I too used to ride the streets of San Francisco in the 50s with a track bike
with no brakes. First on Oscar Juner's prewar German Schumacher that he had
sold me in 1953, then later on an early post war Paramount, originally built
for Oscar's younger brother, Bob. We used heavy duty cycling gloves, but I
don't remember the brand. You could also buy leather work gloves and cut the
figures off. I subscribed to the glove on the front wheel method. You would
reach down to the wheel from behind the handlebar so your hand wouldn't fly
forward. "Glove it" we would yell out as a warning to stop. I also used the
jumping the rear wheel and reversing pedal direction method on many
occasions. I remember on one occasion my cycling buddy, Eric Von Neff had to
prove to a policeman that he could stop quickly without brakes. He rode back
up the street a ways and pedaled back towards the policeman and then jumped
his rear wheel and skidded to a quick stop. The policeman was satisfied and
went on his way. However, Eric had skidded a big flat spot on his tire.
Dave Staub
Orange, Ca