Originally Posted by MrCjolsen
For the record, as a fixed gear rider, I am against riding brakeless. However, I am for individual rights. That means that if a person can safely stop their bicycle, whether it's with a brake, a fixed cog, or their bare feet a la Fred Flintsone, then they should be legally allowed to do so.
It all comes down to physics. Braking on one wheel only is inherently less safe than being able to apply a braking force to two wheels. There will, sooner or later, be a set of circumstances where braking with the rear wheel only, no matter how skilfully done, will be inadequate and therefore unsafe, either to the rider or to someone else.
Two brakes, however designated/defined may also prove inadequate in some circumstances, but at least the rider has done his/her best to reduce the level of possible risk
I think the Portland cyclist in question shoud have had some video shot of them skidding their bike without brakes. That may have very well have convinced the judge. The thing is that skidding on a fixed gear is a skill that not, IMHO, that easy to master. And I'm not convinced that every fixed gear rider who rides brakeless knows how to skid. Maybe almost all, but not all.
Why is there this absurd emphasis on skidding? The law requiring brakes to be able to do this is an ass, but there is noreason why we should go along with it as a proper definition. Skidding is also inherently inefficient and therefore less safe. I've always been able to stop wheels rotating, with side pulls, rod brakes (yes, I'm that old) and cantis (I'm not sure if these 'ere v brakes will ever catch on).
The most important skill in braking is appropriate modulation so that the wheels
don't lock - I don't claim, by the way, that in an emergency, I haven't locked up the rear wheel. Adrenalin is no respecter of modulation.
Many on this thread have lost sight of the wood because of the trees. No matter how skilfull she is, no matter how quick her reactions, no matter how knowledgeable about safe riding in traffic she is, she is putting her safety (or someone else's) at risk by only applying braking to one wheel.
It is, in the final analysis, foolish to support such an approach to cycling, no matter how daft the law is, no matter how faulty the law/the judge/the police may have been. You do the woman concerned no favours by supporting her.