Fixed ewith no brakes

Thought I would try and ride to work today on my fixed cx without using my brakes.

Sod that! Full respect to anyone who can ride safely like that. Struggled to even slow down for a road crossing!

I can do most of my commute fixed without using the brakes, but like knowing the front brake is there if I need it, and I need it at least once a trip. Maybe with more fixed experience I’d need it less frequently?

Are you on a track? If so, go brakeless all you like.

Where there are other, unpredictable, road users and more to contend with, riding brakeless makes someone a prize twunt, IMHO.

Full respect to anyone who can ride safely like that.

Nobody can ride safely like that. There are people who haven’t died yet and that’s it.

I tend to ride my fixed without using the brakes, but I daren’t ride through the city without at least a front brake to help me stop in an emergency! I wonder where ‘riding safely’ stops and ‘just haven’t hit anything yet’ begins!

samuri – Member

Nobody can ride safely like that. There are people who haven’t died yet and that’s it.+1

I commute on either one of my two full suss bikes, which is hardly the most practical application for them, but I’m damn glad to have 180mm rotors when I need them. If you’re going to scrimp on the build of an urban commuter then the stoppers are not a great place to start IMHO.

when I used to commute on a fixie, I’d try and avoid the brakes if I could, but glad I had them (front and rear) for backup a few times.

Fixed without brakes is really horrible on your knees. Actually it’s just horrible altogether!

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DSC_4165[/url] by martysavalas[/url], on Flickr

Better to have it and not use it then to need it and not have it!
I don’t understand the brakeless fixed riding around, its really inconsiderate of other users ( I’ve been commuting on a fixed Pompino with front and rear brakes for the past 4 years )

Fully brakeless fixie is just stupid. As has been said, in theory it’s fine but in practice, there’s only so much rear wheel only braking you can do, especially if (when) someone does something stupid in front of you.

(fixie with front brake is fine though IME)

why use a rear brake. Your legs are stronger. Must admit that I also feel that the front brake has very little effect. Yes its there but not much

Ah, brakeless fixies, ridden by effete ponces who do it to try and show off just how skilful they are on a bike ‘oh look at me I’m so cool I don’t need brakes’.

This is one subject that I will stand united with Flashy on.

MAKE FIXIES HISTORY!

I ride fixed for my commute simply for the strength training and cardio. Plus I rather enjoy riding fixed on the roads. However I would never ride brakeless, to many idiots on the roads.

If you ran a low enough gearing you could probably skid stop most of the time without needing a brake, but you’d go through tyres quickly.

Must admit that I also feel that the front brake has very little effect.

hmmm

The only people who ride brakeless fixies are either stupid fast couriers or idiot fashionistas who have such a low gear they cant break past 10 mph.

Its a shame, i want one to race me.

edit: i think mattscom needs a new front brake, mine is the shittest of the shit and it can still lift the back wheel with my weight on the saddle.

stupid fast couriers or idiot fashionistas

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Is that a brakeless fixie haze? Looks like a jump bike to me

another day another thread with haters. yawn

sounds like I should change job or own skinnier jeans as I ride without a brake some days. however my riding style is very different to when I ride with them.

another day another thread with haters. yawn

to be fair this one does actually have safety implications

at least two posts don’t even mention brakes, just slagging off other cyclists.

A couple of years ago I rode the Manchester 100 and there was a small gang of no-brakes fixie riders, complete with the obligatory riding like twunts in traffic riding style. How I laughed a few miles on when coming across them, one of whom was sitting in a ditch shaking like a sh*****g dog, pretzled front wheel telling his mate, ‘sorry I just couldn’t stop’. Will improve the gene pool if nothing else!

Yes Donk, my pub bike.

Proving that not only “stupid fast couriers or idiot fashionistas” ride brakeless and fixed.

Drunken idiots ride them too 8)

My Saturday night riding home pissed with Mrs BigJohn route involves riding down Radford Bank. Like the Tourmalet but longer & steeper. I’ve got the choice of
a) taking feet out of pedals (clips’n’straps) and playing russian roulette at the bottom trying to get them back in without stopping,
b) pedalling like buggery and hoping not to get bucked or
c) using back brake (front’s a bit grabby because of dented rim).

C wins.

Do Fixie bikes brake when you pedal them backwards? Real question…

I remember my old BMX was like that back in ’82.

They don’t brake as such, the wheel just locks up as it’s direct drive with no freewheel – wheel goes which ever way the cranks turn!

No that’s a coaster brake. You just have to try and stop pedalling on a fixed, which is a good trick if you can pull it off.

robsoctane – Member
Do Fixie bikes brake when you pedal them backwards? Real question…

I remember my old BMX was like that back in ’82.

fixedwheel and coaster brake are two different things. There is no possibility ro freewheel on a fixedwheel but there is on a coaster braked bike. You don’t pedal back more resist the turning, it takes a little getting accustomed too but it’s a lovley smooth ride when you are.

Thanks guys… 😉

Like the OP I never pointed out that it may not suit you. Perhaps playing f wits in town might need them but round here I don’t. Must admit to my front bake only being a 105 dual pivot thing. Works fine. Great for stoppies but compared with the rear wheel for usefullness, which is the whole point of this. nothing special.
Might I also point out that some of us don’t ride like **** and have been happily doing that ona fixed for 30 years.

Haze, what rear wheel you using on that?

It’s a Mavic Crossride with the cog bolted onto the disc mounts.

Like this

ah, I get ya

cheers