"A dollar!? A WHOLE DOLLAR!? but officer I was trying to save up and get a coffeeee(commence to blubbering) and, and maybe a donut...hey buddy spare a quarter?"

Ah, here's how it goes...

Maximum braking power occurs just before a wheel begins to skid. The calculations for friction are actually mass or braking area independent, it only matters what the two materials in contact are.

What a larger braking surface does do is distribute the frictional forces across a larger area which in turn allows you to maintain maximum deceleration longer before the surface begins to break down (and you enter into a skid).

BUT...since you can't skid the front wheel in the first place, a front brake provides just as stopping power as front and rear.

edit: oops... I misread the post. So let me just add that you can still control a bike while braking with the front. Since I know that the front brake still provides greater deceleration than skidding, I just have to trace the same path as I would while fishtailing and I know that I can still slow down faster than with rear wheel braking.

i don't have a front brake on my track bikes because i feel safer without it. one time over the bars in a panic-stop situation was enough for me.

i also tend to obey all the other traffic laws, like stopping at red lights and stop signs and stuff like that, and i'm constantly scanning the road and if it even looks like a car is going to pull out in front of me, i either slow way down, or try to make eye contact with the driver.

most of the people i know who ride both fixed bikes and non-fixed bikes have been in more accidents on their non-fixed bikes, and i've definitely had more close calls on my road bike than on my track bikes (which get much more use). i'm not really sure what that all means within the confines of the brakes vs. no brakes argument, but i think it's interesting.

So you've violated a law, and now want to commit insurance fraud, which is a felony in california punishable of $50k/5 Years in the slammer.... It sounds like you hit your head awful hard in that crash... Something is clearly not right in your brain.. :rolleyes:

You call it insurance fraud, I call it covering his arse.
I'm sure gally99 has a conscience, and has already pondered the dilemma. I don't think anyone here is going to suddenly enlighten him to the "error of his ways."
Anyway, if I was in gally's position, I would do the same thing, most likely. I go by my own sense of right and wrong (within reason), not what some bonehead authority has deemed appropriate. It wasn't his fault he got doored, and if the law isn't capable of covering and rectifying the situation (which it isn't, re: brake issue) then he's gotta do what he's gotta do. It's not like he set fire to his car to collect the money.

I just utterly cannot fathom why some (most?) fixie riders insist on having no hand brakes. Is it really worth the few grams of weight or cool factor?

Enlighten me, please!

Altering the bike (adding brake(s) is the same as changing the events of the accident. Look it at this way: If your were drivin' along in your pimped out car, with non-stret legal mods added, such as a Nitrous System, No muffler, Full window (Windshield/drivers' side window) tinting, etc, and then got into an accident, and suddenly removed all of the illegal bits, that is fraud. EXACTLY what gally99 is doing. Altering the evidence to cover his/her A$$. This is FRAUD, which is Felony.

I would watch out, as you have given deatails of your planned felony, and you don't know what BIG Brother/1984/USA PATRIOT Act types are watching...... :eek:

no, he was just thinking out loud. YOU are the one giving "details" of a planned (hypothetical) felony.

ha. you finally hit on my point here:
.

maybe im wrong, but i think that itd take as much skill to carve a hard fishtail skid on a track bike as it would to trace that same line while using a front rim brake. i havent tried in ages, but i dont recall this being very easy to do. if you measure the fishtail arc linearly (parrallel to the straight rim brake stop) it might just be shorter. ok fine maybe not. id like to see you bust out some equation showing how its a physical impossibility though. thatd be sooo cool. :D

there's loopholes everywhere, which is why i think most laws are ridiculous and if i don't agree with them i'm not gonna pay attention to them anyway...
examples: my truck has several mods that are "illegal", but it's old enough that it's considered a historic vehical, and obviously anything historic can do no wrong, so the mods are allowed on my vehicle...
another example: i was charged with a felony just a little over a month ago... three weeks later the charges were dropped, the other party was arrested, and the judge commended me on my actions in a "disgusting and terrifying situation"...

i really couldn't care less if my thoughts are insurance fraud... it's not even like i'm trying to milk a bunch of money out of this kid... all i want is enough money to replace my bike... the insurance company had to call me three times just to convince me to take $250 for "pain and inconvenience"... i'm really not trying to **** the kid...

besides, looks more like the company doesn't even wanna see the bike anymore, they just want a quote...