[CR]Fixed gear brakelessness

(Example: Racing:Jacques Boyer)

Date: Mon, 3 Dec 2007 08:22:02 -0800 (PST)
From: "Tom Dalton" <tom_s_dalton@yahoo.com>
To: nicbordeaux@yahoo.fr, Classic Rendezvous <classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>
Subject: [CR]Fixed gear brakelessness

Nick,

I agree with most of what you said about fixed gear riding, including the part about self-harm. It goes right along with tattoos and piercing. Membership has its costs and displays of a willingness to make sacrifices are imporatnt to some. In my youth I kept it limited to bad haircuts, excessive UV exposure and helmetless riding, but the entry fee seems to keep rising.

I don't agree with: "The only points worth debating are: should both front and back brakes be law (I believe they should, no bike without brakes is safe on an open road).

With a fixed bike, a single brake up front should suffice. This is where I really get perplexed. I mean, adding a front would give the urban fixed-gear rider virtually all the added protection of a full brakeset, but would allow him to retain that "it's not a road bike" appeal. A single front brake is distinctly a fixed-on-road thing, so you can have your safety and your special identity too. But it's not enough for some, which leads me to conclude that the danger itself is the appeal, and to mitigate that you'd be coping out. This, and there are some things that you only come to know through experience, especially if turning a deaf ear to the voice of experience is part of your identity, as is often the way with young people. And at the risk of making an obviously circular argument, would an experienced rider hit the city streets without brakes? Please speak up if you truly consider yourself experienced and do choose to go brakeless.

(Classic content: USCF used to allow a single front brake and fixed gear for road TTs, and USAC may still.)

I love the very idea that some fixed riders assert that they can stop "just as fast" as a road bike rider. How utterly preposterous. Let's set aside your valid point about preparedness. Let's look at what's really happening when you "skip skid" or whatever it's called, on a brakeless fixed. First you unweight the wheel and get it up off the ground. This requires shifting weight toward the front wheel and/or the compression/extension (and required time and muscular energy) of a bunnyhop. Then you absorb the moderate kenetic energy of the wheel and drivetrain with the muscles of your legs, drop the bike back down, and let the friction of a skid (i.e. a slick of melting, shredding rubber and hot gases) bring bike and rider to a stop, with diminished directional control. The needs of skilled racecar drivers notwithstanding, isn't there a reason cars have ABS?

If I'm missing some subtle aspect of the skip skid technique, I trust someone will let me know. They way I see it, you've got a number of time-gobbling steps to execute before you even start shedding any kenetic energy, and during this time you are directing your wight in all sorts of inappropiate directions. I won't dwell on the issue of tire life and uniformity of wear. The real objective is to keep the weight of the rider as evenly distributed between the wheels as possible while bringing the braking force to incipient lockup as early as possible, on both tires. If only there were some convenient way to shed all that pesky kenetic energy as heat, in a way that allows the rider to concentrate on adjusting his weight distribution as the load shifts toward the front wheel, and on steering. Whatever could it be?

I've been a cyclist for less than 30 years and I don't really log a lot of time in the saddle relative to many of you. My overall pattern is to avoid situations where panic stops might be necessary, by taking things a little slower in traffic, assuming that the other guy will do what I least want him to do, and thinking ahead. I leave the racing for the actual races. But despite my limited hours in the saddle and conservative riding, I've had many opportunities for panic stops that I am absolutely positve could not have been exectuted without brakes... by anybody. The collision would have happened, even if some portion of the energy had been shed on the run-in. I also suspect that a lot of the moderately abrupt stops I've had to make would have been very panicked were I relying on a clumsy rear wheel skid. So, call me a weenie, but I just don't get it. If I were claiming the city streets as my domain I'd come prepared for battle, with dual pivots front and rear. At the very least, you need a front brake on a fixed wheel bike. Period.

When it comes right down to it, guys claiming they can stop "just as fast" on a brakless fixed are really claiming that the have such elevated skills that they can stop a fixed gear bike "just as fast," as a loser like you, even when you are given the benefit of two brakes. Never mind that this shows a stunning ignorance of the dynamics of cycling, not to mention the laws of phyics, but it utterly misses the point. The point is that the rider should be comparing himslef without brakes to himself with. It's the same way with those fixed gear guys who challenge you to race, tossing you the benefit of gears. This is just silly. Maybe they would be faster than you, but they'd be that much faster still, once they mastered the dark art of clicking thorugh gears. Someone on this list challenged us to a race just last week, making a point of telling us that he slogged around town in a 52x16. How funny. That challenge (not to mention the gear choice) is reflective of exactly the same sort of ignorance born of inexperience that leads people to ride brakeless.

If we set aside this matter of brakelessness, and assuming this list could get over the dellusion that the fixed trend represents the future of classic steel use and collecting, I'd be ready to say not another word on the matter. More folks on bikes is a good thing, and please understand that I don't have some overall issue with younger folks and their fashions. I'm only 40 yers old, and my life has basically spanned the era from when a guy with an earring was "out there," to when a pierced nose was unusual, to now, when bodily modification takes on many forms. It's about the brakes.

Tom Dalton Bethlehem, PA USA

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