I was riding my brakeless track bike to the bar the other night for my friends birthday party. I was heading southbound on Broadway, and as I was coming up to Hollywood the don't walk sign was flashing so I gunned it to try to make the light...

The light changed to yellow when I was maybe 40' from the intersection. I was going pretty fast and getting through that crazy intersection didn't seem possible so I began to slow, and with maybe 10 feet from the intersection I needed to stop FAST. So I initiated a skid, which I normally do quite well. However I had had a couple of drinks already so my skid was rather sloppy, sort of a brute force move.

I heard a POP and then I was just COASTING. My chain had fallen off the drivetrain but was still in one piece. I coasted a quick right turn and then another quick right onto an empty street. I used my gloved hand to slow the front wheel and eventually came to a stop. The chain was just hanging there, and surprisingly did not get in the way when I was coasting. So I put the chain on the rear cog, started to put it on the top of the chainring, spun the cranks and it popped right back on. Everything was fine.

WTF happened?? Has this happened to anyone else? I cannot take the chain off by hand, the chain was not too slack, and axle nuts were nice and tight. I really don't understand what I did.

I got lucky being able to manuever myself out of harms way, and this incident makes me think very seriously about putting on a front brake. Duh.
Sorry for this being so long-winded. I wanted to be clear.
Thoughts?
(yeah I know, getta break. )

The chain was obviously too slack.

Sometimes it's chainline. Sometimes its not.

Check the chainring for any side to side deformation.

just by you saying you heard a pop I would bet that you need at least a chain tensioner on the drive side. I bet the force moved the wheel in the drop out, chain got slack, came off, then you almost died.

who needs brakes?

I should start wearing gloves when I ride.

The fact that you could just spin the cranks and "pop" the chain back on would be indicative of a too loose (for my taste) chain. What frame are you riding?

not the OP

Wow. The "it'll never happen" reason to have a front brake.

Dont be a deutchbag... put on at least a front brake.

if you can't hang why complain.

What hapend to the guy who can't get laid?

good thing you were only at the velodrome and not approaching a busy intersection

yeah. if you can put the chain on without moving the wheel in the dropout, your chain is far, far too slack. Common sense - if it can get on without tools, it can get off without tools.

just remember the 3 B's: Beater with a Brake for the Bar

best thing i say is to know your bike. if its happened once, its a good chance its going to happen again. i was in a race were i had to stop on a dime and i was going pretty fast. when i locked my back wheel to skid my chain broke and i had no other way of breaking so i did the next best thing which i think is to put ypur foot on the back wheel. check your chainline to make sure its straight and get some chain tensioners if you dont already have some. another thing i learned is dont ride so aggressive when your drinking especially when riding a fixed.

ride safe ....

Just curious, do you people ever worry about the infamous BUI?

With a bit of determination you can get a chain on without moving the wheel when it's far too tight.

sole brakes

my roommate had his chain loose this weekend and was skipping around and it fell off. luckily he wasn't going downhill or coming up on a busy intersection. tighten that thing up!

Maybe if you're riding a whippy sort of frame, it bent a bit, which would throw the chain off. The same thing can happen if you're pedaling with too much side-to-side force. My guess is that if you were too jerky initiating the skid, you much have done that, whereas a smooth skid would be just fine.

Carry around one of those NJS brake sticks next time.

weakville....

a few months ago i was doing a 60 or so mile hilly ass ride on one of my brakeless fixed bikes. we ended up having some issues with the directions and routed ourselves down this ****ing dice ass road named "chicken coop hill." it was a pretty serious downhill road with some twists and curves and the like. to make it even better, the asphalt was absolute garbage -- worn down and really old with a bunch of fairly recent patch jobs that made it bumpy and generally uneven. so, anyway, i'm bombing this ****ing hill with my friends (all of whom are on road bikes) and all of a sudden i hear a pop and am ****ing coasting. i was spinning my brains off at 35+mph before the derailing and began to pick up speed quickly as soon as the chain jumped. the next thing i knew, i had blown past my friends far enough that i couldn't see them when i turned around. i definitely hit 40-45mph. the road started to twist a bunch, so i had to duck down onto the bullhorn ends to be able to take the bends without going off the road into a tree. it was absolutely ****ing terrifying. eventually -- after what seemed like a half mile -- the road started to go uphill and i was able to slow down and stop. i was shaking like a mother****er.

i was going too fast to be able to pull any sort of bmx-style foot on the back tire and simultaneously maintain any sort of stability and control over the steering. i wasn't rocking a glove or anything that'd allow me to press on the front tire. and, of course, no brake. i still feel no need to rock a brake for city riding, but when i do hilly long-distance rides i slap that **** on there i recall my chain being tight before we left for the ride, but i have a feeling that things loosened up on the 50 or so miles of climbing and whatnot before we hit that hill. that combined with the bumpy-ass "chicken coop hill" factor did me in.

Thanks...now I'm going to have bad dreams about sh*t like this.

That sounds pretty horrible. Way to not die though - good man.

I normally dont use my front brake put it's proved REALLY handy when I least expected it, saved me from a few potentailly bad spills a few times.

i usually dont use my front brake, but when i got bumped into the fence at the finish line during the ms150 this weekend, it sent me over my bars.