If legitimacy is an illusion, how can we define one person a hipster and another not?
Exactly my point.
Ride your bike instead.
Don’t over think things…
Go ride your bike/s and enjoy it… then laugh at others struggling to find what they enjoy.
I’m still wondering if this is about people who don’t where belts with their jeans so you can see half their Bonds sticking out the top?
No I think its abour people who wear belts with their jeans, but don’t put them through the belt loops, so they serve no purpose, and you can still see half their bonds sticking out the top. Kind of like people wearing helmets but no doing the strap up.
Y’all go easy on my Bonds now.
I make my money repairing bikes the more people riding the more money I can make, it doesn’t bother me. You do get those annoying customers but some of them eventually get it in the end you building them a nice set of wheels that cost twice as much as there first bike. The only thing I don’t get are the guys with f/wheels and one front brake how can that be fun not being able to stop properly. If I was the mechnic being asked all those questions I would have hand balled it to a salesman thats what there for to listen to all the odd questions.
A rear brake doesn’t help you stop fast. Under emergency braking, the back wheel barely touches the road, a brake back there won’t help. Caveat: corners and loose surfaces are a different matter.
I was told by a bike mech (and it seems to be the general consensus) that the front brake does about 60-70% of the work when stopping.
Only if you are braking fairly gently. Weight transfer shifts loads the front wheel and unloads the back. Back brakes aren’t much use if the tyre isn’t carrying much weight. Stopping distance for rear-only braking is much worse than when using the front brake alone.
Personally I wouldn’t have a freewheel and no rear brake. Not because I think it’s a terrible safety issue, but I want to be able to slow the rear wheel independently of the front, whether with a brake or legs.
Maybe it’s from motorcycling, where an independent rear brake is essential (but then I haven’t ridden any fancy Hondas or BMWs with linked ABS).
There’s been a local guy making up and selling single speed conversions on ebay with only one rear brake. I guess if you ride gently, especially inner city, and don’t you bomb hills or try and drag trams etc 
then you’re probably ok with one brake. It would only be a problem if you have to really jam the anchors on! Though still too dodgy for me.
The thing is, if you jam on your front brake without and braking on the rear wheel, you’re left with all the momentum of the rear wheel and a stationary front. Which results in your face on the concrete.
If your rear wheel is locked up at the same time, you no longer have that force throwing your rear end forward.
Freewheel without a rear brake is bloody stupid.
Somebody please correct me if i’m wrong here - but doesn’t a rolling rear tyre have a much higher resistance to lateral movement than a skidding one? If that’s the case, then what you say is the opposite of the general situation.
Assuming you are braking perfectly with the front brake, ie as hard as possible but not enough to lift the rear wheel off the ground, the rear of the bike will want to swing out to the side. If the tyre is rolling, it is slightly less likely to fishtail than if the tyre is already skidding.
Anyhow, all this braking nonsense has been covered before.
Front brake good. Hipsters rock.
But if you’re jamming on front brakes and locking rears then you need lessons in how to brake.
Obviously it’s all braking technique, I’m just using the extreme to demonstrate.
If you’re using proper braking technique, then the whole “your rear wheel leaves the ground anyway” argument becomes irrelevant.
You’re also reducing the amount of momentum on your back wheel by reducing its speed while doing the same to the front wheel.
Clarification - I was referring to one front brake on a track frame running a freewheel (which I keep seeing around town), as per my first rant. One front brake on a fixed I agree with.
I’m so confused: What type of momentum and or speed do you mean?
It is completelly possible to stop a road bike with just the front brake with no adverse effect, why should a single be different.
Single should have two brakes for redundancy, which is the same argument for having front brake on a fixed.
And a rear brake (legs or caliper) is useful for slow speed and loose surfaces.