FUN! Put back pressure on your pedals as if you could backpedal. You’ll slow down. You’ll never be able to stop quickly as if on a freewheel bike, but you can learn to judge your stopping distances to be just fine on the roads. I found that I could modulate my speed better in traffic on a fixie than with a freewheel bike with brakes.
If you learn to do a track stand, you will be super cool.
I used to ride a fixie all winter long here in rural PA, up and down big hills. I gave mine to my nephew who now commutes to work on it in Seoul, South Korea.
I’m sort of jealous of your ride. Fixies are great (I raced them for years on a velodrome).
AWESOME that you actually raced! YOU'RE the badass!....I switched to fixed a couple years ago but left both my handbrakes on. I had a couple friends who convinced me to do it and I'd always been curious. I do like the sensation of feeling connected to the road..However, 2 years later I'm still relying on my hand brakes. I started off trying not to use the breaks and just using my legs to control my speed, but this made my commute to work REALLY slow and I'm already always running late. I would start slowing down for a stop light maybe, halfway down the block. hahah. My friend tried to teach me to do back wheelies to stop, but we were on the streets of the city with traffic going by....Not very conducive to learning and pretty scary......
So...this summer, I think I'll make a real effort to learn how to stop properly (with the back wheelie and maybe even those fishtail skids). Track stands look way easier than they are. Never seriously tried. I think they are actually much easier to mimic on freewheel bikes.
This week, I started practicing using just my legs to control speed on the ride home, since i'm in no rush. I'm no where near the stage where I'll feel comfortable with just a front brake. Are you around Philly? I've always wanted to take my bike down there for a Philly city tour. If I do, we should ride together and you can show me how it's done!
)
