But not as fast as a fixie with a front brake

Took my brakeles fixed out for a ride to go pick up some bike stuff/run some errands and saw multiple salmons of people on mountain bikes, two aggressive kitted roadies almost running into each other because they were racing down the waterfront park through people, a couple more roadies running red lights, mid 20s guy on an old 80s Motobecane weaving all over the bike lane causing me to ride in the car lane to pass.

Also, had a car turn into the bike lane because traffic was blocked and he wanted to take a right.

TL;DR : Mind your own business, it's not the bike that causes the accident, it's the crappy rider.

I don't care if someone chooses to ride a bike that is crippled by design for any type of riding where different gears are helpful. If someone wants to be forced to pedal going downhill or possibly be upended by a pedal strike on a downhill curve, good for them. No brakes and brag about the superior stopping of no brakes, sure why not? No one said that all bicycle riders are geniuses, so if some like wacky stuff, and like to praise it as the greatest thing since vulcanized rubber, good for them. No one is forcing me to ride a bike with such limitations.

I don't think anyone has praised fixed brakeless bikes for their stopping power, or at least no one intelligent.

It's very obvious you view them as lesser individuals with the tone of your post and just want to feel superior/tell these kids to get off your lawn so have at it. I'll still be having my fun riding my bike.

Heck no, I view the "kids" the same as people who ride unicycles. Just having fun seeing if they can master the built-in limitations of their wheeled vehicles of choice. Might be even more fun if you/they can learn to juggle while you ride your fixed gear.

It is a barrel of laffs to read or hear boasts of the special or unique bicycling handling skills gained by riding a fixed gear on the street.

Seems like a peloton where no one had brakes would be ideal, with far less of that slow down, speed up slinky action.

i think that's the concept on the track..

last night i rode with few folks who were riding brakeless low rider cruisers.. they weren't even fixed gear.. they just put their feet down to stop... whatever works...

joey

Yes I challange a fixie or your coaster brake bike to a braking contest with my LWB recumbent. My LWB bent cannot throw me over the handlebars no matter how hard I brake. But with the forward weight shift the front wheel can be braked really hard without locking up for max braking. "Real cyclist" that seem to hate bents dont know or dont want to admit that this is another reason to ride bents----------the safety aspect because of better braking.

Alternatively, the crappy driver who hit a brakeless fixie rider who might have avoided the collision had he had a front brake

I never said a fixed gear bike or a coaster brake bike were superior to anything. I said they were similar in braking capability to each other, yet coaster brake bikes are street legal and track bikes are not due largely in part to lawmakers not knowing squat about what bikers need or want or can do on various bikes.

"Real cyclists" don't like recumbent bikes because they sit the operator at eyeball level with every exhaust pipe in town, are too low to be safely ridden in traffic situations - bike operator can't see over the cars and cars can't see the bike behind other vehicles parked or rolling. A recumbent on the open road, bike path, shoulder, country lanes - awesome. In the city grid...more suicidal than any conventional bike without brakes IMO.

no break? no brain? no problem!

No spelling, no problem. Give me a brake.

Praise.

What are you trying to say?

brakeless fixies do not scare me anywhere near as much as "transportation bikes" with coaster brakes. you'd have to pay me to ride one of those.

this really throws a wrench into the "bikes must have brakes equipped" law.

technically UNI- cycle is not a BI-cycle so does it apply or is there a separate law governing single wheeled vehicles??

Scared of coaster brake equipped bikes? That says more about your own misguided fears and/or lack of experience with such bicycles. Or more likely, your disdain/contempt for the cyclists who use them.

I don't know about Vermont law, but Texas law defines a bicycle as having two tandem wheels (among other requirements), and the law that requires brakes explicitly says bicycle so a unicycle wouldn't be covered. Neither would a tricycle, for that matter, if you wanted to a fixed brakeless recumbent trike ...

(There's separate laws that say that motor vehicles must have brakes ...)

We have a coaster brake upright trike in the shop. That thing + downhill turn = certain death.

Right turns are worse, since only right rear wheel drives/brakes so once you get it up on two wheels you got no brakes.

Maybe should convert it to fixed.

joey

On my Stratus I DO NOT sit at tailpipe level, in fact my head is right at the same level as drivers. You might want to try riding a bent sometime before spreading the usual false "information".

I have to agree. Can you "bunnyhop" your bent? I take the shortest distance between two points wheneveri can. Jump curbs, cross medians, avoid debris or road damage, hop diagonal train/trolley tracks, etc.

If you can hop your bent i do need to reconsider. Otherwise i dont need more limitations.

Be careful about stereotyping.

I’ve been relying on a bicycle as my primary means of transportation for well over half a century, and was riding fixed gear (what we called “stiff-hub” back in the day) long before the current crop of fixie fashionistas were born. I started riding fixed gear because I enjoy the fundamental simplicity of it, the feeling of being at one with the machine, not to conform to the expectations of some juvenile tribe to which I was desparately trying to gain acceptance. Kinda sad to see fixed gear become a fad; hope it wears off soon.

The great majority of my miles over the last ten years have been pedaled on a brakeless fixie, without incident. I can complete my current ten mile commute about three minutes faster on my road bike, but I wouldn’t enjoy it nearly as much. Nothing, and I mean absolutely nothing, burns defensive and proactive cycling into the brain and into muscle memory like riding a fixed gear bicycle without brakes. It’s not for everybody – certainly not for cyclists with a more reactive riding style or those with more variable terrain to contend with.

Guess there's some truth to the old adage “there’s no fool like an old fool”.

Precisely the same situation caused a death of a cyclist in Toronto, Canada, just a few months ago. Cars were stopped, filtering on their right at a high rate of speed, ooops they were stopped to let a motorist in the oncoming direction to turn left into a driveway, cyclist tried to avoid turning car, slammed into a parked vehicle, died instantly. There's a ghost bike there now. It hit hard because its on a route that I drive regularly, made the exact same move many many times, realized it could have been me. Now when I filter it's slowly, and I take cues from stopped cars.

Slightly different scenario; he wasn't riding a fixie, had a full set of brakes, but the rest of the scenario was identical.

Oddly appropriate "from the grave" bump.

However, I do have to laugh at the "don't tread on me" guy arguing that any litigation will lead to more litigation which will end up requiring disk brakes on all bikes yada yada yada. Typical sensationalization and scare tactics. It's the same argument for everyone who is too dumb to learn what's actually going on. Ask a science denier why science is bad and I can almost guarantee you their answer will be "well what if they do something that they can't stop? Create a killer robot? A disease they can't cure?"

Sounds very much like the argument against gun control. (Which would fit the M.O.) Sounds to me like those people are afraid that if lawyers look at what they're doing too closely they will have to stop "having fun." eleted the rest of my argument to avoid turning this into a gun thread.: