I think this must be the most common and potentially dangerous misinterpretation of something Sheldon said.

During maximum braking, your rear wheel is unweighted and unable to provide any braking power. This is, of course, for a nice dry road going in a straight line. As others have pointed out, if the road is wet, especially during autumn, you risk having your front wheel slide out if you try and do this. On wet or icy roads, you need both brakes for max stopping power.

This is also true when you are going fast on a hard turn, which is why road bikes have both a front and rear brake. On a hard turn, you need to keep weight on both wheels so keep from sliding out.

My 1955 Lenton has two brakes and runs fixed /fixed... having that second brake is good on long loaded descents as it can relieve the front brake and reduce heat buildup.

It essentially has three brakes.

I have a rear brake and run fixed. Mostly it's because I like the added hand position of the brake hoods, so there's no reason to run a hood but not run a rear brake. I have yet to use the rear brake but it's there if for no other reason than to give my right side lever something to connect to.

My second lever on my bikes that only have one brake gets used to do things like activate my bell.

Well I don't believe in bells, so nyah


That is pretty clever though

Yep, that's exactly what I was thinking of. When Sheldon says how 100% of braking power comes from the front brake, he restricts that statement to situations where you are stopping as fast as possible, in a straight line, on clean and dry pavement. But readers often seem to misinterpret him as meaning that you only need a front brake, period. So many times on these boards, I've seen someone who doesn't understand why you need a rear brake on a ss bike, because "all your braking power comes from the front". Again, this has to be the most common and potentially dangerous misinterpetation of Sheldon's words.

Yep I run two. It's a flip-flop hub, but I even use both of them when I'm running fixed. The horror!

Do what you want, but if you're running SS then yes, you really should run a front and rear brake (why doesn't anyone know how to spell brake?)

I am probably going to add a rear, riding in seattle yesterday was pretty nutty.
and i destroyed a tire. plus the cars are a little more aggressive here

Also note that stopping takes much less effort when using both hands than when having to squeeze twice as hard with one hand. Obviously not when stopping quickly, but then I'm the kind of guy who stops for red lights at four-lane intersections