This is when people’s poor braking technique comes into play when they don’t brace or shift weight rearward, and reach threshold much easier.
I use a front brake on my single speed because that is all the braking power i need.
What about when the weather’s wet and you can’t get enough traction on the front wheel to stop the bike? It’s not a case of flipping over the bars then.
I remember practising my emergency stops on my motorbike pulling up to a set of lights after a downpour. I’d read that the best way to stop effectively was to familiarise myself with the emergency braking technique and to calmly apply the technique in an emergency. easier said than done!!! I locked the front wheel and nearly shat my pants. the bike started to fold and I thought it was all over.
it’s definitely something that can go horribly wrong if done incorrectly!!
Yeah it is.
That’s why practise and familiarisation is so important. The other thing, particularly with a motorcycle, is that you really have to ‘set up’ the brakes for full effect. ie. start braking but not full on. Once weight has started to shift forward, then brake hard.
I can’t help thinking that people go over the bars only because they never practised enough to become familiar with what really hard braking feels like, and requires to stop effectively.
I’ve found I only ever need a front brake. The only times applying the rear brake is better than using the front brake alone is when riding on a low traction surface (e.g. dirt, gravel, painted wet roads) or going around corners fast and having to slow down fast to avoid a collision. I find even on the wettest roads that using a front brake while riding straight line that it would be near impossible to skid that front wheel (watch out for the white lines though). Also, interchanging between front and rear brakes on long descents lets the rims cool down to prevent them from overheating and blowing the tube, but I never have and never will ride down such epic hills. Just brake in straight lines and sit back into your saddle every time you brake and you’ll never go over the bars or drop the bike.
i ride an SS with only a front brake…
maybe it’s because my brakes are shithouse, but i find that in order to reach braking threshold, i end up throwing my weight forward. even in the wet i’ll stop fairly quickly doing that, and i’ve never had the slightest issue with going over the handlebars from it. in fact, if i don’t do it, i end up not braking soon enough.
Jesus christ, half of you don’t know how to ride a conventional bicycle. I’d hate to see you guys on a motorbike if you haven’t learnt since childhood.
Front brake 100%. Where the hell do you pull these 80%, 70% ratios from? I’ll give you a hint, when the back wheel is floating its contribution is 0. Since you have two wheels, the front is doing 100%! End of story.
The only way I’ve ever managed to skid the front in the dry before lifting the back is when I was hanging off the back of the bike with the saddle in front of my sternum. Such antics are probably the reason that fork cracked.
Lots of people in this thread are correct and have carefully explained why. The rest have the blinkers on and are not only unable to comprehend everyday practical physics but also seem incapable of making simple observations. Bah.
This seems to be an increasing trend. I saw a guy in the city last night with a brakeless single speed, flat pedals, beard, asshole. And a few weeks back some kid riding past the Tote putting his foot down to stop.
These idiots are waaaaay worse than some clueless moron (I have done this in the past! not having a dig at anyone in particular or at all really) with one brake.
Oh and shitty old 10 speeds with rear brake only. You see that a lot.
i ride a ss with only front brakes, i’ve been riding same setup for about 3 years and never had an issue, had plenty of situations and always stops very quickly. if the brake happens to fail i’m confident ill be able to stop pretty quickly with a foot on the front wheel
Haha MiG, these guys are lucky I didn’t find this thread until just now, because I probably wouldn’t have been as nice as you! Your sentiments exactly.
I ride fixed + front brake, I rely solely on my front brake to slow me down (rarely will I bother doing a skid), and as far as I can tell, it’s all I’ll ever need.
Running just a front brake taught me a lot about weight transfer, and about careful brake application in dangerous situations. That fine balance between being on the limit of your machine’s capabilities, and going just a little bit too far and ending up OTB, is fun to learn. It’s not uncommon to see me heading down Glenferrie Road to uni, braking hard, with my weight as far back as I can go, with my rear wheel just in the air (what can I say, I grew up with Mick Doohan as my hero!). As MiG said, don’t give me this 60%, or 70% bullcrap, it’s 100% front brake, no questions.
The ONLY time I find a rear brake helpful, isn’t even for slowing down, it’s for changing the attitute of a bike mid-corner, usually in wet conditions, where I’d rather have the rear wheel step out on me (I find that more controllable) than losing the front wheel. Even then, it’s usually singletrack stuff, nothing to do with road/street riding.
Finally, using the “What if your front brake fails? Then you’ve got nothing” argument, yet saying that fixed brakeless guys are OK, is a bit stupid, considering I see more broken chains than I see failed brakes. Blakey, do you have any data on the required FoS for bicycle chains and brakes? Or bicycle components in general?
I say, “damn the man, save the empire”, and ride your SS + front brake, because today is Rex Manning Day!
…Well in the end we all find out Rex Manning is a jerk.
But I do appreciate all the physics info side of it and the CORRECT info that SOME people have provided here.
I saw a number of these morons when I last visited across Bass Strait. One even made a pretence of pedalling as though he were on a fixie, until he got off…and started walking it with the freewheel doing its thing.
On the front to rear brake thing, yes the front brake does the lions share. That said, often when I’m braking down steep hills from 65+ kmh on my geared, braked roadie, I use both brakes; if the rear is doing nothing with no grip under hard stopping, why am I able to modulate it, and feel a significant difference in stopping distance? Its still doing something.
Rear brake is also 100% useful in standing the bike up mid corner, changing direction etc (well it is for me, I ride fairly twisty roads).
there’s one dude i always see in fitzroy that rides fixed with no retention, usually in thongs and no brakes.
i want to see the fucker lose some toes.
Your idea of hard stopping isn’t so hard.
if the rear is doing nothing with no grip under hard stopping, why am I able to modulate it
MiG said it…
were talking about hard braking. in normal braking as long as there is some weight over your back wheel you will be able to apply brakes, and the friction of the rubber against the road will make you slow. BUT this stopping power is directly proportional to the normal force (perpendicular to ground-the weight over your back wheel) which gets less and less and you apply the front brake.
when you use a front brake the best you possibly can its going to create a rotational moment about your front axle and downward force on the rear will be zero (at this point the back wheel is gonna lift) and your front is 100%. so i guess as long as your back wheel is on the ground your going to have some minimal effect.
out of curiosity
which would you bet on to win shortest braking distance?
a) SS front brake & proper braking technique
or
b) fixed brakeless with good foot retention
Honest question… what do you define as “proper braking technique”.
I am trying to wrap my head around the physics of braking forces (with bikes it is relatively simple, but I’m also wondering about the mechanics of braking in vehicles… For eg. I know when braking hard while driving, I dont just slam on the brakes… I flutter them on and off so the wheels dont just skid… but I am a bit dumb in regards to what the ideal braking technique would be for hard braking on a bike… if you are indeed using your front for all the force… aren’t you likely as fuck to flip the rear wheel over the bars? Or do you flutter the brake too? lol enlighten me)
Front brake and as much weight back over the rear wheel as possible, you can hold rear brake lever too, but it won’t really add an awful lot as has been discussed previously in this thread. I think really the “real” brakes will beat brakeless fixed gear in anti drag race or brake off if you will.
I agree, at least based on the physics of it, with correct technique the only brake theoretically necessary would be front.
Except in such cases as a poor brake or heavy rain where the front brake cannot apply enough force to raise the rear wheel (like doing an endo)
It’s an acquired skill just like threshold braking without ABS, except on the bicycle the threshold is balance, not grip. The car has a lower centre of mass so the front tyres skid before the rear fully unweights. On the bicycle you modulate brake force to just have the back wheel skimming the ground. In both vehicles you shouldn’t be randomly pumping the brakes but instead responding to slip (can be very exciting on a long downhill sweeper entering a hairpin lol) or balance. Having the wheel high off the ground raises centre of mass and requires you to ease off the brake to maintain equilibrium, so keep it low and unweighted.
I’ve only ever flipped once using the front brake and it was when I was young and showing my friends my new discovery - that the front brake is king.
To learn maximal braking get a freewheeling bike and simply build up some speed and progressively increase braking force. When the rear starts to lift, let go. With practice you will be able to quickly nail that point where the bike is just starting to lift and you’ll be able to gently modulate around that point. But I find it really difficult to brake hard at high speed on fixed because the pedaling makes the rear fly around from side to side.
The really hard part is if you want to show off and keep the rear raised for a long distance. That requires staying near the point of flipping and I don’t have the skill to do it.