Bicycles without brakes???

[Herbsman.]

I have never had brakes on my bmx.. since aged about 10.. The best & only way to stop is to place one of your feet on the rear tyre acting as an instant brake or with less presure applied as a gradiual brake..
Note: Very costly on the footwear.
i must have worn out about 20 pair of Vans from foot brake-ing...

I've never tried it on mountain or beach cruiser or racer bicycles but i'm sure it works the same...

But brakes are the nuts for stopping... so would be best to fit at least one ..

I rode brakeless on BMX for a while, just as an experiment. It really benefited my skatepark riding - apart from learning brakeless barspin tyretaps, I learnt to ride more fluidly, I learnt to balance better while manualing (not having a brake to prevent me flipping back over the back wheel), and had to think further ahead about what I was going to do next. Basically it taught me to control my bike better, rather than relying on the brake to make up for lack of control.

The whole brakeless thing a few years ago was a pointless fad though, helped along by the bmx magazines. At one point it seemed like there were more brakeless riders in skateparks than there were brakeful riders. And there were plenty of idiots who rode brakeless before they even learnt to control their bikes with brakes, causing themselves and other people a fair few annoyances and no doubt injuries.

If you want to ride brakeless then just don't pull the lever, innit. Why waste perfectly good shoes when you could just use brake blocks.

 

[Wolveryeti]

Is that a Phillips?

(they're called rod brakes btw, they're intended to be low maintenance and add to the general air of indestructability and will take massive neglect. They are very cool).

Guy who sold it to me said it was a knock off of something (possibly a Philips). The generic name is a 'tipo ingles'.