are fixies road legal?
 

i am new to the whole fixie thing and am planning to convert my old peugeot to a fixie.

my question is, the california state law for operating a bicycle on the street is that you need to have at least one wheel that can skid on dry pavement to be street legal. must i put on a caliper brake to comply legally, or can i wing it with none? i am missing a crucial piece to be able to put caliper brakes on the rear of my bike, so will front be ok, if not very safe?

thanks for any help.

You should have at least one brake on your bike. Two are even better, but one is better than none.

Fronts fine, maybe read some bike laws online?
good luck

i'm not sure about california's law, but starting with a front brake may be a good idea if you're new to fixed gears. many people run a front brake, a few people run a rear brake, and a few people run both front and rear.

Front brake is all you need.

Equipment Requirements. VC 21201
a) No person shall operate a bicycle on a roadway unless it is equipped with a brake which will enable the operator to make one braked wheel skid on dry, level, clean pavement.

http://www.bikelink.com/law_safety.htm

Put two brakes on it. You'll give yourself another hand position and you might want to put a freewheel on the other side of that flip-flop hub.

Go with two brake. One brake lever just looks dumb, IMO. And it's always better to have more stopping options than fewer.

i follow a higher law. =P

Yeah, I just built up my first ss/fg and it has two brakes and two road brake levers. More hand positions and hey, extra stopping power if need be.

If you are running one brake it goes on the front... and you can't stop any faster than you can with a well set up front brake.

Not unless you have a bell
 

9-21-11-8. Bicycle to be equipped with bell or similar
device.--A person may not ride a bicycle unless the bicycle is
equipped with a bell or other device capable of giving a signal
audible for a distance of at least one hundred (100) feet. A
bicycle may not be equipped with and a person may not use upon a
bicycle a siren or whistle.

Indiana Law

I cringe at the thought of someone demanding I prove to them I can skid with my front brake...

Yeah. Goes to show the people that makes the laws know nothing about them.

So skid with your rear "brake"

All the rules that apply in Califas.

http://http://www.dmv.ca.gov/pubs/vc...tocd11c1a4.htm

Surely with a fixie you can resist forward movement with enough strength to cause the rear wheel to skid.

Laurence Fishburne says otherwise.

There have already been legal challenges to this.

We are talking about safety here and anyone who runs a brake and knows how to use it will tell you that their stopping power is greatly increased by adding a front brake... a rear brake just replaces one's legs as the mechanism by which one can skid their bike.

Skidding is a crappy way to stop your bike... but it does look impressive.

bwaahahahahah true that. quicksilver ftw!

If the bike where strictly used off road and for tricks I wouldn't see any issue. But for riding on road and around other people I would want brakes. Especially front brakes. A majority of your stopping power is in the front brake. When you stop weight is transferred to your front wheel giving it more traction and stopping power. Your rear wheel will skid before your front.

Here in FL the law, unless I'm remembering it wrong (though I'm pretty sure I'm not), requires that your bike be "equipped with a brake that allows the rider to stop within 25 ft. at a speed of 10 mph on level, dry pavement."

I don't use a brake, though, and where I live fixed gears are such a rare sight that I've never been approached by any LEO's to prove it; I've never tried it to see if I could. They are much more likely to stop you for not having a light at night.

riding without a brake is illegal in the city, but never ever ever enforced. if you've never ridden fixed gear before, you should have a front brake on your bike for at least 6 months (in my opinion) before even considering going brakeless.

in sacramento, california its
"ride a fixie go to jail"

Basically, the law you cite there is ambiguous and poorly written. It's obviously written by people who don't know much about bikes. It's not even clear whether a brakeless bmx legally has a brake, because you can skid the rear wheel on that kind of setup by jamming a shoe in between the rear wheel and top tube.

The laws of physics however, very clearly state that it's sketchy not to have a means of reliably braking both wheels. A fixed drive train is good enough to brake the back wheel if you're not riding in conditions like a steep downhill section of a dirt trail---off road/ extreme weather fixys should probably have a mechanical rear brake too. For the front you need a mechanical brake. Of course you can get away with having less brakes than this (ss with front brake only, brakeless fg, brakeless bmx, etc). But it's significantly less safe, and correspondingly it's more demanding of operator ability.

The only place I've heard of the man messing with fixie riders is (where else) Portland, OR. It's your hide; keep yourself safe. Chicks are substantially less impressed with dueling scars than action-adventure novels would lead one to believe.

The law has possibly been on the books for over a half-century, dating from the time when the American cycling paradigm was children riding coaster-braked bikes.

tcs