Paging the cyclisti: fixed-gear bikes and brakes

Sweeping generalisation: if you ride a 'fixie' (as I understand
they're called) in London, then by definition you're a twat.

Second generalisation: if you remove the rear brake, you're a
dangerous twat.

Why do so many riders feel obliged to do so? I suppose the argument is
that 'my legs can stop the bike quickly enough' (they can't unless
you're Superman), but what's the legal position? I always understood
the bicycles used on the road have to have brakes on both wheels. True?

 

Worped and twisted, certainly, but why a twat?

Eh? Rear brakes are totally useless in an emergency anyway, just like
on a motorbike.

No. A fixed gear is acceptable in lieu of a rear brake.

 

I have a vague recollection of a reluctance to fit any brakes at all
on pushbikes/motorbikes, and that a feeble front brake was referred to
as a bobby-dodger. I presume that was in Edwardian times though.

 

Not true. It's legal AIUI because your legs are the second braking system
if there is no freewheel mech.

There are weight and complexity savings to losing the rear brake: and of
course the front brake is far more effective anyway due to the weight
transfer, just as on a motorbike.

I've no idea why fixie riders are particularly more twattish. It's seen
as a bit weird even by other cyclists.

London riders are a bit special though - the extra disposable income and
the fact that none of them own cars means that it's quite common for them
to be spending £5k on a bike. Perhaps the reason they jump red lights is
that they're worried that if they stop someone will nick it off them.

 

I'm not sure it's cause and effect, more likely a significant overlap.

 

Not to mention the ride to work scheme that gets them a signficant
discount.

 

Depends on the efficiency of the front one, I'd have thought.

Ah, right. Thanks. I really didn't know, and was wondering.

 

It would seem that locking the back wheel isn't as hard as you might think.



Not saying that it's an effective way of braking, but it does satisfy the
rules regarding brakes.

Tim

 

A fixed gear is no substitute for a brake and don't let anybody tell you
otherwise. I suppose that the amount of mass you may have to throw back
at the pedal may affect the slowing down situation slightly but speaking
as someone who rode a fixed gear bike as a reckless yoof, they are crap at
stopping.

 

Some of the comments are impressively spastic even by YouTube
standards. How do people that dumb operate a keyboard?

 

Indeed. And as someone else said, the comments added make me despair.

 

If your front brake isn't enough to get the wheel lifting, chances are
the rear one would be crap too, and therefore much less effective than
a strong pair of legs resisting pedal rotation.

If you've not ridden a vaguely modern bicycle, you perhaps wouldn't be
aware of this, but truly effective brakes started, IMO, with the
caliper type used on early MTBs, then 'V' brakes with a better
mechanical advantage, and later hydraulic disk brakes. I have these
latter on my MTB, as I'm sure do many here, and they really are
incredibly good.

 

If there's one thing that puzzles me more than the question of why
people post comments on youtube and the like, it's why anyone would
bother reading them.

 

Don't you end up having to pay the list price as well?

 

I've not ridden a vaguely modern *motorcycle* for years[1], so the
chances of this are slim-to-none ;-)

[1] Street Cripple excepted.

 

I was pushed into fitting a set of front V-brakes to my elderly MTB and
by **** are they an improvement on the original cantilever type (and so
simple in design). I left the rear as original, as it's not needed to be
that good.
I might get a disc setup on the front, but I'll see what rim wear is
like.

 

I think you misunderstood me. I meant, under the scheme if you bought a
5k bike you'd still only get that 400-450 off because it only counts for
the first £1000.

But if you went and bought the same bike in the sales you might get a
discount of 15% or more off list price, thus saving £750 or more.

 

Quite possibly a ginge but I think it's relevant and, to an extent,
explanatory:

 

Excellent. And so true.

 

Weinmann Vainqueur centre-pull brakes. YKIMS.