Originally Posted by
JohnDThompson
You already have a rear brake on a fixed gear: your legs. So a rear caliper is superfluous. But a front caliper is always more effective than a rear wheel brake of any kind, so if you're riding on the road, it's good to have a front caliper brake.
Doesn't that sort of depend on the gearing one is running, and the average speeds they run at?
For example, let's say a rider uses a 14-tooth rear cog, 46 tooth front gear, and regularly rides with that while maintaining a great crank spin speed - then someone, or some dog, jumps out in front of him. That's a mighty tall gear to impose stoppage from, ain't it?
I'm a new fixed-gear rider using 46/16 gears, and at a good spin I know that I don't have much leverage to the rear wheel while using the 170mm cranks this bike came with. Perhaps 175's would be different, but it doesn't seem like many fixies are built with those.