In praise of... the man with no brakes

[GrumpyGregry]

Or at least his stones.

Old beater of a bike, slack rusty chain, freewheel sounding like it is on its way out, clanking metal mudguards, no front brake, and, as it turned out, no back brake, not even a coaster brake. Rear hub no thicker than my finger and no sign of any old-skool brake built in. I looked. I stared. I looked again. In the end I did the unforgiveable and spoke to a total stranger (punishable by death in sthlm but just by deathly stares here) and asked him.

"Does it really not have any brakes?"
"No. I prefer it like this."
"What's it like to ride?"
"Great."

and then the lights at Dybbolsbro St changed and off we went, rollng down the hill on Skelbaekgade, from the station to the meat packing district (lit. trans. Meat City) where he ran the red light onto Halmtorvet at some speed.

Rather him than me.

 

[Racing roadkill]

I know a lot of 'no brakes or you're a poofter' merchants. Screw that for a game of soldiers.

 

[downfader]

Usually teenage kids down here who do that. A few times seen them with their feet on the deck trying to stop a BMX or a crappy mountain bike. I think I have video still somwehere of one almost becoming a hood ornament Thankfully theres only a handful of these people about. Their parents need a smacked bottom more than they do.

 

[ManiaMuse]

Probably gets through pairs of shoes like no tomorrow...

 

[biking_fox]

Or at least his stones.

Old beater of a bike, slack rusty chain, freewheel sounding like it is on its way out, clanking metal mudguards, no front brake, and, as it turned out, no back brake, not even a coaster brake. Rear hub no thicker than my finger and no sign of any old-skool brake built in. I looked. I stared. I looked again. In the end I did the unforgiveable and spoke to a total stranger (punishable by death in sthlm but just by deathly stares here) and asked him.

"Does it really not have any brakes?"
"No. I prefer it like this."
"What's it like to ride?"
"Great."

and then the lights at Dybbolsbro St changed and off we went, rollng down the hill on Skelbaekgade, from the station to the meat packing district (lit. trans. Meat City) where he ran the red light onto Halmtorvet at some speed.

Rather him than me.

Could be a fixie? Sure it a had a freewheel?
But yes there are some lunatics out there. It's a good way of not going too fast!

 

[downfader]

Could be a fixie? Sure it a had a freewheel?
But yes there are some lunatics out there. It's a good way of not going too fast!

Fixies can be fine (usually on the flat or shallow hills). As an aside I've seen people suggest a bike has no brakes in the past when they didnt know what disc brakes were. Not so common now though

 

[GrumpyGregry]

Could be a fixie? Sure it a had a freewheel?
But yes there are some lunatics out there. It's a good way of not going too fast!

He was coasting downhill. The ghastly slackness of his chain is what cuaght my eye, after the "bag o'bolts" racket caught my ear.

central cph is pretty flat apart from the bridges and more notable as climbs the bicycle snake and the descent from the Fisktorvet mall on the other side. If you freewheel down the snake you need HUGE cajones to make the 90 degree turn on the cobbles at the bottom, not least because of the large number of other cyclists coming to the foot of the snake from left and right.

 

[GrumpyGregry]

Fixies can be fine (usually on the flat or shallow hills). As an aside I've seen people suggest a bike has no brakes in the past when they didnt know what disc brakes were. Not so common now though

I'd happily ride fixed here, cph has the usual achingly hip urban-hipster sub-culture here you find in most cities, with the fixie (sic) as the mandatory accessory. One thing that is different here to my experience of ldn and sthlm is that girls on fixed outnumber the boys about 3-to-1. No idea why. No hobo beards on the girls mind. (and they are girls and boys not women and men, all very young undergraduate types.)

Hell, I may even do my bit for gender equality and flip my flip-flop this weekend for a giggle and ride out the last week of my assignment fixed. But I'll never be hip.

 

[Drago]

He won't be so casual about not when he's sitting on a cloud playing a harp, and some innocent motorist is on tranquilizers because of his idiocy.

 

[LoftusRoadie]

Whilst hitchhiking in New Zealand in the 80s I got a lift in a car that had no brakes
He slowed down by changing gear - and actually stopped for me about 100 meters from where I was standing as it took him a while to stop.

 

[Deleted member 1258]

In the UK its illegal to ride without brakes, its also more than a bit silly on a public road, even on the fixed I wouldn't mix with modern traffic without brakes.

 

[Tim Hall]

He was coasting downhill. The ghastly slackness of his chain is what cuaght my eye, after the "bag o'bolts" racket caught my ear.

central cph is pretty flat apart from the bridges and more notable as climbs the bicycle snake and the descent from the Fisktorvet mall on the other side. If you freewheel down the snake you need HUGE cajones to make the 90 degree turn on the cobbles at the bottom, not least because of the large number of other cyclists coming to the foot of the snake from left and right.

Are you, perhaps, in Mondo Piccolo?

City people's bicycles are utterly laughable. With gleaming metal gadgets, electric batteries, gears, baskets, chain-guards, speedometers and so on, they are mere toys and leg-exercisers. A genuine bicycle should weigh at least sixty-five pounds; it should have lost most of its paint and at least one pedal. All that should be left of the remaining pedal is the shaft, rubbed smooth and shiny by the sole of the rider's shoe. Indeed, this should be its only shiny feature. The handlebars (with no rubber tips to them) should not be at the conventional right angle to the wheels, but inclined at least twelve degrees one way or the other. A genuine bicycle has no mudguard over the rear wheel, and hanging before the front mudguard there should be a piece of automobile tire, preferably red, to ward off splashes of water. A rear mudguard may be allowed when the rider is excessively disturbed by the streak of mud that accumulates on his back during a rainstorm. But in this case the mudguard must be split open in such a way that the rider can brake in so-called "American style," that is by pressing his trouser turn-up against the rear wheel.

 

[Andrew_P]

Probably gets through pairs of shoes like no tomorrow...

Don't you mean pants?

 

[Deleted member 1258]

Don't you mean pants?

probably both pants and shoes

 

[Karlt]

I know a lot of 'no brakes or you're a poofter' merchants. Screw that for a game of soldiers.

Ha. On one of my routes home there's a hill where on the steepest bit you can hit 40mph just by freewheeling, and 45 if you go properly aero. Immediately after the steepest bit there's a 90 degree bend. Exactly how fast you dare let yourself go (and it's let yourself, not pedal up to) depends entirely on how much you trust your brakes to scrub off speed quickly enough to go round the bend at a speed you trust your tyres.

They'd die. Embedded in the chevrons.