Fixed Gear - Pictures

This is a perfect example. An old frame that has been resurrected as a fixed gear ride.
NOTE - this person has chosen to only use a front brake. Dumb...

Nice ride! They even ground off the teeth from the outer chainring to make a nice guard and this way you don't have to buy single chainring bolts. NOTE - this yahoo also only has one brake. It's hard being a slave to fashion. The dueling bells on the shifter bosses sure are a nice touch though.

Here is a nice little number. Looks a lot like my bike in fact. Cowhorn handlebars, one chainring, nice and 'sano'. NOTE - MY bike has two brakes...

Now that's a fixed gear bike! And it has two brakes!

Totally cool and very retro. Note the old Scott handlebars, center-pull brake and leather saddle. If you look even more closely, you will see that it's using a Shimano Biopace chainring. How? I don't know. At the expense of a loose chain I suppose... Yeah, yeah, and it only has one brake. People, sheesh...

ONE VS. TWO BRAKE DISCLAIMER - Here's the deal. And Sheldon Brown spells it out pretty succinctly on his web site but I'd like to elaborate a little here. Sheldon's premise (and the facts) are that since your weight gets shifted to the front when you slow down, you get maximum stopping power by only using the front brake. Right up to the point where your rear wheel lifts off of the ground that is; then you lose control. If you use both brakes, and since your weight is being transfered so radically to the front wheel, your rear brake is much more likely to just cause the rear wheel to skid (since there is so little weight on it) than to help you stop. Once your rear wheel brakes free, it is just as likely to move sideways as forwards unless you are a very skilled rider.

But this only applies in perfect conditions with perfect traction. If you are riding on a wet surface or on a loose surface or a bumpy surface or you are going around a corner at speed or you have a front flat, your front tire will not have such good adhesion to the ground and so you can't just clamp down on the front brake. You need to use both and modulate your braking.

Plus, what if your brake cable snaps on a descent. And you only have the one brake. Oops...

Sheldon and I got into this once on the fixed-gear list and he never could see my point of view I think. All his single speed bikes just have a front brake; mine have two brakes. Luckily it's a free world so you get to decide for yourself.