Tips for learning how to stop on a fixed gear more efficiently?
 

I recently got in to an accident after a car braked right in front of me because he was trying to get on the freeway and two from our group passed him to his right. I was right behind, and ate it big time.

I only have front brakes on my kilo tt. I know you are supposed to try to apply pressure using your legs to slow the back wheels, but often times I find it very difficult.

On downhills, I usually pump my front brakes so I don't go too fast and so I don't flip over the handlebars if I use the front brakes too hard.

Any tips on ways to stop faster, exercises to stop faster etc.

I am considering adding back brakes...

+1 on tippssssssssss

No, you're not. You're supposed to learn how to use your front brake properly. That means practicing hard braking so that you know how much braking force you can apply without your rear wheel lifting off the ground. That's the fastest stop you can practically make.

Rear wheel braking is only valuable for:
a) basic redundancy
b) poor traction situations (snow, ice, gravel, etc.)
c) cornering near the limits of traction
d) reducing wear and heat on the front brake surfaces and pads

At my shop I run into so many people who do not use their front brake because they have a fear of going over the bars when they should be more afraid of being unable to stop fast enough to avoid a collision.

I can tell they don't use their front brakes because they often have little to no wear while the rear brakes often need replacement.

A decent front brake will give you all the stopping power you will ever need if it is applied properly.

When you brake hard you need to shift your weight back as far as possible to keep the rear wheel in contact with the road and push against the bars to resist what can be nearly 1 g in braking force.... when the rear wheel starts to lift or skid you will know you have reached your maximum braking capacity and may have to modulate the brake a little.

This is something one needs to practice at every stop until it becomes reflex... and soft braking becomes more of a conscious effort.

Basically...once you have good technique, turn every stop into a panic stop.

Repeat this a few thousand times until you can stop the bike on a dime and get 5 cents change without thinking about it.

My youngest daughter (she's 9) does this all the time and I actually had to upgrade the brakes on her little 20 inch mtb to Avid V's with Kool stops because she can hit 35 kmh and needed far better braking power.

When I call "Stop" the girls know this is a right now affair becuase there may be some danger they can't see so they really hammer those brakes... and we practice this alot.

My youngest will use her brakes to modulate her speed when we are riding but when we hit a light or an intersection she hammers on the front brake... not the rear.

My oldest daughter has been taught the same thing and because they ride more upright bicycles with a set back position and higher bars going otb is not much of a risk.

Their front brakes are going to wear out long before the rear ones do.

I wouldn't recommend braking by back-pedaling, except at a low speed (maybe up to ~10m/h or so max), which is also the reason riding brakeless is so stupid in my opinion.

get a brake

whole can of worms~

i know riding brakeless puts me in a totally concentrated state of mind about my speed, surroundings, cars passing by, when to slow down...
i feel like having a brake allows you to neglect that state of mind so you just mash and mash and mash and hope that your brakes will save you when and if an accident occurs but it might be too late because you're going too fast~

i say learn to ride more consciously.
all this or im just talking out of my ass. <3

I say you collided because you were too close to the car you are following. But this doesn't mean you are bad or something. I get into similar situation with taxi cabs as they suddenly halt at cross-sections. This leaves me only two options. One to stop hard or steer out into another lane (which isn't really a better option).

The best idea is to learn to predict when car would suddenly slow down. Cross-sections, ramps, etc. (in my case, right after cross-sections.) So you are already slow enough to stop with ease if that happen. Yep, when you are "ready" to stop, you can stop. (kinda dumb I know, but it is very true)

But that doesn't mean you shouldn't practice hard-stopping and the other jibba-jabba.

This post doesn't mean I don't get into trouble anymore. In fact, I nearly slammed into a taxi last week. I had to stop so suddenly, my rear tire lifted up scary high. (I need to learn to brake better myself.)

That last comment is correct.

Yes, unfortunately I find you to be talking out your ass. It is brakeless riders who are overwhelmingly reckless and endangering. Not the other way around. Of course, there is that <1% of riders who do it safely and do it well. Of course. But, I'm actually giving a lot of slack when I say 1%. I have every confidence the number is less that 1/10th of that. I'm tired of the "consciousness" mantra. Don't mistake me for a minute - if you choose to ride brakeless and you enjoy it then good. But, you are less safe regardless of how much attention you pay and if you are riding at any considerable speed you are downright reckless.

The individual is asking about brakes. He/she is not asking about how to improve their "consciousness" through taking on unnecessary and unintelligent risk.

Instead, I usually like to ride fast. Thanks though, if I ever feel the urge to meditate while cycling I'll consider removing my brakes.

he said ride aware, not ride slow. learn english

OP wouldn't have crashed if he was considering his outs. a car can stop closer than a bike, don't tailgate. if you're gonna tailgate, think about where you're gonna go to avoid a crash. when the car stops, you already know where you're gonna go.

Um, I understand English just fine, thanks.
And yes, there's no way he's as fast without brakes as I'm with brake, regardless of how "conscious" he is (lol btw, do you think I ride with my eyes closed?)

I'd say that comment has a good degree of wisdom to it. That is; take note of your environment, be aware, make allowances, check what people & traffic are doing. Yes, all of the things you should be doing anyway (fixed or not) but more so!

It's kind of the reverse of 'the best defence is a good offence'; the most efficient braking is trying to make sure you don't have to! Other than that, practice hard braking on the front brake and learn its limits.

This

I wasn't tailgating btw. There was no bike lane on this street, so I was on the free way on ramp lane, to the left as possible. The car was on the lane nearest to the freeway on ramp lane. He switched lanes without signaling, but had to stop in the middle because two bikers rode to his right to pass him. I was just behind him when it happened. I don't think I ran in to him come to think about it, I think I tried to swerve out of the way and I lost control.
I guess I had a number of options, but all the ones I could think of involved me on the ground.

Some times accidents are unavoidable.
Your two friends made it around him but in the process made the driver panic and stop. Don't be on the left side of the road when your on a freeway on ramp and cars are merging left, you put your self in a bad spot to begin with. Never rely on other people to signal.

Plan for the worst and hope for the best. It has never failed me.

This. If you apply slight to moderate back pressure (not trying to skid) while you're aggressively braking with your front brake - You will know when you've hit max braking force because of the feedback you receive from your legs. You will begin to skid with your rear wheel without really trying to skid. This is because friction is reduced between your wheel and the ground as your back wheel starts to loose contact with the ground.

Yup. This is the way I brake on everything two wheeled, even my motorcycles. Since I ride everything, I find this technique to be valuable equally on the trails, where you're negotiating a NUMBER of things, let alone the steepness of some areas. You have roots, ruts, reggae, rocks, logs, small animals, other riders coming to opposite direction... all on a thin slice of singletrack among a forest of trees.

On my non-fixed off road bikes and motos, I use the rear brake to slide into turns... it's a faster way of getting through some stuff.

But even when we were BMX'ing back in the 80s and 90s, we still employed this. Not because anybody told us how... it just felt right. Folks would be suprised how much riding a variety of bikes helps in bike handling skills.

You are right, though. On a fixed gear with a front brake, you can stop ON A DIME.

That's a hell of a frightening picture, it's bonechilling.

I'm relatively new to riding fixed, and have had to do some quick stops a few times. I ride with brakes, so should I feel the leg feedback that's being talked about? I've heard that riding fixed makes you more sensitive to exactly when your back wheel will lift up. I think I've felt this happen, but I've never actually fallen off due to a stop.

Bonechillingly hilarious!

And those would be the ones riding "Big Wheels®" on the sidewalk. :)

get a front brake, you can endo

Seriously, just practice. First thing you should do when you hop on a new bike, in a new car, on a new motorcycle, etc is figure out how to stop, then how to stop in a hurry. Then find the limits. Common sense before heading out into the wild.

Epic brake fail facepalm?

It's funny how so many people on this thread have reacted to riding brakeless... I guarantee 90% of them ride like they are drunk on a regular basis. I've ridden brakeless for years. Every now & then i come across a rider who is obviously got something to prove & rides like an @ss, but typically the brakeless riders i encounter in NYC & Brooklyn, S.F., Chicago, etc. are hands down more skilled than their braked counterparts. It's not an argument about brakes or no brakes, it's a conversation about careless vs. focused riding. The guy that started this thread was obviously on the side of careless.

My whole thinking is, if you are going to take the risk of learning how to ride a fixed gear bike without the use of brakes, don't be a j@ck@ss... take it slow & tune into the flow of a city. And for fuxx sake, always have a way out of a given situation (don't ride directly behind vehicles).

bring it.

as the other guy said, don't try to back pedal unless it is under 10 mph or so. skidding is too dangerous and ineffective, especially for beginners.
i would suggest just do what these guys said. ride with front brakes, and learn to use it. i could relate to that guy in the picture though, i didn't go through the back window, but i ate the pavement either way. the best things i learned after posting this thread are.
1. practice using front brakes.
2. put your weight back on the saddle to prepare for a hard front braking.
3. don't turn the handlebars, try to have it really straight, then brake.
4. try to scope out far ahead, but some things you just can't prevent. like what happened to me. its like a luck of the draw. in that split second, what you practiced with the front brakes comes in.

The physical term is weight transfer, such that the harder you apply the front brake, the more downward force is applied to the front tire, which results in greater traction. In a panic stop hard braking situation, I instinctively push my butt back, even off the rear of the saddle to maximize the weight transfer, whilst still keeping the rear wheel on the ground. It has always been a mystery to me why front and rear brakes on bicycles are the same size, since the braking force achievable with the rear wheel is much less than the front. This is why my motorcycle has two huge front disk brakes and one tiny rear disk brake. Even then, I have to be careful not to lock up the rear wheel under hard front braking. Although most of my road bikes have rear brakes, I rarely use them, and my street fixed gear only has a front brake.

I think the point a lot of people are missing here is that you CAN NOT and WILL NEVER be able to account for everything. You will NEVER be able to account for other drivers. Even in the best possible situation where you are aware of your outs and you have planned for the worst bad things can still happen. Having a brake is not about being a good rider or not; its about being prepared for an emergency situation. I don't care who you are or how long you've been riding. To ride without a brake is to ride without being prepared for every possible situation. To ride without a brake is to ride without ensuring that you've got all of your outs.