Alternative front braking methods!
 

While fish-tailing a skid a few days ago, my leading foot inadvertently rubbed my front wheel (toe overlap), causing me to slow down way faster. Since then, I've been trying to perfect this steez. My brother is into gripping his front tire with his KNEES (in Carhartts, mind you) while skidding, to the same effect. When my knees were feeling f**cked, I was gripping my front tire (with burly leather cycling gloves, mind you), old-timey-track-style, to slow down with a bit less force...

What other non-traditional front braking methods have you heard of, or practiced?

so, you want to replace your shoes too when you replace your back tires?

i prefer kittens... they usually only work for a couple skids though, gotta keep a fresh supply in the bag

Traditionally? A gloved hand.

Ceremoniously? A front brake.

Enevitably? A Mack truck.

That dude has balls. I ride my tall bike breakless, but not on hills like that if I can avoid it. Plus on the tall bike it's easy cause the cranks are right above the rear wheel, but he really has to stretch to get his foot up there, nutty!

When I was a kid it was cool to go brakeless on BMX bikes with freewheels and that's how we stopped all the time. I tried using the front wheel a few times and the results were never good. Maybe I'll have to try it again...

I don't really get him.. why not a fixed gear? He seems to like the brakeless look but can't handle pedalling. Crazy SF hipsters.

wow give that kid a brake.

it's bad enough someone is dumb enough to do that but to put videos of it online like it's perfectly cool, i mean even a coaster brake would be something, i mean do whatever you want and he may get through life fine, my guess is that he also doesn't spend every day on the road, maybe i'm wrong about that

I'd think Ted clearly only whips out the Pista for fun rides, so getting to places slowly with lotsa effort is not a concern, and it's being dangerous is why he does it at all in the first place. It's his weird extreme sport and I can't blame him for it. (until somebody else gets killed when a car tries to dodge out-of-control Ted in a hillside...)

Yeah the only thing I gotfrom that vid when it was first posted is the vibe that he is really ****ing worried right before he does it everytime.

Have you guys ever tried braking that way? It works pretty damn well, you'd be surprised. I'll bet he can skid as well as any fixie, it just probably takes longer for him to swing his leg up there. He doesn't do it in the video but I'll bet he can brace his foot against the non drive side chainstay and use the side of the tire or rim to stop as well. Overall, I'm thinking its not so much worse than riding a fixed brakeless, which I also think is a little crazy but we don't need to go there.

According to the city of portland you can use a wooden dowell.

Two comments:

I skateboarded with Ted once when I was about 14 - he was known for outrageous skateboarding skills at the time. As I recall, he was at least 6 or 7 years older than me, which would make him 41-42 years old now. He's not a kid!

I don't think that's the point of the video at all. It appears to me that the video is pointing out just how nuts this activity is!

Indisputably, the best part of the entire thing is that he rides Deep Vs with machined sidewalls.

Pretty crazy guy!
I wonder how much he spends on vans/tires monthly?:D

This should come in pretty handy for you.

Except for when he needs to slow down and steer at the same time.

Maybe from rubbing his shoe on it

nothing he gets em free...