when you are learning, ride slow and pay attention. don't try to do anything stupid that you see in the alley cat videos. that comes later.

it's always fun to hear stories of switchers since it always reminds me of starting off on my fixie. like when my friend tried to ride mine today and said, 'this is weird.' but he liked it. then i hopped on it and was off like nobody's business.

i didn't start with a brake just because i was too lazy to rewrap my handlebars and didn't want to pay for new tape. i actually do have a set of black 105 brake sitting around with levers too. but i was riding far slower than i normally do and just being 3x more cautious. but it definitely does take sometime getting used to and all the things you see on the internet make it seem like a piece of cake, but it takes work to reach total zen. and when you do, it's awesome.