cavit8

Get well Chen. + 1 on handcuffs and duct tape.

CHEN

in case some of you guys were curious, this is what my face looks like now

Sorry its kinda gross

doofo

you probably have to turn evil now

you mightve pulled off dark hero if it werent for the paddles

metaljim

Ouch

diff_lock2

Sounds (and looks) like you were lucky to have that emt guy control your bleeding.

zelah

oh ****

xxsoultonesxx

that is just brutal. how does the bike look?

ryansexton

Seriously, now that I am riding more and more every day, I think that brakeless is the stupidest **** ever. Does it make you feel big and strong knowing that you have a less efficient braking ability? Why not just put on pre-worn brake pads?

I try to skid and use resistance to stop, but seriously, if I'm in an emergency, I just slam on my brake. Skidding just locks my wheel and takes about 4 seconds to reduce my speed, which doesn't include stopping. I think that if I rode brakeless I wouldn't be able to enjoy riding as much, because I'd be thinking about stopping. That is stupid. Riding is cooler than skidding.

jabikuta

Seriously become a sith lord now.

Lol glad you're ok.

LóFarkas

Wow, that's intense.

I guess you got seriously lucky that it didn't go deeper and shatter a few bones, knock out teeth and so on.

And then... chicks dig scars!

RichinPeoria

Hope you feel better soon.

carail

+1 glad your ok

Oh No

damn homeboy. join the facial scar club!

nathbdp

damn. i thought my crash was bad. heal up dude.

tinydr

That's probably because you don't know what you're doing... neither did he (no offense CHEN).

Having a brake is different, and not in a bad way.

Oh No

if you emergency stop brakeless, you dont do it in a straight line.

LóFarkas

WTF are you talking about? Ryansexton basically posted that skidding is not an effective way of stopping and he prefers brakes. So how does that make him not know what he is doing?

And good luck with emergency stops "not in a straight line" in busy urban traffic, oh no. Good way to end up under a bus.

You guys make my head hurt.

imetazoa

Wow. and this is exactly the reason i was afraid to ride when i was going to bu...

glad to see you aren't hurt more!! feel better.

tinydr

riding without brakes on streets, done right, means not putting yourself in the position of needing to make an emergency stop (and hopefully people who ride brakeless have enough experience that they have some sense of what to do when those rare situations arise where there really is an emergency)... if you end up under a bus, you're definitely doing something wrong.

for regular riding that usually means the typical (look further ahead, ride slower, be prepared to go around)... in emergency situations in means knowing when to try to stop, and when to try to speed up and minimize your cross-section through strategic turning.

it also means recognizing when conditions are safe, and recognizing when conditions are rife with the opportunity for major problems.

CHEN's mistake was riding like he had brakes, when in fact he didn't...

riding fixed gear isn't simply about one's ability to skid, even if it is fun.

keisatsu

That's just ridiculous... Generally an emergency stop arises when something unexpected happens, yes you could reduce the chance of something unexpected, but never eliminate it.

If you guys wanna ride brakeless, fine. Just please for the love of god don't run my brake loving arse down when you can't stop.

Oh and you seem to be advocating running red lights, (minimize your cross-section through strategic turning). Again, go ahead and do it, but I hope you at least feel bad when someone in a car trying to avoid your minimized cross-section skids into oncoming traffic and kills the baby sitting in the rear seat. And if I hit you while you're running said red light, you better have good insurance, or a lotta cash to remove the bike imprint from the front of my car.

tinydr

in that light, CHEN's accident wasn't an emergency stop situation, it was a riding like an idiot, completely foreseeable incident.

in the meantime, you have no idea how I ride, or where I ride... so while your indignancy is duly noted, I don't particularly care.

Straws

tinydr did anyone ask you to come in here and make this a brake debate. lets keep that **** in appropriate threads.

zelah

no what the ****. splitting a lane is pretty standard practice and completely safe 99% of the time. sometimes cars merge quick and sometimes cars stop quit but both happening at the same time ending with his head in a windshield was not something he or I or probably you forsee when you're riding.

keisatsu

Not trying to get your panties in a bunch, terribly sorry you don't like it when others opinions differ from yours.

Um, I wasn't commenting on CHEN's accident, I was responding to your post.

If you want me to comment on CHEN's accident, then based off his description, I don't think a brake would have helped a lot. Though really can you say for sure one wouldn't have? Oh and I have no idea how you got "completely foreseeable incident" out of my post

I can extrapolate from your post...

tinydr

you can extrapolate keisatsu, but you'd likely be wrong. boohoo... "panties in a bunch" a comment that marks someone with very little of substance to say.

zelah, do you know the area he was riding in? I do... I know it extremely well. What happened wasn't unusual, riding fast and expecting to be able to clear the back of a car without a brake there isn't wise (if you're going to ride aggressively there, I'd suggest keeping your hand on the brake lever the whole time).

straws: the topic of brakes vs. no brakes was broached pages ago... a brake probably would not have saved CHEN from hitting the car, but it may well have saved his face. wait, and you were actually involved in that conversation on the first page... uh?