On Monday, February 5, 2018 at 8:17:34 AM UTC-8, Frank Krygowski wrote:
On 2/5/2018 2:07 AM, John B. wrote:
On Mon, 05 Feb 2018 04:27:01 +0100, Emanuel Berg
wrote:

John B. wrote:

I believe that bikes fitted with coaster
brakes are still seen, No brake levers at
all, when you pedal backward it actuates the
brake built into the rear hub.

Sure, tho track bikes IIUC in particular don't
have coaster brakes. They are fixed so one
would brake by resisting the forward movement
of the pedals slightly until the bike stops.
I never tried this myself but I suppose it is
a good feeling riding such a bike and the
pedaling technique will probably benefit
from it.

I've only got personal experience with one Track Bike. I came across a
bicycle messenger in Bangkok riding one. He ran into my rear wheel to
stop at a red light :-)

I've never ridden a fixed gear (although my kid has). But I was
impressed by watching, then talking to, a young guy riding one in a
distant large city. He was immensely agile with it, almost like the bike
was part of his body. He demonstrated several quick stops, including
things like hopping the back wheel into the air before swinging it
sideways as he skidded to a stop.

However: There's no way a fixie can stop as quickly as a bike with
decent brakes on both wheels. And in my mind, the acrobatics of an
expert city fixie rider are like the acrobatics of a skateboarder: more
flashy than useful.

Fixie is a life style. Hopping, locking and landing the rear wheel is a neat trick, but it is hard on tires and not very efficient, and simply back-pedaling is exhausting on descents. I commuted on a fixie-beater for years until I got sick of pounding my kidneys on the descents, and BTW, I always used a brake on the road. Fixies are great if you live in a flat area -- low maintenance, good speed modulation, etc., etc. I'm too old for a fixie living on the west side of PDX and riding hills every day. Any gear low enough for the climbs would beat me to death on the descents.

I raced track in the days of yore and used my track bike for off-season road training, which was the standard prescription back then -- fixed gear spinning to work on your stroke. Modern thinking is that the best bike to develop your road skills is a road bike. The training rationale for using a fixing on the road is at best questionable.

-- Jay Beattie.