+1 on the right side brake lever. As for going 40+ km/h downhill and using the front brake as an emergency... Don't be foolish and jam on the brake because you are almost 100% guaranteed to endo. Slowly pump the brake/add more & more pressure as needed. If you really are in a pinch and feel you are going to endo... LEAN BACK ON YOUR BIKE WHEN YOU JAM ON YOUR FRONT BRAKE !!!

Dude, don't take our criticism here as a flame or an attack on your judgement... I think everyone here is speaking with experience about the situation.

I didn't listen to most people on the other forums about gearing until I truely experienced it myself and now understand the importance to having multiple gears on a cross bike. That's me accepting that others may have been right by discovering it for myself.

If you are riding a ss/fixie bmx with only a rear brake...just be careful. We don't need another 'RIP' sticky post. Funny how a bunch of people out there that you most likely have never met want to look out for your life and give you free advice.

I think we can all agree in me saying: We don't need to read about another person being picked off the road or off from underneath some ones tires.

^^+10 Well put.

So you could stop a bike with a brake faster than one without a brake? Stop the presses!

Emergency stop: Seat in chest, bum on rear tire, grab front brake. Practice this before you need it. It could save your life.

Situational awareness is all and good, but ANY bike would stop way better with a front brake, even your cruiser. "just fine" is all about matter of degrees - sometimes an extra couple of feet on your braking distance is enough to cost you your life.

As far as traction goes - in poor traction a front brake becomes even more important because the rear doesn't do ****. As a long time mountain biker, I feel naked without a front brake. It just feels wrong.

The first time he uses a front brake properly will probably be a religious experience then :)

I didn't see this mentioned, so I'll give my reasons for advocating both front and rear brakes on any freewheeled bike....I generally use my front and rear brakes judiciously, depending upon what kind of terrain I'm on, what the weather is like, etc.

On wet, slick ground I usually use the rear brake as a primary, shifting my weight to the rear of the bike, because I can control a rear-wheel skid so much better than I can a front skid. Ditto on sand, gravel, etc. Going down a steep, fast, clean incline I'll rely on the front brake, because it has so much more stopping power. Like others have mentioned, modulation is the key to good braking-- it's not a bloody lightswitch. If I need extra help, I'll use the rear as well, but will pump it just a little to reduce speed.

As far as I'm concerned, having two brakes on a freewheeled bike is the responsible thing to do, because they undoubtedly make the bike safer (and it's my responsibility as a cyclist to be as safe as I can). I can't think of a decent reason to forgo it...and using only one brake for aesthetic reasons is the height of idiocy. I don't care if BMXers have been doing it, etc. Anybody using a BMX bike for transportation over a mile is either broke or stupid: the automotive equivalent is riding around in a stunt car.

+1


My front brake is controlled with a right hand lever. It isn't confusing at all though I am used to right/back left/front from a decade and a half on mountain bikes. I just know that on my track bike when I use the only brake lever it controls the only brake on the bike--the front. Not too hard.

But really.....If you are riding on the road so fast that your rear wheel will slide out with no mercy and any touch of the front brake will send you flying over the handlebars, you've got other problems---poor modulation, riding too fast for the conditions, etc.

I spent the last three winters commuting in Connecticut on my mountain (front rear), a BMX (rear only), and a fixed gear (non for a while, then front only) and in all cases I was fine. All is well if you adjust your riding to the bike and to the conditions.

I would run any bike with two methods of braking, so you have an emergency backup.

in my years of riding ive seen all kinds of **** happen.. Ive seen brakes pull out of the frame and go dangling, ive seen brake cables snap, ive seen a stick get lodged in the frame just right to **** up brakes.. So i would go with both just for that.

But if I had to do only one, id absolutely go with the front one, since it stops so much better.