Quote: "yes the hardcore ride brakeless! once you've learned to skid stop, you can stop just as fast as with mechanical brakes".
Jaik, ?the latter part of that statement can't possibly be correct - if you have both a back pedal brake action + mechanical brake/s you must be able to stop faster than without one or the other.
In the UK the law / and simple sanity (given our traffic conditions) demand that you have two useable brakes on a bike?or trike.
In the case of a fixed gear that means a mechanical (usually front) brake + the 'back-pedal'.
For single speed you must have both a front and rear mechanical brake. However under these same laws there is nothing to stop you from having both the brakes on the same wheel - as typified by most racing trike braking systems which have two calipers / cantis operating on the front wheel only.
Finally, even when using fixed I have a mechanical brake fitted both f &r (and thus have three braking?'systems')?- but then I'm probably the least hardcore cyclist in creation!
Ian Briggs
Luton, Bedfordshire, UK