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I personally ride brakeless street but i wanna know other peoples perspective as to why they ride brakeless or with brakes. I understand that brakes help stop you obviously but i personally like the clean look and functionality of stopping brakeless. What does everyone else ride?
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Brakes. Because people in this city are oblivious morons and I'd rather be able to avoid them. Also fufs
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Functionality of stopping brakeless? Lol wtf
I ride brakes, brake tricks are badass and mine stop on a dime. I'll most likely never go back to brakeless.
I don't crash, I do random gravity checks...
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HondaCRFRacer wrote:
Functionality of stopping brakeless? Lol wtf
I ride brakes, brake tricks are badass and mine stop on a dime. I'll most likely never go back to brakeless.
Its practical for me, like i feel like i could put my fut on a tire or skid the tire faster than grabbing for a lever. Idk its just my preference.
"Is My Bike Supposed To Make This Noise?" ~ Me
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JustARider15 wrote:
Its practical for me, like i feel like i could put my fut on a tire or skid the tire faster than grabbing for a lever. Idk its just my preference.
It would be hard to convince me that moving my finger forward and then back about 1" is quicker and easier than putting my foot down or in my back tire. 
BMX over 30: Eat clean, Stretch, and Pray.
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Its cool man, ride however you like thats all that really matters, ive thought about installing some brakes on the beater that im building up but we'll see
"Is My Bike Supposed To Make This Noise?" ~ Me
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HondaCRFRacer wrote:
Functionality of stopping brakeless? Lol wtf
I ride brakes, brake tricks are badass and mine stop on a dime. I'll most likely never go back to brakeless.
JustARider15 wrote:
Its practical for me, like i feel like i could put my fut on a tire or skid the tire faster than grabbing for a lever. Idk its just my preference.
TheDarkEnergist wrote:
It would be hard to convince me that moving my finger forward and then back about 1" is quicker and easier than putting my foot down or in my back tire.
Yeah... I'll go head-to-head brake lever vs. foot jam every time & you can't tell me my brakes aren't going to win in every aspect (braking, modulation, control, etc...). You can ride how you want. Not making any assumptions on personal preference. Just sayin'...
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For me, brakeless since gyro setups are heavy, straight cables look wack and get in the way of bars and whips, and I ride mostly street anyway
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JustARider15 wrote:
Its cool man, ride however you like thats all that really matters, ive thought about installing some brakes on the beater that im building up but we'll see
Oh absolutely, I wish I could ride brakeless because I prefer the look and simplicity too, but yeah in NYC it just doesn't make sense.
BMX over 30: Eat clean, Stretch, and Pray.
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Yes. That's the best answer. Do you. Don't harm others because of an ill-informed choice.
Bikes are fun.
I am sick and tired of the "cliques" that this sport has recently developed. We should embrace the fact that we all ride a little kids bike, and not worry about the small details. When you take riding in its most basic form, we are all the same.
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Them 540 hurricanes though. BMX brakes are for broadening your trick horizons. Not just for stopping.
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I live in Los Angeles, someone gets killed riding a bicycle everyday sometimes 2-3 people.
I don't care about myself cause I'm 20 so I don't ride Brakes.
If my frame had mounts I'd probably take them on/off a lot, I'd also get a 30T sprocket.
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i'm guessing 90% of everyone that rides brakeless does so because they don't know how to work on brakes lol
fack off
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Brakeless. I really like messing about with a front brake now and then but I've never liked rear brakes at all.
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brakes, fufanus, abubacas, funky tire stalls on weird walls. brake pads are cheaper than tires and shoes. plus when you live in an area with massive hills kinda wanna stop
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PastaIsLitty wrote:
For me, brakeless since gyro setups are heavy, straight cables look wack and get in the way of bars and whips, and I ride mostly street anyway
So how many barspins and tailwhips are you doing in an average line?
I'm brakeless too. But I don't make up reasons. Being brakeless has made me a lot more conscious of what's going on around me (I pretty much coast everywhere between spots. I don't ride flat out in traffic). And I've basically been brakeless so long I have less confidence riding with a lever on my bars. I'm constantly thinking I'm going to gouge a chunk out of my thumb or something. But I'm definitely pro choice on this and think everyone should have a back brake for the first year or two of riding. It adds some variety to bmx. I also enjoy watching people ride with a front brake. Straight cables look rad.
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PastaIsLitty wrote:
For me, brakeless since gyro setups are heavy, straight cables look wack and get in the way of bars and whips, and I ride mostly street anyway
1. Gyros aren't heavy enough to change your riding.
2. Opinion, and they don't get in the way. I would challenge you to tell that to Aaron Ross. Learn bars and whips both ways and no issue.
3. Refer to #2 for response to riding street mostly.
I am sick and tired of the "cliques" that this sport has recently developed. We should embrace the fact that we all ride a little kids bike, and not worry about the small details. When you take riding in its most basic form, we are all the same.
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adamnmexican wrote:
i'm guessing 90% of everyone that rides brakeless does so because they don't know how to work on brakes lol
Hey. I run brakes and barely have any clue what I'm doing. Fuck you pal!
BMX over 30: Eat clean, Stretch, and Pray.
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In an unexpected twist, the brake-riding posters are the ones getting defensive in this thread 
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PastaIsLitty wrote:
For me, brakeless since gyro setups are heavy, straight cables look wack and get in the way of bars and whips, and I ride mostly street anyway
grumpySteve wrote:
So how many barspins and tailwhips are you doing in an average line?
I'm brakeless too. But I don't make up reasons. Being brakeless has made me a lot more conscious of what's going on around me (I pretty much coast everywhere between spots. I don't ride flat out in traffic). And I've basically been brakeless so long I have less confidence riding with a lever on my bars. I'm constantly thinking I'm going to gouge a chunk out of my thumb or something. But I'm definitely pro choice on this and think everyone should have a back brake for the first year or two of riding. It adds some variety to bmx. I also enjoy watching people ride with a front brake. Straight cables look rad.
When I try tailwhips I don’t feel like unwinding the cable like I had to when I rode with a super short cable
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PastaIsLitty wrote:
For me, brakeless since gyro setups are heavy, straight cables look wack and get in the way of bars and whips, and I ride mostly street anyway
I hope you’re not doing all those whips and barspins with 8 spline cranks on 9ft quarters.
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PastaIsLitty wrote:
When I try tailwhips I don’t feel like unwinding the cable like I had to when I rode with a super short cable
i have a long cable i whip clockwise but bar counter-clockwise so it unwinds itself..... #STRAIGHTCABLEGANG
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jbales wrote:
Them 540 hurricanes though. BMX brakes are for broadening your trick horizons. Not just for stopping.
you can sort of still do those though... I do brakeless hurricanes on quarters. haven't done a 540 hurricane on a quarter yet cause I just can't commit to do the full spin back in, but I've done 540 hurricanes on banks no problem brakeless. on a sub rail or something, yeah pretty much impossible haha.
I ride brakeless cause it's just my preference. I've ridden brakes and can do brake tricks, they're just not for me. Plus I can stop just fine.
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Brakeless. I rode brakes before and liked it but decided to go brakeless and haven't gone back. Brake tricks are cool and I enjoy watching and doing them, but I never did them too much for some reason. So now I ride brakeless to avoid the hassle with brakes (yes I admit, I hate brake maintenance although I can do it) and to keep the setup simple and bars free of anything "extra". I might go back to brakes some day, we'll see.
As Steve said, everyone should start with brakes and take them off later on if they feel like it.
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I'm not arsed whether people ride with a brake or not. But I ride a brake because without one I am an absolute fanny, it scares me on manuals and stops me going fast.
As others have said, I also like brakes for the different trick options it offers, I love taps, fufs, abubacas etc.
I can fully appreciate why people would brakeless, because it would make life much easier when you are doing whips and bars, but I can't do either 
If I could go a tenth as high as Larry Edgar goes, then I would still be blasting super high.
