Tom,
That's quite a lot you wrote there. You're analyzing it too much, in my opinion. Ride fixed enough, and the reflexes become quite quick and aut omatic.
When I was commuting daily on my fixed gear bike, which was set up with a rear rack and panniers, I started out with front brake only. After the third or fourth time of "stupid motorist trick", where I just barely sto pped before being killed, I copped out and installed a rear brake. I enj oy living. Problem solved. My other fixed gear bike, however, has no br akes, and yes, I can stop on a dime. I've never had a problem in traffic or otherwise. Of course, this bike has nothing on it, just the bare bon es of simplicity. Weight makes a difference.
Jay Sexton Sebastopol, CA
Nick,
I agree with most of what you said about fixed gear riding, including t he part about self-harm. It goes right along with tattoos and piercing. Membership has its costs and displays of a willingness to make sacrifice s are imporatnt to some. In my youth I kept it limited to bad haircuts, e xcessive UV exposure and helmetless riding, but the entry fee seems to ke ep rising.
I don't agree with: "The only points worth debating are: should both fr ont 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 whe re I really get perplexed. I mean, adding a front would give the urban f ixed-gear rider virtually all the added protection of a full brakeset, bu t 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 sa fety 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 mitigat e that you'd be coping out. This, and there are some things that you onl y come to know through experience, especially if turning a deaf ear to th e 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 sp eak up if you truly consider yourself experienced and do choose to go bra keless.
(Classic content: USCF used to allow a single front brake and fixed gea r 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 fi xed. First you unweight the wheel and get it up off the ground. This re quires shifting weight toward the front wheel and/or the compression/ext ension (and required time and muscular energy) of a bunnyhop. Then you a bsorb the moderate kenetic energy of the wheel and drivetrain with the mu scles of your legs, drop the bike back down, and let the friction of a sk id (i.e. a slick of melting, shredding rubber and hot gases) bring bike a nd rider to a stop, with diminished directional control. The needs of ski lled 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 s omeone 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 ener gy, and during this time you are directing your wight in all sorts of ina ppropiate directions. I won't dwell on the issue of tire life and unifor mity of wear. The real objective is to keep the weight of the rider as e venly distributed between the wheels as possible while bringing the braki ng force to incipient lockup as early as possible, on both tires. If onl y 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 wei ght distribution as the load shifts toward the front wheel, and on steeri ng. 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 le ast want him to do, and thinking ahead. I leave the racing for the actua l races. But despite my limited hours in the saddle and conservative rid ing, I've had many opportunities for panic stops that I am absolutely pos itve could not have been exectuted without brakes... by anybody. The col lision would have happened, even if some portion of the energy had been s hed on the run-in. I also suspect that a lot of the moderately abrupt st ops I've had to make would have been very panicked were I relying on a cl umsy 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 batt le, 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 fa st" on a brakless fixed are really claiming that the have such elevated s kills that they can stop a fixed gear bike "just as fast," as a loser lik e you, even when you are given the benefit of two brakes. Never mind tha t this shows a stunning ignorance of the dynamics of cycling, not to ment ion the laws of phyics, but it utterly misses the point. The point is th at 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 mast ered the dark art of clicking thorugh gears. Someone on this list challe nged us to a race just last week, making a point of telling us that he s logged 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 peopl e to ride brakeless.
If we set aside this matter of brakelessness, and assuming this list co uld 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 fashion s. 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 un usual, to now, when bodily modification takes on many forms. It's about the brakes.
Tom Dalton
Bethlehem, PA USA