I rode with a brake for about a month. Once I became comfortable with skidding/skipping I took it off. After about 8 months, some hair-brained girl pulled a left in front of me as I was heading down some major street. I had stared straight at her stupid face and saw this daft maneuver coming and managed to skid around the corner and make the turn with her. She still didn't see me and I clipped her bumper. I avoided a full speed trip over her hood while riding brakeless, but at the expense of seriously straining my back (which would set in in full effect a couple days later). Afterwards, I figured, hell, why not throw down $30 to make sure I never injure myself when there's people in $30,000 BMWs to do that for me.

I ride brakeless from time to time. I definitely learned to skid and stuff before I did it though. Yeah, backpressure is better, but it's hard to stop quickly that way.

That being said, I freaking love riding with a brake. It's great to be lazy.

i don't have a brake and never use it

For every brake you don't put on your bike, I install two.

I am f ucking stupid. I ride brakeless. And it doesn't matter how good of a rider I am; I am still f ucking stupid.


ok.


I never installed a brake on my fixie. In fact, when I got my frame, it had a caliper mounted on the fork, so I removed it.
Learned to control my speed with my legs first. Skidding came later.

I am learning to ride brakeless and fixed at the same time. My track fork isn't drilled for a brake, and I don't really have the money to buy a new fork, headset, and front wheel. To be honest, it isn't all about the money, I also just want to learn this way.

I am finding that having a really low gear is helpful. (I'm riding 46/19). With a low gear, I am in much better control of my speed and though I can't skid or skip yet, I can lock up the back wheel (unweighting the rear wheel seems to be my problem). With a low gear I am also riding more slowly which gives me more time to look ahead an anticipate.

A lot of people are critical of learning to ride fixed without a brake. I say, if you're willing to ride really slowly and take your time, then go for it.

you mean high gear. or do i mean a low gear and have gotten it wrong?

I think you mean low gear. But I could be wrong too. Happens sometimes...

i've always thought it was in reference to the rear cog... i've thoroughly confused myself now...

high gear (19t on a 46/19)= low output (65+inches)... seems counterintuitive. can someone help me out?

EDIT- i googled it and found my answer... That answer is, I need more coffee.

I started running brakeless one winter when I pulled the lever because a cab was pulling a u-turn right in front of me and I didn't have time for anything else. It stuck closed, and I took the brake off a few days later. It was actually the fact I hadn't used the brake for a couple months that resulted in it failing on me. Even then, it didn't fail, I stopped. It's just that I couldn't go again.

I went back to a brake on that frame later, but then picked up a Bianchi track bike that had nowhere near the room for a brake. I rode it around for awhile brakeless on the streets, but didn't like having to slow down so much to feel like I was in control, especially on any longer downhills...

The Bianchi is getting a new fork this spring so that I can run a brake, and both my other fixies are running front brakes now. One of them is actually going to be running a rear, as well. I plan on putting a rack and fenders on that one, and think that the extra weight justifies the rear. It will be set up as mostly a minimal pressure drag brake, for scrubbing off speed and cadence when I need it.

In the end, I totally recommend that people know what they are doing before just jumping into traffic. That goes for any type of riding. Like it or not, brakeless without skills is more of a risk than a brake and no skills. Brakeless and skills vs brakes and skills is a whole different argument.

got my fixie and started riding brakeless.... at exactly the same instant I learned how to skip/skid. first time in history.

When I became suicidal, ha haha hah

i seriously dont understand how 42% of the people that voted starting riding brakeless before they knew how to skip/skid

did people vote seriously?

That's how I feel about it...as much as I love to skid and hop around, I think it's more fun to play a game of how far can you go on pure anticipation and RPM control without stopping or skipping.

yes this is true, but in the case of an emergency or having to stop real fast, backpedaling wont work

I'm questioning the statistical validity of this poll. The results are heavily skewed in favor of the opinions of those who survived their first brakeless ride. The opinions of those who died while trying go unaccounted. :(

Obviously you are right, but I said I was playing a game. My fun at my own risk.

fair enough, have fun