Oh god no way I would use a brake in London too, you people ride on the wrong side of the road :)


Skidding is actually a poor technique of stopping because well your skidding. Skipping is a finesse technique where on each pedal stroke that the pedals are horizontal to the ground, so as the pedal comes up from 6 o’clock to 9 o’clock you take the weight off the back tire just enough to stop the wheel with the cranks and then weight the tire again. Don't actually jump the tire in the air though you can do that but every time your tire is not in contact with the road you are not affectively slowing down. Repeat on the opposite pedal stroke till stopped or in control.

Skidding is still a very useful skill because it shows that you understand the weight distribution of your bike. And in the event of an emergency you wil want to skid out like you would on skis for example.

For what it´s worth, I ride an old 10-speeder converted to SS with a freewheel and really enjoy it, why not just try and see? a freewheel is cheap.

I ride a ghetto singlespeed conversion whilest I wait for the money to finish converting it to fixed gear, and last night while riding out to get some food in a downpour (which doesn't happen very often here in LA) I wished with all my heart I was riding fixed. With all the rain, my brakes failed. Thank the gods I wasn't going very fast and wasn't in traffic, but that was freaking scary. Fixed gear could have saved my life!

Steel rims? Alu rims and getting rid of ganky old hardened brake pads will work wonders. You may still have some delay in brake response, but it won't be complete failure.