Maybe I'm just not an alert/adept/coordinated enough rider, but I had a couple of potentially dangerous incidents caused by having a rear brake on a fixed gear bike.
While slowing for a corner in the rain, I went into an absolutely wild slide with the rear wheel locked up. If it hadn't been for reactions trained by 10 years of motorcycle racing, I'm sure I'd have gone down. I'm a slow learner, so it happened again a couple of weeks later before I figured out what was happening.
My legs instinctively applied backpressure on the pedals anytime I wanted to slow down. Front wheel braking increased weight transfer. By adding rain and a rear brake into the mix, the rear wheel locked up.
With a freewheel, this would have been no big deal. Releasing the brake would have gotten the rear wheel turning again, almost instantaneously.
But with a fixed gear it wasn't just a wheel that had to be brought back up to speed to regain traction, but also chain, cranks, pedals, shoes and legs. With the limited grip of wet pavement, this took a while. And when it finally happened, I was darn glad to still be rubber side down.
How do those using a rear brake deal with this?
BTW I removed the rear brake, and rode fixed for a few more years, mostly urban commuting. At no time did I feel the need for more stopping power than I could get from a front brake and backpressure.
Mark Stonich
Minneapolis Minnesota
http://bikesmithdesign.com
http://mnhpva.org