Forgive me if I am being ignorant but I have seen a few posts on the forum mentioning SS with the lack of a back brake. Is this seen as bad practice? I run all my bikes, geared and SS with only a front brake with no probs. Is this a safety issue ie no back up brake should the front fail? Or is there something more sinister that I am missing?

2 brakes is better than one...

NoBrake™ even better

Its been raining, you're going round a bend and need to slow down. Do you:

a) Apply your rear brake and gently scrub off speed, or
b) Apply your front brake, causing the wheel to lock up and instantly slip wide landing your face on the tarmac.

Not running a back brake on a freewheel bike is retarded.

I ran them there NoBrakes™ for a while but i'm fucked if i could get them set up properly, so ditched em for a shimano caliper instead.

c) HTFU and ride the turn out properly.

They take a while to bed in, normally about six stiches

Your front teeth?

C is the Heavenly option*.


* No-one is going to get this reference, not even justMouse or Hops.

hmmm well I guess each to his own, have not had any probs with only a front brake, wet or dry. Maybe its more to do with the way you ride and the weather conditions. Personally I dont fancy the idea of riding a fixed with no hand operated brakes, but thats my hang up.

if you're only gonna use one brake with a freewheel, i'd put it on the back.
not as good for stopping power, but you won't faceplant when a ped steps out in front of you and you brake hard!

I appreciate that, and no offence but I think a lot of it has to do with reading the road/ pavement ahead of you. Of course there will always be the chance that a ped will do something random and stupid, but I am constantly scanning the road ahead and the peds at the side of it. I guess if you are a bike messenger and work the centre of town during the day then a back brake is a good idea. I always shift my body weight to the rear as I brake and I find I have no problem stopping, even under extreme braking. I also regularly check, adjust and service the front brake as well as changing the cable oftern too.

i don't see how one front caliper brake has the stopping power to stop a bike with a freewheel in any sort of safe distance (unless you're riding slowly).
why not use two, or go fixed?

ever seen a road bike with one brake? i thought not.

I guess I ride at about 12-15mph as I cover 10 miles into town every day in about 45 mins. Yes I use a caliper brake and in 3 years of riding have had no serious problems. Maybe if you are really going for it you could be in trouble but it's not happened to me yet. How can a fixed stop quicker than a bike with a brake? or did I misread your post?

Buy P!iMP, why do you do this?

Technically speaking, when braking there is an induced moment that acts to lift the back wheel from the road. Too much and you faceplant, but at the point where the braking force is a maximum, there is effectively no weight on the back wheel and so a back brake is useless.

In order for this to hold water though, you obviously have to apply exactly the right amount of force with a front brake. Any less and a back brake would help, any more and you lose teeth.

Its a moot point though - back brakes are pretty vital when conditions get nasty. Slam it on and you'll slow down without going flying. Reach for the front instead with the same gusto and you get hurt. Sure, theres plenty of circumstances when you can avoid touching the brakes and come off fine etc, but there remains the possibility that someone can step out / a car pulls in front of you and you're going to take a fall.

I guess you run what you're comfortable with - I wouldnt go brakeless, and I dont see the point in deliberately removing a back brake on a freewheel. But in a perfect world I guess we'd all wear kevlar and helmets, so you pays your money and you makes your choice!

If you alter a bikes setup it will ride diffrently. It is likly that you will change it's and your limits. There will be somethings that you can no longer do. As long as you realise this and alter the way in which you ride to compensate for the change it is fine.

Tommy for mayor! The Voice Of Reason!

I prefer the look of a bike without a back brake, I think it looks much tidier and less cluttered. Maybe thats a bad reason for what you think is poor safety. Well if anything bad happens to me you can all say you told me so. personal choice again I guess. Plus every day I see people riding that do things much worse, running red lights, taking mobile phone calls whilst riding, riding with Mp3 players on.

have we met before?

I prefer the look of a (good looking) woman naked but I am not sure it would be a good idea if all good looing women walked around naked.

I would crash too often.

easily. i meant fixed plus front brake, but the same applies to fixed plus NoBrakes. because you can use your legs to apply stopping force on the rear wheel. it's more effective to stop via a skid in a controlled fashion (by locking up the rear wheel with your legs) than it is to lock up the front wheel and thus go over the handlebars.

i see it like this: singlespeed plus two brakes = fixed gear plus front brake > fixed gear plus no brake > singlespeed plus one brake > singlespeed plus no brakes.

so i reckon you're a mad bastard, but if you think you're safe, then who am i to argue. just as long as you don't run up the back of me when i stop suddenly in front of an absent-minded ped.

Well thanks for the explanation, it's all clear now. You are very good at skid stopping and I am a mad bastard. How old are you? Seriously what is your age?

hit up some Alpine descents then come tell us this jibba-jabba!

Cable snaps at speed or in traffic = hospital.

Yes there is always that risk I agree and the cable gets checked and replaced regularly. Fortunetley there aren't too many alpine desents on the way into central London but if there were I would probably conceed and fit a back brake also.

eggs-ackly

It's not about how well your chosen braking system works when it behaves as you expect, it's about the backup options when things go tits up.

you are entitled to put yourself at risk by eschewing greater safety for aesthetics -

I would see it as a piss poor excuse if you ran into me because you choose to your compromise your stopping distance

put a back brake on and get the same joy of riding a bike by going faster than 15 mph…

I am saying nothing
But for sure Denvers dyslexic dipstick will .................

You face remaining intact has a lot to do with other things - things outside of your contral and over which you don't have a say. Like the snapped cable, numpty ped, locked front whell, WVM, U-turn, whatever. It is arrogant to think that just by riding like a muthafunkin demon you'll stay safe. Do you ever ride fixed wheel? You've got some funny impressions about it.

Thing is its possible you could injure other ppl too. Us saying "told you so" is hardly gonna make them feel any better.

Also the last point is just stupid. Beause someone is cycling like a massive tool does not make it ok for you to ride like a less massive tool. I'm not saying you are a tool but you get my point.

P!MP, seriously, why do you ask people if it's a bad idea to run a front brake only with a freewheel and when people tell you, you just tell 'em that you don't care anyway?
Believe me, with a freewheel you're much better off with 2 brakes and even then you may not have all the braking power you wish you had... and that 'scanning for trouble ahead', well, yeah, I've been there done that, but inevitably there's going to be one moment when you don't see everything and you're going to wish you had two brakes.
But if you prefer the looks of just running a front brake, go for it, but don't expect everybody to approve of it.

Cables (even newly installed ones) can fail, so can the point they are anchored to, so can the fixings, so can the lever or the brake shoes or the brake shoe fixings or the cable housing - maybe very very rarely, maybe only once in half a decade or maybe just once in a decade ?

If this does happen you could - depending on the circumstances - be very badly injured, paralysed or worse you may injure someone else.

Your reasoning won't go down too well with the father of the 6 year old girl when you have just collapsed her eye socket and fractured her jaw as you both wait for the police and ambulance - regardless of your own injuries, additionally with only one brake on your bike (Illegal in the UK) you are leaving that scene in the police van and not the ambulance.