Bikes without brakes. Natural selection?
Discussion
Walking down into town today, heard a scuffing noise, looked round and it was a kid about 12 stopping by putting his feet down, not very effectively obviously. He then went off down a hill toward the town centre and as he passed me I noticed that his bike seemed to have no brakes!!
His two mates were on BMX bikes, rear brakes only, which are pretty useless, especially on slippery Tarmac.
So is this just a latest form of natural selection? After all, just how stupid would you need to be to let your child ride a bike with no brakes on the road?
His two mates were on BMX bikes, rear brakes only, which are pretty useless, especially on slippery Tarmac.
So is this just a latest form of natural selection? After all, just how stupid would you need to be to let your child ride a bike with no brakes on the road?
I've never understood the lack of rear brakes, but losing the front brake allows you to do bar spins and tail whips ... You use your front foot to brake, when required!
Sean Watson of Inspired Bikes is pretty good at riding brakeless!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6CLUG3o7Tdc&fea...
Sean Watson of Inspired Bikes is pretty good at riding brakeless!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6CLUG3o7Tdc&fea...
Edited by Ikemi on Saturday 10th November 21:53
Reminds me of a time when I was about 12 or 13...
Our estate has a huge hill at the bottom, long enough to get up to a good 25 odd MPH on a bicycle just free-wheeling.
I remember plunging down it one day back then, as I had many times before, with a mate behind me on his bike.
As I braked for the bottom, he came whistling past me, yelling, with his feet on the ground, desperately trying to slow down. He went past, and without slowing, plunged head-first into a hedge at the front of a house. He missed a brick wall to his left, and the front of the house and garage door to his right.
I remember seeing him hit the hedge - his bike went 90 gegrees up, the back wheel in the air, and I saw him and it disappear through the foliage, and the last thing I remember seeing is the soles of his shoes
Amazingly, he was ok. Disturbingly, both his brakes had failed.
On the front, one of the blocks had come loose and disappeared altogether. On the rear, one side of the brake caliper had snapped!
At the time as we were kids, we laughed it off. Thinking back to it as a 40 year old - eeeeek! Near death experience, had he not hit the hedge!
Scary.
Our estate has a huge hill at the bottom, long enough to get up to a good 25 odd MPH on a bicycle just free-wheeling.
I remember plunging down it one day back then, as I had many times before, with a mate behind me on his bike.
As I braked for the bottom, he came whistling past me, yelling, with his feet on the ground, desperately trying to slow down. He went past, and without slowing, plunged head-first into a hedge at the front of a house. He missed a brick wall to his left, and the front of the house and garage door to his right.
I remember seeing him hit the hedge - his bike went 90 gegrees up, the back wheel in the air, and I saw him and it disappear through the foliage, and the last thing I remember seeing is the soles of his shoes
Amazingly, he was ok. Disturbingly, both his brakes had failed.
On the front, one of the blocks had come loose and disappeared altogether. On the rear, one side of the brake caliper had snapped!
At the time as we were kids, we laughed it off. Thinking back to it as a 40 year old - eeeeek! Near death experience, had he not hit the hedge!
Scary.
Used to do BMX before I got my motorbike this year.
I never had a brake for the final year i was doing it. Normally because it would be easier to do a barspin without getting the brake cable tangled around the head tube. But there was always the option to get a gyro but they were ugly, expensive and bloody annoying to fit.
It never really wore down my shoes at all (that I bought, not 'Mummy').
But looking back, it would have been a lot safer to just fit a gyro and have a brake, I used to jam my foot in the rear wheel to stop and I broke my toe braking when someone stepped out on me..
Cheers.
I never had a brake for the final year i was doing it. Normally because it would be easier to do a barspin without getting the brake cable tangled around the head tube. But there was always the option to get a gyro but they were ugly, expensive and bloody annoying to fit.
It never really wore down my shoes at all (that I bought, not 'Mummy').
But looking back, it would have been a lot safer to just fit a gyro and have a brake, I used to jam my foot in the rear wheel to stop and I broke my toe braking when someone stepped out on me..
Cheers.
I've recently witnessed a brakeless bmx rider do an emergency stop. He put his foot on the front tyre and did a very impressive rolling stoppie. I think he probably stopped faster than 99.99% of brake equipped riders. I wouldn't judge riding brakeless as stupid...the rider might have enough skill to compensate.
Kawasicki said:
I've recently witnessed a brakeless bmx rider do an emergency stop. He put his foot on the front tyre and did a very impressive rolling stoppie. I think he probably stopped faster than 99.99% of brake equipped riders. I wouldn't judge riding brakeless as stupid...the rider might have enough skill to compensate.
You're confusing highly skilled riders with chavs who think it's cool to not have brakes even though they never do stunts. I imagine most pro riders who have road bikes have brakes on their road bikes. davepoth said:
Kawasicki said:
I've recently witnessed a brakeless bmx rider do an emergency stop. He put his foot on the front tyre and did a very impressive rolling stoppie. I think he probably stopped faster than 99.99% of brake equipped riders. I wouldn't judge riding brakeless as stupid...the rider might have enough skill to compensate.
You're confusing highly skilled riders with chavs who think it's cool to not have brakes even though they never do stunts. I imagine most pro riders who have road bikes have brakes on their road bikes. Forget brakes, round my way they don't do tyres or seats! That's how the teenage scum roll! They just cycle around on the metal wheels, and if on the rare occasion they do have seats, they are practically pointing upwards so useless anyway!
Edited by PaulG40 on Sunday 11th November 00:05
PaulG40 said:
Forget brakes, round my way they don't do tyres or seats! That's how the teenage scum roll! They just cycle around on the metal wheels, and if on the rare occasion they do have seats, they are practically pointing upwards so useless anyway!
I highly doubt they have no tyres. Edited by PaulG40 on Sunday 11th November 00:05
Although, I had a slightly pointed seat..
One of my friends had a BMX just for tricks and what not, with no brakes on it. It's not like it ever got rode anywhere other than a BMX park or the odd rail or bench here or there, so it never needed them. Sounds bizarre to me, but I'm not into BMXing or anything.
The strangest thing round my way is the kids riding without seats, some of them even leave the seat post in, just to prove they don't sit down. That, or they love a metal pole up the arse while riding.
The strangest thing round my way is the kids riding without seats, some of them even leave the seat post in, just to prove they don't sit down. That, or they love a metal pole up the arse while riding.
Kawasicki said:
Why would a pro bmx rider need brakes if a kid that only has maybe five or ten years of bmx practice can stop very quickly? Skateboards don't have brakes. My point is that some bmx riders don't need brakes and their parents are not stupid to let them make that decision.
I can't be bothered to argue about how ridiculous that statement is, so I'll just go with "it's illegal" and be done with it.http://www.ctc.org.uk/cyclists-library/regulations...
Certainly "some" BMX riders are probably able to stop as well with their feet as most are with brakes, but that is probably a few thousand riders in the UK. I'm referring to the legions of feral youth who do stupid things to impress their mates.
They don't know the techniques for stopping the bike quickly without brakes, so all they can do is put their feet down to the floor. That's a crap way of stopping. Frankly I'd rather not have them fly through a junction and hit my car, as their MacDonalds-laden innards would leave a greasy smear on my windscreen.
t. 
Petrolhead95 said:
You can hardly get fast enough to not be able to brake in time because they only have a first gear. If you need to stop instantly then you can hit the rear brake and skid into a 90 degree angle stopping you pretty quickly.
We have things called "hills" where I live. And if he needed to stop fast he'd have needed to pop home and fit the rear brake before hitting it and "skidding at 90 degrees and stopping pretty quickly".
Kawasicki said:
I've recently witnessed a brakeless bmx rider do an emergency stop. He put his foot on the front tyre and did a very impressive rolling stoppie. I think he probably stopped faster than 99.99% of brake equipped riders. I wouldn't judge riding brakeless as stupid...the rider might have enough skill to compensate.
A huge "might" there I fear...This subject seems to crop up on here far to often..... 
The 'brakeless' thing in BMX is a current trend in BMX Park/Street riding, there is no real technical benifit over running a gyro (and no one has run a front brake on a 'proper' BMX for about 15 years) but its fashion, if BMX was covered by 'The Rules' it'd be in there.
Some top riders started it and the sheep follow, if Wiggo started wearing pink Lycra and a Rasta hat some 'mamil' would be sporting the look on their Sunday ride.
Luckily the 'chainless' trend hasn't caught on to quite the same level, sounds like some of you would explode if you saw some kid pushing his chainless bike along with his feet.
In Flatland BMX the brakes have gone pretty much just to make things even harder, so it's really just bragging rights/extra point scoring at a competitive level.
And here's a bit of brakeless riding.....
http://youtu.be/KEzxv-HJa_I
The 'brakeless' thing in BMX is a current trend in BMX Park/Street riding, there is no real technical benifit over running a gyro (and no one has run a front brake on a 'proper' BMX for about 15 years) but its fashion, if BMX was covered by 'The Rules' it'd be in there.
Some top riders started it and the sheep follow, if Wiggo started wearing pink Lycra and a Rasta hat some 'mamil' would be sporting the look on their Sunday ride.
Luckily the 'chainless' trend hasn't caught on to quite the same level, sounds like some of you would explode if you saw some kid pushing his chainless bike along with his feet.
In Flatland BMX the brakes have gone pretty much just to make things even harder, so it's really just bragging rights/extra point scoring at a competitive level.
And here's a bit of brakeless riding.....
http://youtu.be/KEzxv-HJa_I
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