London Fixed-gear and Single-speed

You came to the wrong forum...

There is a Holy Trinity there, yes.

is he your brake?

Will people please stop interrupting the conversation that Balki and I are trying to have, across continents, on matters of supreme importance? It's quite aggravating having to quote each other's posts when it could all flow so naturally.

only if you cross your fingers whilst squeezing the lever

I pulled my front brake while on the rollers last night.

As a qualified scientist I should have been able to calculate the outcome, and not needed to.
As a childish idoit, with a reckless streak. I could'nt resist the instant knowledge.

The wheels slowed, and the momentum of my legs depressed the front tyre very slightly. I started to topple. So I released the brake and started pedaling again.

I had secretly hoped to explode though the living room wall, in a ball of fire, accompanied by a sonic boom.

But alas. Meh.

If you are not used to riding fixed it gives you an extra level of security.

Engaging a rear brake is not more dangerous fixed than with a freewheel.

I only deal in FACTS based on experience.

Three brakes - ultimate control, i can go faster on the descent, can save my legs a bit, and be a lots more comfortable, especially on start/stop traffic.

Three brakes are fucking underrated.

Five brakes would be even better--fixie cog, rim brakes, and disk brakes. Brakes, brakes, brakes. Show the law where it can stick its pitifully under-specced brake requirements.

Eight brakes tiswas, you forget the face...

Fool to you, you non-ambidextrous two-wheel rider who don't use your true potential.

You lot think you're sooooooo clever.
But what happens when if....

Your disc brakes have sprung a leak;
your rim brake cables have failed;
your legs are cramped with fear; and
you need both hands to control the handlebars?

If you are properly prepared like me, you pull the cord.

Should slow me enough, not to have to employ the bar mounted airbag.

Brakes? Fixed gear mechanisms?

Brakeless freewheel FTW!

I have done some brakeless riding recently. Now I have put one back on. It was mildly exciting.

Thank you for listening.

A bit late for the TNRC bad dad award, no?

I rode brakeless once, scoble told me off.....

I ride brakeless all the time.








At the velodrome.

Well, I headed down to the ceremony but couldn't stop my bike when I got there...

Saw a real moron a few weeks back. No rear brake, no front brake, ah must be fixed I think. Hmm flat pedals, OK no retention, whatever. Holly shit! he's riding single speed.

So, no brakes what so ever.

I politely suggested he might want to address this issue to be met with:

"I've been riding as a courier like this for years".

Darwin...

If he really has been a courier for years, then rather than buying him this:
it might bet better to buy him this
which is wittier and simpler than
but gives the same lesson; that by allowing a courier to ride faster,the fitting of brakes to a bicycle permits a greater productivity, and a profit will soon be realised in spite of the initial outlay on the equipment.

"I've been riding as a courier like this for years" means he/she is still trying to get to their package or the recipient. They started the journey years ago and are continually foiled by bigger, heavier vehicles and hard things, like walls.

Hi

I was wondering if you guys could advise me. I am building up a low pro bike (single speed) at the moment, things are going pretty well with regards to getting decent and compatible parts. Now I am looking into how I will set up the braking on this bike.

On my current bike I only bother with a front brake. Seeing as the posture of the rider on a low pro is different I am concerned that if I were to brake from the front I would be more likely to fly head over the handlebars ..... Is this a misconception or should I really be looking into putting in a rear brake as well?

I don't find it makes much difference, but I do ride with both brakes for better control: cue argument.

Without taking the geometry into account I think the fact that its single speed and not fixed, for your own safety, would mean its probably best to use a rear brake as well as a front. But that's just my opinion.

i didnt mention but my current bike is fixed. I have never tried a single speed before, so essentially this is an experiment.

Oh no, I am sorry, as you stated the new one will be 'single speed' I assumed you meant SS with a free cog rather than a fixed cog? If fixed, just a front brake will be fine. If you slam on your brake and you only have a front brake, you're probably going to go over the bars anyway, unless you distribute weight to the back and lock your legs up to skid, no matter what kind of a frame.

If running a free cog I would advise both front and back brakes.

1: If your lo-pro fits properly, your posture is not different from riding on the drops on a normal track/tt bike
2: The small front wheel and short front centres do make it more likely that you'll tip over under braking (from the science point of view, the change in the position of the fulcrum lowers the magnitude of deceleration which will initiate tipping)
3: At this point, a back brake is only providing a couple of hundred grams of ballast to keep the back wheel down

If your brakes are working properly, there will always be times when the quickest stop is the one where the back wheel is barely touching the ground. You need to be able to keep the back wheel there, neither pressing on the ground nor lifting far off it, whatever bike you're on. If the first time your back wheel comes off the ground is when a car pulls out in front of you, you will probably go over the bars, so practice somewhere quiet with nice grippy tarmac so you don't get surprised at the worst possible time.

There are circumstances when you can't use the full power of the front brake, in which case having a back brake can make a small additional contribution, so if your frame has fittings for a back brake, always fit one, whether you're riding fixed or free. Not doing so is the dumbest kind of false economy.

Not wishing to stir up the "antis".
But:
Was having one of those semi enjoyable/serious silly commuter races into work this morning. Me on my double braked SS agains a young guy on a fixed with no brakes. Spinning along at about 23mph side by side with me progresivly upping the pace.
Off kerb steps I-blivious ped with a 90 degree instant direction change.
I stopped, (just), Mr Fixed collected ped in proper stylee.
They were both OK ish: Dents and scrapes all round.
Must be a moral in there somewhere.
Probably: Don't engage in silly communter races.

I ride fixed with a front brake usually, but I've just swapped my forks over and can't get my brake to sit properly in it (keeps rotating around as though it's not gripping the fork) so I've been riding brakeless for a couple of days, I feel like I can stop ok under normal circumstances (coming up to junctions etc) but luckily I haven't had to do any kind of emergency stop type scenario because I really don't think I could stop anywhere near as fast as I could with a brake. Also, does anyone know what I mean about the brake caliper spinning/ how to stop it?

Do you mean you pull the brake and it goes lopsided? If that is the case, loosen the mounting bolt a touch.

You need a brake anti-rotation washer. If you haven't got one in your parts bin, ask somebody who has.

Good call.

I was going to post but couldn't bring myself to write 'spiky little washer thing' and sound like a derp.

thanks gang! I'll go down to my lbs tomorrow

Tester is, as usual, right. I haven't followed the previous 42 pages of this thread but, in a pub debate, someone will always have their 'opinion' on the best way to brake. I've often tried to explain (after a few beers) that front wheel braking is the ONLY way to stop fast in an emergency and that you should adopt it as your sole braking method when riding normally because, as Tester says, you don't want to learn in an emergency.

So, I thought I'd write a quick piece on Physics for Hipsters explaining the theory behind front wheel braking. Hopefully in laymans terms. http://ligneusbikes.wordpress.com/20...less-clueless/

If you can't be bothered to get to the end (or even the start) then the answer is that front wheel braking, fixed or non-fixed is 2 times more effective than back wheel braking in an emergency stop. So riding brakeless automatically halves your braking capacity even if you're totally switched on and can stop whenever you want to.

It should also be a lesson for all the rear wheel brakers to start to learn to use the front wheel brake more effectively as you might just need it one day!

42 pages.. I'm not sure physics is going to change anyone's mind.

Linc..... DAS >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

I was into wooden bikes long before they were cool.

What are the physics behind doing "whip skids" and pushing the back wheel out to the side? Does science agree that it makes you stop faster? Can you use science to test whether it makes you look cooler?

I guess it would be exactly the same as a normal skid. It all depends on how far forward or back your bodyweight is. It could be that you naturally lean back a bit more as you whip skid so you get more weight on the back and slow down quicker.

Yes. Linear relationship between angle of bike relative to the road and level of coolness. Unless you happen to hit something or something hit you because you should have use the front brake instead!

bit hard to explain.

skid - not slowing down. you're still sliding forward, it's all for showing off that you're in some weird kind of gang that goes around treatening cafe staff (as Lino said).

whip-skid (if that what skip skids is now called) effectively act almost like an poorly programmed ABS, by lifting and locking the rear wheel before it come in impact with the tarmac to skid a bit at every pedal rotation.

I'd says it's slightly more effective than 'skidding', and prolonged your tyres lifespan noticably so, either way, neither of them is still not the most effective way of slowing in comparison to the ol' front brake + fixed combo.

Do they let you leave the gang?

condor.

The moment I have an extra spacer on my steerer, they kicked me out.

Many lulz on this thread, Ed, whip skid is not when you skip skid, is when you push the back end out tokyo drift stylee.... Linc, whip skidz if anything take longer to slow you down... possibly due to the reduced contact area between your drifting BBFG and the road... They do make you look infinitely more bawss liek, so, it's down to you what you think is most important.



Sumo will end you.

Make sense, I only heard of this whip skid malarkey recently, so it have the same function as a normal skid then, a good way to show off that Levis Commute jean you're wearing I suppose.

Whip skids/ABS analogy is lolz!

Being too lazy to read your linky, I'm still gonna question the 'halves your braking distance' rule. I'd suggest that attempting to stop by skidding the rear wheel only would lead to a significantly longer braking distance when compared to a front brake. My research leads me to put forward the stopping distance ratio of 5:1 based on sweet f.a.

My 'halves braking distance rule' number was based on my own riding position on the drops. If you ride a bike with a different geometry, say with risers, then your centre of gravity will be higher and it will reduce the effectiveness of the rear brake further.

There is also a discussion on the link about how you initiate a skid in the first place and how it changes braking distance. People tend to shift their weight forwards to make it easier to initiate the skid. The further forwards you lean the further you'll skid.

So, depending on how you skid, it can only be worse than the 2x number. I was trying to show best rear wheel braking vs best front wheel braking.