TreeUnit

Go for a bigger chainring. You won't be spinning as fast, so you might be able to remain in control. If you really, really must avoid using a brake, do a skid every 5 strokes like this guy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nv35s...eature=related

Ride Among Us

i'm glad i don't have to worry about this anymore. i used to ride brakeless. slowing down brakeless was a long process of skips and skids... and going balls-out as fast as you can down a hill was often not possible. then i realized how much i missed just biking fast. so i put a brake back on. now i'm riding everywhere fast again. free to not worry about the light at the bottom of that hill or the stop signs. Puting a brake back on was the best thing i've done in a while. i love riding again.

kmart

-- Henri Desgrange

FarAwayBoy

That's one thing that sucks. If you're riding with your freewheeled friends, they usually drop you on hills.
Damn them and their coasting.

dudezor

That guy's all 'nuts to stem' when he's skidding though, so he's barely doing ***** to wipe off speed that just swerving wouldn't do. And that technique wouldn't fly too well with traffic around.

Once your cadence gets to its limit when you're bombing a hill without brakes you have to commit pretty heavily to your lines, almost like you might on a skateboard. Backpedalling isn't really an option, but skidding is. Once you've skidded down to an acceptable cadence then you can backpedal to maintain speed.

A front brake is a lot easier and more sensible, of course.

bbattle

+1 Brakes are your friends. Above 130-140 rpm, I start bouncing in the saddle.

OP, start scrubbing speed BEFORE you get going too fast. Just take the hill nice and slow. As you gain more experience, you'll be able to increase your speed and still remain in control of the bike. I highly recommend a brake, though. A brake will help you scrub speed and allow you to control the bike better.

xsdg

I agree completely with "Ride Among Us". I like bombing hills. I used to ride brakeless (primarily for technical reasons; not because I wanted to), and having a brake means I no longer have to worry so much about having the time to stop, or saving my legs so that I can stop, or other things like that. I just GO, and I've used my brakes enough to know how quickly I can slow down regardless of how tired I am or other factors like that.

I'm also a big fan of using brakes often (usually in addition to resisting). Knowing how to modulate the brakes when the ____ hits the fan isn't something you're born with, and being able to panic, grab the brakes, and have the reflexes to modulate the brake when the rear end starts coming up has saved me from hitting things and from going over the bars on many occasions. Also, having experience dealing with front-wheel slides can keep you from hitting the deck when they happen in panic situations. Practice, practice, practice.

xsdg

No; "technical reason" means that the Profile TT base bars that I use as bullhorns have an OD of less than 26.0 mm, so my brake levers couldn't close enough to clamp on them. After months of looking for a better solution, I ended up just using a piece of a dead tube as a shim, and it's worked ever since.

shapelike

Did someone say downhill?

https://www.freecaster.com/live/1000006_1005144