I posted a this as a reply in another thread but thought it deserved its own.

icithecat wrote:
I was thinking that this term was in reference to when 'my friend the idiot' was coming down a 13% grade and could not stop because his legs were spagetti after climbing it and had no more power to resist. With no brake to slow him down, the inevitable happened.


I replied:
This is got to stop people. Just because we ride brakeless dosen't make us idiots. What make your friend an idiot is not being able to swallow his pride and walk down the hill. I refer you to a testimonial about going brakeless that states it better than I can. Please read:

http://www.oldskooltrack.com/files/home.frame.html

Then later:
I realised the link was not working correctly so here is the article in full taken off the forementioned link:

How it Started
After two crashes in as many days last week, I knew something must be up. At first I thought it was a sign that I needed a better brake, but then I got to thinking (and riding) and it came to me....
Am I Really Doing This??
Of course, I was somewhat dubious about my conclusions. My "common sense" kept flaring up: this is berkeley after all, and I don't live in the flat part anymore- I live in the hills. How could it be safer to ride without brakes? So I devised an experiment, of sorts- I'd ride brakeless for a week, or at least as long as it took the new brake to come in the mail, and if I still had faith in my conclusions, I'd keep the brake off.
Yes Am I Really Doing This!!
Well here we are, a week later, and I am brakeless, and a safer rider for it. I am more aware of traffic, of pedestrians, of doors. I ride more flow, no sprints followed by quick deceleration at the other end of the block, simply because I have to. I find myself not taking the same risks I would with the "safety net" of the brake. I ride at a more laid back pace, to facilitate braking by backpressure, and I'm not tempted to go faster, especially because I have not yet mastered skipping/skidding. I wear a helmet where I wouldn't where one before.
Perfect Control
The culmination of the week was last night, when I took the fix to the Berkeley critical mass (yeah, we like to do things differently here in Berkeley...) and rode 2+ hours brakeless, feeling perfectly in control the entire time. Besides this fact, I met another brakeless rider (with an awesome old skool cinelli) who had come to the exact same conclusion- and he'd been riding brakeless for a year.
So I thought I'd make my joining the ranks of brakeless riders official. This is my testimonial.

Ride ON!
© Jeremy Till, 2004