even skid stopping) then game over. Look how well ABS works on cars and that is because the wheel is always just kept at the pre skidding point.

yep. don't believe any of it. try riding in here with no breaks without crashing through my bedroom wall:

Wow. Sir you must have covered every patch of land on the earth's surface. I salute you.

Oh wait....

That looks like a great setup if that's what you want to ride. I don't. I won't crash into your bedroom wall because I won't be there to do it.

You sound like one of those pricks who use to rip on kids at the skatepark. You know what I used to do when I saw a kid riding a shit setup? Try and give them some advice. Laughing at fashion failures isn't helping anyone apart from feeding your own ego. It also fools you into thinking you're some sort of God surrounded by idiots. It's a pity you're not because you come up looking rather stupid.

Oh and just in case you hadn't spotted it mentioned a few times, it's 'brakes', not 'breaks'.

I have been re reading the thoughts and opinions of "THE CAPTAIN" this is part of what Sheldon Brown had to say :

Conventional Wisdom

[INDENT] Conventional wisdom says to use both brakes at the same time. This is probably good advice for beginners, who have not yet learned to use their brakes skillfully, but if you don't graduate past this stage, you will never be able to stop as short safely as a cyclist who has learned to use the front brake by itself.[/INDENT] Maximum Deceleration--Panic Stops

The fastest that you can stop any bike of normal wheelbase is to apply the front brake so hard that the rear wheel is just about to lift off the ground. In this situation, the rear brake cannot contribute to stopping power, since it has no traction.

The full article is to be found here : http://www.sheldonbrown.com/brakturn.html

Posted that up yesterday, and it's pretty well known as being right, but there still seem to be a lot of people willing to argue about it.

i can stop quicker on my road bike when i use both brakes.

but even if i couldn't, it's STILL not a good argument for only having one brake.

I have been re reading the thoughts and opinions of "THE CAPTAIN" this is part of what Sheldon Brown had to say :

Conventional Wisdom
[INDENT] Conventional wisdom says to use both brakes at the same time. This is probably good advice for beginners, who have not yet learned to use their brakes skillfully, but if you don't graduate past this stage, you will never be able to stop as short safely as a cyclist who has learned to use the front brake by itself.[/INDENT]Maximum Deceleration--Panic Stops

The fastest that you can stop any bike of normal wheelbase is to apply the front brake so hard that the rear wheel is just about to lift off the ground. In this situation, the rear brake cannot contribute to stopping power, since it has no traction.

The full article is to be found here : http://www.sheldonbrown.com/brakturn.html

This is only true in a straight line under good conditions.

This is only true in a straight line under good conditions.

which happens all the time in london when you're performing an emergency stop!

Ahhhhhhhhhhh ............. you didn't make it very clear that it is whilst riding very fast
down a steep hill in very busy traffic with a gale force wind hitting you on the left hand side during a hail storm.

My sincerest apologies for failing to take this into account.

Ha! You forgot the the dog chasing you!

Wow. Sir you must have covered every patch of land on the earth's surface. I salute you.

Oh wait....

That looks like a great setup if that's what you want to ride. I don't. I won't crash into your bedroom wall because I won't be there to do it.

You sound like one of those pricks who use to rip on kids at the skatepark. You know what I used to do when I saw a kid riding a shit setup? Try and give them some advice. Laughing at fashion failures isn't helping anyone apart from feeding your own ego. It also fools you into thinking you're some sort of God surrounded by idiots. It's a pity you're not because you come up looking rather stupid.

Oh and just in case you hadn't spotted it mentioned a few times, it's 'brakes', not 'breaks'.

you sound like one of them people that calls other people names when they run out of arguments. anyway, i am giving you good advice: put some brakes on, stop worrying about fashion.

Give it a brake guys.

Give it a brake guys.

time to bring this thread to a sudden halt.

i see wut u did thar