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A comment on Flat Pack Chainless Bicycle from IKEA. Parent comment

Re:Flat Pack Chainless Bicycle from IKEA by Matthias247 on Sunday January 15, 2017 @12:12PM (#13404956)
Brakes are not digital - they can be modulated. Front flips happen only to people that are not used to their brake or fully pull the brake lever out of some shock reaction.

I'm riding downhill with my bikes, and I can safely do that with front brake only as long as that thing doesn't overhead. Even things like front-only braking on steep stairs is no problem with the correct body position (not over the front wheel) and brake force applied.

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Re:Flat Pack Chainless Bicycle from IKEA by Eric_WVGG on Sunday January 15, 2017 @12:29PM (#13405092)
Yup. Same principle for older pre-anti lock brakes on cars, if you lived in a place with regular snowfall, learning not to lock the brakes was considered a basic part of learning to drive.

I have been riding for 15 years without a rear brake and have never come close to going over the front. Not that I would recommend it to other folks, the redundancy argument is valid, but it is not unsafe at all.

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