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Eliminating the front brake is a non starter from a safety POV for a powered bike used for transport. In a threshold braking/ emergency stop situation, all of
by wiredfool 5y ago
Eliminating the front brake is a non starter from a safety POV for a powered bike used for transport. In a threshold braking/ emergency stop situation, all of your stopping power comes from it. Coaster brake bikes have a limit of about 20% of the braking performance simply from the geometry, before getting into heat dissipation and the loss of control from skidding.
(LWB Recumbents and tandems are different, they’ll skid the front wheel before overturning)
- ChuckNorris89 5y ago>Eliminating the front brake is a non starter from a safety POV for a powered bike used for transport. It's also illegal in some(most?) EU countries, at least in Germany and the UK, AFAIK.
- maxwell86 5y agoIt's illegal cause it will kill you. Independently of whether this is legal or illegal wherever you live, you should care about _why_ it is illegal in some places.
- ChuckNorris89 5y agoNo, it's illegal because you can also kill or hurt someone else, not just yourself.
- tromp 5y agoSince you mentioned LWB Recumbents, here's one that that has replaced a mechanical drivetrain by an electric one, and features regenerative breaking: https://www.recumbent.news/2021/05/23/the-ultimate-tilting-solar-powered-serial-hybrid-delta-trike/ https://www.recumbent.news/2021/05/23/the-ultimate-tilting-s...
- wiredfool 5y agoThat's quite a niche of a niche vehicle. Pretty cool, but at 70kg, and 500W, I wonder how it's legal in Europe without being registered as a motor vehicle.
- johnwalkr 5y agoI think the author greatly underestimates how much power bicycle brakes dissipate. I think it’s in the kW range for short time periods.