BMX
Out of context: Reply #125
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- Horp1
I want to talk about brakeless riding without being confined to notes.
Because I think it's really interesting how the riding mind is before and after. We spend our entire lives riding bikes as transportation, with brakes, so that we can stop.
It's become ingrained in our thinking that there ought to be a stop mechanism.
Aside from speedway, I can't think of another wheeled vehicle that doesn't have brakes (carts and horses maybe). It seems to be a purely BMX-borne idea.
I found the idea of brakeless inconceivable. I'd never ridden brakeless and didn't understand how one could even do that.
But building up Bet from my parts bin, all I had was a crappy old Tektro brake set from a really old junk BMX. It would have required cleaning, repainting, new pads and a new cable. I could not be arsed, so I decided I'd give brakeless a try.
The very first time I got on, I did a half crank to get going and just felt panicked as fuck. I was in the provate road (a mere driveway really) out the back of my house. Flat, straight, wide, no obstacles, no traffic, no Pedxers. But I was like "OOoooOOOOHHHHHHHHHHHHSHIIIIT" and it felt like I was out of control at 40mph when in fact I was gently rolling at 2mph.
So then I figured out how to quickly stick my foot on the rear tyre to provide a brake. Got my foot firmly jammed between the frame and the tire twice and just fell off sideways. Helpless.
Then I started riding round the streets and I'd have little panic moments and not know which foot to use. But I'd stop.
Then I got used to it, and I barely even need to use my foot now. Your mind-state changes from "I will need to stop" to "I need to aim that way and then swerve"
In reality you just don't need to view the process of riding as go/stop. It's just go, and there's always a way, and that's exactly what BMX is, it's using the environment in whatever way you need to.
Doing manuals... I have realised how much I depended on my rear brake to just take the fire out of a loop out and stay balanced. I am finding manuals hard without the brake because I *now* need to learn how to adjust my weight via my knees, to maintain balance. An instinct I had not yet developed because of brakes.
My Manual game is lame again for now, and will stay lame until I've built the Cult which has a long 14" rear end. I will need to relearn on that. Picking up the pace will come after it but right now each time I Manual I loop out. I will have to relearn the entire thing.
So anybody riding BMX who is curious about Brakeless, I would say give it a day and you'll like it and won't go back.
I don't even do bar spins, so I could easily have a brake and that would be fine. But I don't want them now because the problem with brakes is, they slow you down.
- I started riding in my 40s, not out nostalgia because I had recently found out about BMX when researching for my kids bike.palimpsest
- I'm still struggling with manuals and bunny hops but going brakeless certainly changed my outlook and pushed me forward.palimpsest
- Manuals are impossible, and then suddenly easy, and once they're easy you can't imagine why they were hard. My problem with manuals...Horp
- is that at 53 I seem to lack the speed of instincts, or even just the instinct, to jump off the pedals and save my back...Horp
- I just go "uh oh, here we go" and then *SLAM* I'm down and screaming like a baby.Horp
- and that's the only reason I miss breaks. My back misses the brakes.
Brakes, not breaks.Horp - Always rode brakeless. Learn the little nollie skid, you won't even need a foot in the tire. I only put a foot in the tire on steep streets or emergencies.garbage