Brake Laws
 

Well I got pulled over today for not having a brake on my bike, and I tried to argue otherwise. Apparently, your legs aren't good enough. To me, this is total bull****. According to California law, "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." I believe I'm fully capable of locking my rear wheel up and skidding, which to me, counts as braking. Is there any way I can get out of this?

Why do you think mucky invented the muckybrake?

I'm guessing there is no way around it... The law is the law.

http://omgif.gosedesign.net/wp-content/deal-with-it.gif

It's been tried before unsuccessfully. Just swallow your pride and install a muckybrake or move from Cali to Texas where nobody cares about bikes at all.

What's a muckybrake?

oh, boo hoo

deal with it. :)

muckybrake:

http://27.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_li...9uuyo1_500.jpg

I've had a brake on my seatpost before on a bike that got stolen, but I don't plan on doing it for my current bike. I find it aesthetically displeasing, not to mention I have non-machined rims and I don't plan on ruining them. I'm not trying to sound like some proud and reckless tarckstar who rides brakeless for street cred, it's just that I've put a ton of time and money into making my bike exactly how I want it, and that's how I want it to stay.

What's the use of having a nice bike if you can't ride it?

It's just davis where there are more bikes than cars. How much was the ticket?
I was mashing around on my vigorelli just the other day when I came face to face with a city of san diego cop at an intersection, he just stared at me the entire time with occasional glancing at the light; all I could tell was that he was wondering how I stopped with the lack of brake stuffs.

UC police here don't give an F either, I ride past droves of them nearly everyday past their hangout spot from the library.

Just carry a stick in your bag and say you stick it in your front wheel when you need to brake really fast.

Davis, there's your problem.

And yet, you're entirely succeeding.

even before i clicked this thread i was thinking of the muckybrake.

law is up to interpretation. "equipped with a brake" is the part that california cops and courts are using to issue you the ticket.

and i'm of the opinion that they're right to do so insofar that you are actually breaking the law by any reasonable interpretation.

pretty easy to find your local laws about this, because most places have the exact same language. http://clerk.ci.seattle.wa.us/~scrip...ct6=HITOFF&f=G

i am brakeless and i am breaking the law.

just because you interpret the rest of the law and conveniently think your legs are brakes, does not mean a reasonable person will think so too. a reasonable person would think you need a brake. it's like if there was a law that stated "you must wear pants that have pink frilly tassles around the ankle opening" and so you ran around with a shirt and your johnson wanging out but you had little pink frilly anklets, and when a cop wrote you a ticket for not having pants you were like

"Bro, but just look at my tassles!"

you can contest it, but you'll likely pay more in court fees or attorney fees when you lose because there's no precedent for fixed gears counting as a brake. then again, if you win an appeal it will set precedent and then everyone and their mom can start killing peds with their brakeless fixies. though i'm pretty sure in every court that's heard it they've ruled that you need a brake if you're on public roads.

which is totally something you want, right? for everyone to start riding brakeless?

pay to play, brah.

"Break laws."

as alumni:

no. you cannot get out of that ticket, we've tried for 7 years now.
avoid 3rd street and avoid officer neeves (fastest old man on a bike).
unless it was a fix-it ticket, muckybrake can not write off your current ticket but can help prevent you from anymore future hispter-tax-citations

if you want to continue riding brakeless, pm user "long" on davisfixed and ask him about his art of dodging the cops as he and his girl michele refuse to ride brakeful but never get ticketed.

text me or andrew if you need help. good luck.

Aren't you brakeless guys worried about getting sued if you ever hit anybody? Even if it's not your fault, nobody is going to take the side of the guy who was unlawfully riding a bike without brakes.

i have a brake just in case i get hit by a car. i've heard of instances where insurance doesn't pay out if the cyclist was riding brakeless, even if the car was obviously at fault.


if you don't care about that, just view the fine as a tax for looking hella pro

how would a coaster-brake equipped bike fair in this arguement? Aren't you using your legs as brakes too?

I heard of somebody taking a video of a coaster brake cruiser bike that thousands of college bros ride stopping, then a video of them stopping on a fixed gear from the same speed and doing it in less distance. Showing the video in court and having the fine dismissed.

fixed.

then run a front brake, don't use it, and quit your whining

This won't satisfy the law, which requires that the brake be capable of making the wheel skid. Unless you ride backwards, of course. Mucky is an engineer, who grasped the concept perfectly. Muckybrake, patent pending.

Be thankfull that the law doesn't also require that you wear seatbelts.