[CR]NOW: Stopping with glove WAS: Fixed gears

(Example: Framebuilding:Norris Lockley)

Date: Sun, 16 Mar 2003 12:29:31 -0700
From: "Chuck Schmidt" <chuckschmidt@earthlink.net>
To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org
References: <3E74BCD4.7090302@earthlink.net> <p05200f08ba9a6f9807ca@[216.175.110.212]>
Subject: [CR]NOW: Stopping with glove WAS: Fixed gears

Joel Metz wrote:
> i just always hear the "wear a glove" braking idea from all my fixed no
> brakes friends, and i think of it as an urban legend or old wives tale at
> this point...

I have seen two pairs of these gloves from the 1930s. One pair was shown to me by Hal Perry of San Francisco who rode the streets of S.F. on a track bike (no brakes) as a kid in the 1930s. One of his buddies was six-day racer Cocky O'Brien and Hal showed me a picture of his club with all the members lined up with their track bikes (not a brake to be seen). Looked like maybe 50 or 75 kids taken somewhere in Golden Gate Park, mid-1930s.

His right hand glove had a 3" square of thick shoe leather riveted to the palm that he would press down on the top of the tire (a few inches in front of the fork) just for normal stopping. Serious stopping was always done by locking up the rear wheel with the legs (the glove wouldn't be used in these instances).

He had some truly hair raising tales of misses, near misses and accidents (crashes?) riding the streets of San Francisco before WWII without brakes. Kids will be kids...

Chuck Schmidt L.A.

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