ultra-g

I took my front brake off the Pista.

I hope I don't kill myself. I plan on starting out going extremely slow.

I also put my track pedals w/clips & straps back on the Pista.

I live by a pretty deserted street at night so I can practice skipping/skidding/trackstands there on my days off.

I decided to do this after reading more articles about track racing, I'd like to go to Kissena Velodrome this summer since I live just a few miles away.

Wish Me Luck. I hope my lockring and cog don't come loose.

redfooj

good luck. though i'd practice skipping/skidding BEFORE i attempt to go brakeless

emayex

eh.....let him crash into a few taxis....he will learn quicker that way...!

MKRG

Learning to pack your chute after you've already jumped, eh?

fixedfiend

Leave the brakes on and take this pill:



or, Go brakeless and take this pill:



"Remember, all I'm offering is the truth. Nothing more."

akky

You can just leave it on, and once you can do a few rides without ever using it, then you'll know you are ready to take it off.

Better to have and not need it, than to need it and not have it.

Msngr

i don't know. i found that having the brake there caused me to use it no matter how hard i tried not to. i think one is better off just losing the brake and being very aware that it is not there. having said all that, i am putting my brake back on right now (rain today).

on another note, g, why go to clips? unless you have the cleats for clips, clipless is stronger. better stopping power.

ch0mb0

You will find that it's easier than you once thought. Take it slow at first, build up your confidence, devise a strategy.

drolldurham

As you can see, we've had our eye on you for some time now, Mr. Anderson. It seems that you've been living two lives. One life, you ride with a brake. You have a social security number, pay your taxes, and you... help your landlady carry out her garbage. The other life is lived on a brakeless bike, where you go by the biker alias "Neo" and are guilty of virtually every cycling crime we have a law for. One of these lives has a future, and one of them does not.

Kennetht638

My solution for this is having an extremely crappy brake. It'll stop me just fine, but after I've applied it once, it sticks half-closed, just barely dragging on the rim (makes trackstanding a bit harder) and the brake lever goes loose and rattles over bumps. So every time I use the brake, I have to reach down and pull the brake arms back apart while I'm riding. I hate doing this, so I don't use the brake unless it's an emergency. And of course it was all on purpose...

steveknight

whats the big deal about having a brake? I get a kick out of the ego/want to make a statment thing. you never know when you will need extra braking. you can never depend on cars and they can be right on you with no notice at all.

drolldurham

no brakes, no helmets, no seatbelts.... increasing your chances of death and being cool go hand-in-hand, it seems. eventually people will figure out how to skydive without parachutes, and then they'll have so many friends!

i personally think my fixie is cool enough as-is, nevermind brakelessness. and if i need to be extra-rad, i'll just slap on my shades.

i wear my sunglasses at night so i can so i can watch you weave....

fixedfiend

Now that's just being plain lazy

steveknight

Like smoking. same thing it's cool.
I would not mind playing with a fixie but I know I cna't handle the hills I go over every day. plus my body likes my bent better anymore (G)

fixedfiend

Actually, if you live in the city and want to score some cool points: Smoke Crack!

Terror_in_pink

here's my story. When i first built my bike i was brakeless. Dummy me. Nothing happened but i went to visit my parents and they live on a huge foothill, it's about 4 miles downhill just to get out of that damn town, so i thew on a road fork and a brake and enjoyed it. I got back to Oakland and thought "hell, i'll just keep it on for a little while longer, it's nice not having to anticipate everything". Although my friends give me continual hell about my "HUGE" Brake lever or my "UGLY" fork i say **** em. I'm riding a front brake until i can skip down huge hills and feel like i have earned the brakeless status. I recently bought a new road fork and a smaller brake lever to ease the aggravation of riding a front brake.

word.

junioroverlord

Well as an avid brake user that has just gone brakeless within the past week I'm going to have to say its really not as big a deal as you might think. I realized how little I actually have to stop. Yeah theres lots of slowing down that you have to do whilest cycling but actually having to stop really quickly just doesn't happen. Now when I rode with a brake I used it for everything and honestly thought that there was no way I could ride safely without one, then I went a few days out of necessity without a brake and realized that its not less safe than riding with a brake.

Believe it or not I can stop just as fast as someone properly braking without the prospect of panic braking and flipping over my bars. I think its unfair to relate riding brakeless to riding without a helmet or riding in a car without a seatbelt. Perhaps riding brakeless is more dangerous than riding with a brake but its not THAT much more dangerous, you guys are acting like we have no means to stop.

Oh and I've had my lockring unthread on me going down a really steep hill and I'm alive to tell the story. Once again, not that big a deal, all I did was not panic and put my foot down, and ta dah! I stopped.

kurremkarm

I would rather have a helmet than brakes.

Terror_in_pink

i think all the anti barekeless people are hating because they're jealous.

(takes cover underneath a rock)

Msngr

no, you cannot stop just as fast as someone with a brake. not even close. where do people get this idea?

as someone who has ridden both brakeless and braked more than most people have ridden either, in heavy traffic 90% of the time, i can tell you that EVERYONE who uses a front brake can stop much more quickly than those who do not. read sheldon brown, do the research, or just think it out.

i get a kick out of riding brakeless. i like the feel, i like the look, i like the challenge. but i know i cannot stop as easily as with a brake. that is why i ride more slowly and carefully w/o a brake.

flythebike

I started riding brakeless because I had a track bike and the fork wasn't drilled. Once I learned how to do it that was it. No going back as long as my knees are good and my bike is light enough to stop fast, and my BB is high enough to allow for skipping. It is about commitment, as the Blue/Red pill poster said. You have to know when to go for it and when to hold back - the same is true of riding with calipers - but when you're brakeless/fixed and you commit, you are really committed. That is what makes it fun.

As I've said before I've wrecked my RB bunches of times, but not my fixie. I think that the brakelessness actually makes me more careful.

drolldurham

sorry if i sounded like i was hatin. i have much respect for brakeless riders, and honestly, it is cool. It's a calculated risk, and i'm just not taking it.

neuron

hmm. i have a brake, actually two.

i live in the city, and peds jump out from between cars all the time. i don't have the immediate stopping power i'd have without the brakes, and i'd probably royally fsck someone up if i just plowed through them. different from plowing into taxis, certainly. i've done that on occasion.

i find i don't use the brake as much now that i'm in a lower gear, but if i need to come full stop, i use my brakes.

Robbykills

back when I didnt have any money in my bank account I did the stupidest thing ever by riding a freewheel bike, no brakes. it was fun and I survived so I figure my brakeless fixie is no where near as bad. I did get in one accident shortly after taking the brake off, but even if I had brakes it wouldnt of mattered as a guy on a bike pulled out from infront of a semi sitting at a red light about 5 feet in front of me and I was going a good 15-20 mph. It taught me to be even more cautious and I haven't wrecked yet.

cg33

How do people in places with a lot of hills (like SF) deal without brakes? On long downhill runs, where cadence goes over 120 or so, I rely on the brake to scrub speed. I for one can't effectively apply back pressure when I'm on the verge of being bounced out of the saddle. Can others?