I posted a this as a reply in another thread but thought it deserved its own.

icithecat wrote:
I was thinking that this term was in reference to when 'my friend the idiot' was coming down a 13% grade and could not stop because his legs were spagetti after climbing it and had no more power to resist. With no brake to slow him down, the inevitable happened.


I replied:
This is got to stop people. Just because we ride brakeless dosen't make us idiots. What make your friend an idiot is not being able to swallow his pride and walk down the hill. I refer you to a testimonial about going brakeless that states it better than I can. Please read:

https://www.oldskooltrack.com/files/home.frame.html

Then later:
I realised the link was not working correctly so here is the article in full taken off the forementioned link:

How it Started
After two crashes in as many days last week, I knew something must be up. At first I thought it was a sign that I needed a better brake, but then I got to thinking (and riding) and it came to me....
Am I Really Doing This??
Of course, I was somewhat dubious about my conclusions. My "common sense" kept flaring up: this is berkeley after all, and I don't live in the flat part anymore- I live in the hills. How could it be safer to ride without brakes? So I devised an experiment, of sorts- I'd ride brakeless for a week, or at least as long as it took the new brake to come in the mail, and if I still had faith in my conclusions, I'd keep the brake off.
Yes Am I Really Doing This!!
Well here we are, a week later, and I am brakeless, and a safer rider for it. I am more aware of traffic, of pedestrians, of doors. I ride more flow, no sprints followed by quick deceleration at the other end of the block, simply because I have to. I find myself not taking the same risks I would with the "safety net" of the brake. I ride at a more laid back pace, to facilitate braking by backpressure, and I'm not tempted to go faster, especially because I have not yet mastered skipping/skidding. I wear a helmet where I wouldn't where one before.
Perfect Control
The culmination of the week was last night, when I took the fix to the Berkeley critical mass (yeah, we like to do things differently here in Berkeley...) and rode 2+ hours brakeless, feeling perfectly in control the entire time. Besides this fact, I met another brakeless rider (with an awesome old skool cinelli) who had come to the exact same conclusion- and he'd been riding brakeless for a year.
So I thought I'd make my joining the ranks of brakeless riders official. This is my testimonial.

Ride ON!
© Jeremy Till, 2004

Idiot.

Yeah, idiot!

Wait a minute... what are brakes again?

You sir, have inspired me to change my sig back to what it was the day I started my blog.

Idiot....

Oh, and to say this :

How long have you been brakeless?

And, FYI, just because you ride brakeless doesn't mean you aren't an idiot. How do you know his friend wasn't an idiot before?

Phooey I like my brakes.

everybody is an idiot.

HereNT - what's a rideer?

it must be a kind of deer...

I don't think the gripe (or at least, my gripe) with brakeless is effectively articulated. Generally speaking, it's the "holier than thou" or "brakeless is the only answer" attitude that goes along with the purportedly zen-enducing decision that bothers me.

Though riding brakeless has forced some people to become more aware, more careful, and in general, more skillfull riders, it is not the only way to become a more aware commuter.

If I were to take a newly "enlightened" rider off of their brakeless bike and onto a fixed gear with a brake, their safety will have increased exponentially, regardless of the facilities available to them to slow down the bike; The "saftey net" of the brake is not innately mechanical, but rather entirely psychological.

One can come to the conclusion that it is necessary to be a more aware rider without needlessly increasing their stopping distance to damn near deadly levels. You can attain all of the skills by simply coming to the same realization that you're relying entirely on your brake instead of common sense, while leaving your damned brake on for emergencies.

It's called will-power. Remember, the thing that keeps you from giving in and buying a car and driving everywhere?

May be deer replelent for cyclists?

ah yes, rideer replelent. Thanks (?)

So one week of riding brakeless is definitive proof? Maybe he was just a ****** rider to begin with.

I will start this off by saying that I have not had a brake on my bike for close to 6 years now. I don't like them and that is my choice. I have never crashed due to the lack of a brake. I have no problem with those that want to ride with them but keep in mind that I CHOOSE to not. So let the tale begin. A few years ago when I was delivering still, I had a friend by the name of Chris. Since I knew him he didn't ride with a brake, two days after installing a front brake on his fixie a ped decided to cross the street inbetween two parked cars without a crosswalk in sight and without looking either way. Well Chris being a somewhat novice brake user grabbed that lever so tight he went up and over the bars and smashed his face against the pavement. Broken jaw, missing teeth and a ped who never stopped to check if he was ok. So I ask how is it that he was safer with a brake then without?
I love to ramble sometimes.

I'd go brakeless if only I had more balls

Chris never took time to get to know his brake.

On the other hand, I always ride with a brake. I've been in similar situations, be they peds or vans. When I hit the brake, I often lift the rear wheel off the pavement, I happen to know either how to anticipate that or feel it or whatever, but it's never an uncontrolled thing. The rear comes up as much as a foot without any issues with control or pitchover. I know at that point I'm achieving maximum braking power. I'm braking with the front wheel, I'm not skidding, I'm just shy of pitchover, ergo the best anyone can do with any kind of wheel-friction braking.

On the other hand, should I remove my brake and not take the time to get well acquainted with brakeless stopping, well, I'd probably be in a world of hurt there too.

I'm not going to speak to whether brakeless are idiots or not, I really think that's an individual decision. I do get annoyed at all the "brakes are for losers" or whatever, but it's nothing I'm going to lose sleep over. I also worry about the wannabe cool kids who pull off their brake without being able to really control their brakeless rides.

But really what it comes down to is understand the mechanism you have chosen to stop your rig, make sure that you can operate it proficiently, make sure that you know how to use it in a "panic" situation. Anyone who doesn't is the idiot.

what are you doing riding brakeless if you don't know how to skid?

i'm amazed at how many people i see starting out riding fixed, on the street, with no brakes.

Nothing protects you from being ********. When I first started out I never crashed as you describe because I read about proper braking and modulation and practiced before I got into a panic situation.

So what you're saying is, because your friend didn't know how to use a brake, it is less safe for him to ride with one?

That's like saying pens are unsafe because I thought the pen was to be jabbed directly into my eyeball. CLEARLY PENS ARE UNSAFE BECAUSE I'M AN IDIOT.

Also, I'd like to point out something that should be fairly obvious to any who's ever taken a science-oriented class: Anecdotes are no substitute for evidence and reason.

It stands to reason that because your stopping distance is decreased drastically by a brake (when used properly), brakes contribute to your safety on a bike. They are no substitute for common sense, awareness, and agility. Your experience, regardless of how many years you've managed to ride without killing yourself, does not serve as definitive evidence that brakeless is more safe, or any crazy nonesense like that. People smoke their entire lives without developing cancer. It does not mean that smoking does not cause cancer, but rather that that person was extremely lucky.

Riding brakeless is certainly your decision to make, but let's not pretend it's more safe to do so.

brakes, huh? i, on the other hand, learned how to bunnyhop over cars, buses, paddywagons, and pedestrians. all because of my little alien buddy who rides in my handlebar basket. now *that's* control! drop cool points here...

ask lucklust...

agreed.
you should at least know how to skip/skid if brakeless is how you ride. Yelling "Out of the way! I have no brakes!" (which has been done per someone in this forum) is worthy of getting run over.

Exactly... You not only need to love the bike you ride but learn how to ride the damn thing to begin with.

So lets see if I follow the logic of brakeless

- one gets an added sense of security with a brake to prevent self damage during a random mishap
- added sense of security lulls one into sense of complacency and less awareness
- less awareness increases chance of random mishap
- more mishaps lead to increased likelihood of self hurt
- by removing brake, one has less sense of security
- less security increases awareness
- increased awareness reduces chance of random mishap

ok, I'm cool with that

- if adding one brake creates complacency then 2 brakes must put one into a brain fog
- can't imagine what a couple of disc's would do
- on the other hand, if brakeless takes one towards more awareness then what would brakeless with a free freewheel do for one's self zen

Ok I just wanted to put my little 2 cents in. I could really care less what you think is safe. Ride with brakes all you want. Hell ride around town with a coaster brake, two sets of calipers and jam your foot into your front wheel to stop. Whatever floats your boat. Hell I could vcare less what you do with that pen as well. I was just telling a story. Oh and just for a little side note. A year or so later Chris got a beat down by an off duty MBTA cop who decided that he was more important in his car on Milk ST. then Chris was on his bike. The kid just had bad luck.