4 ms·
Fixed gear bikes have the brakes built in. Just stop peddling.
by quantumhobbit 10y ago
Fixed gear bikes have the brakes built in. Just stop peddling.
- NLips 10y ago1) The vast majority of braking power comes from braking the front wheel. Applying backwards pressure to the pedals does nothing, which means a fixie's braking power is considerably limited. 2) Additionally, the braking is much smoother and more easily regulated with real brakes. 3) Stiction is stronger than dynamic friction. If you brake the rear wheel just below the point at which the wheel skids on the ground, you're disapating more power than if you skid the rear wheel i.e. you'll stop faster not skidding than skidding. These reasons are why in many places (e.g. the UK) a front brake is legally mandatory. Edit: spelling
- bfuller 10y agoor put your feet on the ground
- kpil 10y agoI recommend diving face first into the first available wall. That is by far the fastest way to reduce the speed. If a wall is not situated conveniently enough, old ladies are surprisingly sturdy, and will stop even a high speed fixed-gear hipster at the reasonable cost (to the cyclist) of a broken hip or a few legs or arms.
- a3n 10y agoI was walking across an in-park maintenance road with some friends. It was just another part of the park, full of people, dogs, kids, bikes. A rider was bearing down on the spot that I was about to walk through, screaming "get out of the way, I can't break!" She was angry. In a crowd of pedestrians. I really didn't know whether to be amused, astonished or outraged that she would ride that fast in a crowd with no breaks!.