Brakeless fixie vs coaster brake

papercut said:

In the past, I've always countered the arguement made by brakeless
fixed gear riders (brakes are unnecessary on fixie) that, at best,
they have the stopping power of a single coaster brake cruiser bike.
And quite possibly significantly worse for a number of reasons.
However, I've never actually put this to the test. Any thoughts to
back up or weaken the idea?

Those guys like to live on the edge. A brakeless fixie is insufficient
to stop you in an emergency - say if a car pulls out of a side road.
Don't do it. I can stop in about 40-50 metres from full speed on a
velodrome, and that is much too far.

Any rear wheel only brake (coaster or fixie) requires about twice the
distance to stop then a front wheel brake.

Why? Because the stopping force is determined by the vertical force times
the coefficient of friction. When you are slowing down the center of
gravity shifts forward and hence there is less weight on the rear wheel.
Draw some force diagrams and you can figure it out....

Bruce

"papercut" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

In the past, I've always countered the arguement made by brakeless
fixed gear riders (brakes are unnecessary on fixie) that, at best,
they have the stopping power of a single coaster brake cruiser bike.
And quite possibly significantly worse for a number of reasons.
However, I've never actually put this to the test. Any thoughts to
back up or weaken the idea?

Papercut said:

In the past, I've always countered the arguement made by brakeless
fixed gear riders (brakes are unnecessary on fixie) that, at best, they
have the stopping power of a single coaster brake cruiser bike. And
quite possibly significantly worse for a number of reasons. However,
I've never actually put this to the test. Any thoughts to back up or
weaken the idea?

Another problem with a fixed gear without a brake, is that the threads
on the hub can't take the stopping force. I learned this the hard way.
Thankfully they were crappy wheels on a crappy campus bike. 😄

-John

--

"j_erhardt" wrote...

Quoted message said:

Another problem with a fixed gear without a brake, is that the threads
on the hub can't take the stopping force. I learned this the hard way.

What happened?

(papercut) said:

In the past, I've always countered the arguement made by brakeless
fixed gear riders (brakes are unnecessary on fixie) that, at best,
they have the stopping power of a single coaster brake cruiser bike.
And quite possibly significantly worse for a number of reasons.

The maximum deceleration from a coaster braked bike is quite a bit
more than from a fixie of equivalent layout, for one chief reason:
When applying a coaster brake, much of the rider's weight is shifted
to the rearward pedal, and the weight borne by the rear wheel is
increased. Thus more braking is available from the rear wheel before
skidding.

With a fixie, not only is the rider's weight carried further forward
over the crank spindle, but there are dead spots at the top and bottom
of the pedal stroke in which the rider can't apply much resistance
against the bike's forward motion. And this still presumes that the
rider has both the strength and the skill to make the most possible
braking from the available traction.

Chalo Colina

(papercut) said:

In the past, I've always countered the arguement made by brakeless
fixed gear riders (brakes are unnecessary on fixie) that, at best,
they have the stopping power of a single coaster brake cruiser bike.
And quite possibly significantly worse for a number of reasons.
However, I've never actually put this to the test. Any thoughts to
back up or weaken the idea?

My commuter bike is my old track bike with a coaster brake rear wheel.
It works very well, I can certainly stop much more quickly with this
than I can with a fixed gear. I seem to have better leverage in
generating braking force than with a fixie, and braking force is much
more easily modulated. However, it's nowhere near as good as a front
rim brake.