A
A Muzi
Guest
>>>"Peter" wrote:
>>>Hi fellows. I was wondering if you fixed gear riders can tell me how you
>>>stop your bikes in a panic situation without launching yourselves over the
>>>handlebars as once happened to me when a kid made an illegal left hand turn
>>>onto a one way arterial road.
> In article <[email protected]>,
> Sheldon Brown <[email protected]> wrote:
>>You apply the front brake so hard that the rear wheel just about lifts
>>off. This is the shortest that you can stop any bike of normal
>>geometry, fixed gear _or_ coastie.
>>The advantage of a fixie for this is that the pedals give you a better
>>feel for what's happening to rear wheel traction than you'll get with a
>>coastie.
>>That's the reason fixers are better in traffic and on slippery surfaces.
>>Sometimes you might actually lift the rear wheel off a tiny bit.
Paul Southworth wrote:
> This is a good thing?? Sounds like a lot of risk when one can
> simply install a rear caliper. When braking you want maximum
> friction against the road. When the wheel lifts off, you get zero
> friction against the road, and the braking power of your feet on the
> cranks is likewise zero.
>
I think it _is_ a good thing. If you haven't lifted the rear
wheel a tad, you left some front brake capacity on the
table. At those decelerations, about the only thing you do
with the rear is skid.
--
Andrew Muzi
www.yellowjersey.org
Open every day since 1 April, 1971
>>>Hi fellows. I was wondering if you fixed gear riders can tell me how you
>>>stop your bikes in a panic situation without launching yourselves over the
>>>handlebars as once happened to me when a kid made an illegal left hand turn
>>>onto a one way arterial road.
> In article <[email protected]>,
> Sheldon Brown <[email protected]> wrote:
>>You apply the front brake so hard that the rear wheel just about lifts
>>off. This is the shortest that you can stop any bike of normal
>>geometry, fixed gear _or_ coastie.
>>The advantage of a fixie for this is that the pedals give you a better
>>feel for what's happening to rear wheel traction than you'll get with a
>>coastie.
>>That's the reason fixers are better in traffic and on slippery surfaces.
>>Sometimes you might actually lift the rear wheel off a tiny bit.
Paul Southworth wrote:
> This is a good thing?? Sounds like a lot of risk when one can
> simply install a rear caliper. When braking you want maximum
> friction against the road. When the wheel lifts off, you get zero
> friction against the road, and the braking power of your feet on the
> cranks is likewise zero.
>
I think it _is_ a good thing. If you haven't lifted the rear
wheel a tad, you left some front brake capacity on the
table. At those decelerations, about the only thing you do
with the rear is skid.
--
Andrew Muzi
www.yellowjersey.org
Open every day since 1 April, 1971