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| *Vultures Knob>>>Road Bike |
Should I let my son take the front brake off his new BMX bike? |
He says that it is meant to be taken off which is why it is cheap (and compared to the back one, it is). My concern is over the danger of riding on the road on only one brake. most bmxers only use the back brake on the bmx as its designed to be a stunt bike and this stops you from flying over the handle bars. If hes using it for just riding about then its silly only having one brake!!! back breaks are standard front is optional yeah he can it might take longer to stop but just by a sec or less i think they must make the breaks work together with one press, like cars, because some times it is very dangerous to press the front one i did it my self and jumped and felled on my head. In the UK a roadworthy bike must have a back and front brake. Or front brake only needed if rear wheel is "fixed" Depends.... The rear brake is the main source of stopping power on any bike, and the front is additional braking power at speed. BMX brakes are not fast so this is less necessary, but may still come in handy. It will stop him putting the wrong brake on first and going over the handlebars. Actually for some tricks it is good to have a front brake (balance the bike on front when and spin the bike 360deg around it) If he is old enough, and devious enough he Will remove it and you won't know - I rode for years without a helmet without mine knowing (put in on, said bye to my parents, took it off when I go my bike out the shed) so why argue inconclusive answer, but so is live ---------- this is not a physics class guys - the rear brake does the work because... it is the one people use! it is the one used when they only wish to use one brake, and the 1st and hardest used when using both. But if you really want the math: clearly when the front brake is applied in theory it has more power (weight distribution shifts to front wheel, increasing g thus mu thus f and hence a negativley). In practice this results in the back of the bike trying to go faster than the front and the rider eating dirt... which is why most riders tend to use their rear brake. Of course you survive by shifting your weight backwards thus reducing the effectiveness of the front brake, increasing teh effectivness of the rear brake feel free to get back in your box, and let those of us who actually win awards get on with practical level advice! g fh (above) is wrong, mostly, but I'll comment on this later. If your son is considering racing on a BMX track, he will be REQUIRED to remove the front brake. Most BMX-design bikes that have front brakes are not real BMXers (although they might look like it) and both brakes should be left intact. If it were me, unless he is racing, I would demand that he leaves the brake on the bike. If he also has footpegs on the bike I would ESPECIALLY suggest that he not remove the front brake. Now, just to comment on the "rear brake does the work" comment.... nothing can be more wrong. Just as cars and motorcycles rely on the front brake to do about 70% of the braking, so do bicycles. Unfortunately, many riders don't understand how to "modulate" the front brake correctly so I guess they think that it is just there for no reason. |
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