Originally Posted by
rowerek
I feel uneasy that my life hangs on the front brake working properly, over and over again. There should be a back up system, redundancy that would make likelihood of total failure less likely.
There is a back up system. It is called the rear brake.
I had to descend Mt. Diablo once, using just the rear brake. But not because the front brake failed. The front hub's spoke flange failed, putting the front wheel severely out of true, so I had to remove the front brake.
At no time did my life hang in the balance.