Originally Posted by onetwentyeight
Ssome tires are better in adverse weather than others. I've been riding all winter through a **** ton of rain on gatorskins with no problems. But on the ultra2000's I was sliding around LOT more. Then theres those green vittorias... Admitedly, theres pretty much no brick roads out here, and no ice, so... My worst crash was on a bike w/ brakes and I'm pretty convinced that every situation I've gone down in would not have been prevented by me having brakes. It doesn't matter how you're stopping if you only have 1/4th of a second to slow from 20 to zero, or when a car comes barelling around a blind corner. Sometimes stopping a la a deer in headlights is worse. I'm glad I can at least hocky stop with a fixed gear to get out of a few sticky situations... Just ride smart.
there have probably been two crashes I might have avoided with a rear brake and my rain gear would be completely duct tape free too. Both however were really low speed incidents and there is nothing that is going to save you if you are riding way to fast in crappy conditions.
there is little question that lacking a rear brake is nowhere near as big a safety issue as lacking a front one. Still in the right conditions it can make quite a difference.