Here in ny many ride fixie with no brake.. slightly raise the back tire while slowing down your pedaling is proper way without destroying rear tires.. I might turn my 12 yr old 14 speed into one once I finish the other build I've been posting in here. Its definitely crazy way to ride...
I worked as a messenger for about 4 years here in nyc, most of which was on a brakeless track bike. Its just a totally different feel to the bike than a road bike and for a day of working and cruising around the city its a pretty solid option. During that time I raced in a lot of alleycats here and thats where it gets dangerous. When youre just riding around or working you have the luxury of being able to slow down for lights without skidding and just take it easy, during the race though you have to through all your normal thoughts about your well being out the window to be competitive. I dont race in alleycats anymore, I think I lost my balls for it somewhere along the way haha
Im not a fan of skidding my rear tire unless its an emergency stop, most other times I just slow down to stop (unless im feeling extra steezy that day ha), to help save your tire from skidding you can run an even number tooth chainring and an odd number tooth cog and thatll give you the most different skid patches around your rear tire.
here are my rides, "09 affinity lopro" the affinity was my work bike (won the frame in an alleycat back in the day), "99 torelli super strada" the torelli is my new baby I picked up a couple weeks ago (just this last weekend I won a bet with my friend on this thing where he said I couldnt ride 120 miles in 12 hours on two consecutive days
with a windy first day and a rainy second i put in the miles and took his money!)
these pictures are a little out of date,
the affinity currently sits on those same force wheels, 105 cranks, bontrager affinity seat, thompson seat post, along with deda pista drops on it (also have a set of bullhorns I run on it.)
the torelli sits on bontrager race wheels, cane creek classic 100 headset, full ultegra group, bontrager race lite bars stem seat post (have a bontrager race light carbon crankset Im thinking about throwing on there.)
other bikes in my household include an 85 torelli pista, 11 torelli pista, unknown colnago road, surly crosscheck, schwinn super sport, 04 trek 2200, and a couple other cannondale road bikes and fixed gears
