Worst place you've lost your breaks?

[Req]

Was just out yesterday after a long hiatus. Of course I was so excited to get out that I didn't bother to check my breaks (hydro) and was suprised to find that when I needed my breaks they weren't there.

Got me to thinking, where's the worst place you've been when you realized your breaks didn't work?

[cheryl@nsmb.com]

Top of Rose hill

[Late Bloomer]

Numerous wet days as a courier in DT Seattle. Coming downhill w/ canti-brakes and they don't start to bite until a few feet before the intersections...sketchball. V-Brakes came out soon after and I was happy.
Disc brakes are bliss...

[Lady Gravity]

coming down the last section of eagle mountain (before the school) - it's pretty vertical, and i had a fairly spectacular (funny) crash

[01shore_rida]

about 5 years ago tryin to drop a friends roof(about 7 feet) went to roll off but then decided not to and grabbed the breaks and they werent quite there ended up falling off, didnt get hurt but it really sucked lol.

[Islandrider]

On clown shoes, I still cleaned it but it was sketchy :eek: .

[Nelson]

In bed....:)


Ive never lost my brakes....

[m33p]

Going fucking mach ten down a-line, then I realise my rear v-brake popped off (My front had blown that day, but u only need one break for whistler). Attempted to jump off my bike and run, but realised I was going way too fast when I slammed my body hard into a burm. Ahhh, back in the days of my old red vps.

[bullit_kid]

i check bike at like 9 pm for shuttle ride at 6:30 am before school (grade 9 i think this was) i put bike in car and drive to top of mtn, my mom leaves me and buddy, and we go onto the trails first turn, i grab my front brake its fine, but i grab my back and the lever goes straight the bar as the hydro line developed a leak, so im stuck at the top of seymour with no back brake, and having only a front brake is reallly hard

[NooNer]

i check stuff like my brakes. i have yet to have them fail for a reason other than me crashing.

[shore king]

ya i relaized my back brake didn't work at a bad time. it full on was not connected to the rest of my bike but the lever was stillt ight and shit so i didn't bother checking. i go off side show, land it fine, keep riding and realizing my crappy front brake is the on;py thing wokring, while i crash right into the stump at the bottem and pile my ehad into it but it's all good i guess iw as fine

[norco125]

first time my brake locked up at the stteep chute after log drop at rose hill then the second time i had no brakes at the same part

[Nick2468]

what do you check to make sure your brakes arent gonna die going down a hill i have hayes mags

[ito]

The finish line of the Durango Nationals course this year. 5 run of the day on a hardtail, came in too zesty and realize the brakes won't lock up, or even slow me down :eek: . Ended up sliding into the bean bags baseball style, going underneath and taking the legs out from under more than one sport rider. Made it into an article for that finish, slightly emberrassing.

The Ito

[Kyle the Hun]

My brake stopped working before the last couple of sections of Harper mountain in Kamloops... well Loopie didn't tell me they were steeper than the rest of the mountain, so I ended up going down the last couple of steepest sections with only a front brake. To add to the trouble, it hadn't rained for long long time, and the trail was dust over rock solid dirt, with no grip, and my front tire kept skidding when I used to brakes enough to actually do something. So I just rocketed down the last sections going much faster than I wanted to, trying to stay in the ruts so I wouldn't fall. The last section ended with a steep roll down, into a ditch, and onto the road, and I was going much too fast and the compression from the ditch threw me onto my back and I got road rash all over my back and my elbow got cut up and is a big scar now. Thanks Loopie :P

[shorebiker]

last year i rode with no brakes.. worst thing that happened was i was manualing down the sidewalk and down the sorta slope coming to the lane, and mannied into the side door of a car that popped out from the lane:o hehe, we said our sorries and all was back to normal:)

[GNARLY MAN]

one time while going home from trail building, riding kinda slow down a hill my rear brake cable just snapped! and no, it wasent freighed or anything, i think it was only like 2 weeks old too. It freaked me out though. To make it even worse i had a 24 inch rip saw in my left hand!!!

[v 10 rider]

at hammer fest this year coming down that straight away after the road crossing, pulled the brake, the caliper broke its seal and i smoked a tree with my front wheel

[Grauer-power]

going down hangman on the back side of seymour, rear brake gives out half way down, and of course on a trail that is this \ steep the whole way down and o loose tech shit all over hahaha

[dudski]

manualing down this like 5 km hill from rossland into trail......was goin about 60 and my lever went to the bar.......brakeless manual for like 100 feet before the front tire went down... that coulda hurt alot

[Biking Fiend]

well this is losing a brake, the little pins that keep your levers suported to the piston broke when i landed off a jump on a -line so i was goin mach 10 and went right over a berm, didnt hurt but i was angry

[Grauer-power]

look at pimpin' fiend's avitar, the little dude is getting ramboned!

[tazzmenn]

Originally posted by NooNer
i check stuff like my brakes. i have yet to have them fail for a reason other than me crashing.


same here

[The_Real_Yeti]

haven't had a problem yet.

knock on wood! :thepimp:

[Late Bloomer]

Originally posted by Grauer-power
look at pimpin' fiend's avitar, the little dude is getting ramboned! ...and drooling?

Almost forgot when I had V-brakes...taco'd rear wheel and rode the rest of the day w/ just front brake @ Tapeworm in Renton, WA. Not a fast place, but hella-twisty and techie @ times & there were stunts there @ that time:( :cry:
Didn't dig too hard that day, but had several/many tense moments where I could see the actual crash if it were to happen.

[*GiMpY*]

coming down this hill at 40 in a manual and i go for the brake and the lever goes to the bar it didnt end well fell on my back got some road rash and held on to my bike the whole time so the only that happened to my bike was a rip in the seat

[Mountain Dewd]

Last year, about to go out for some urban with lenosky and lutze. Back hayes mech completely stoped working, no power at all, basically seized. Of course it was right when i was manualing at like 20-25 mph down a sidewalk. i flew back off the bike and landed ass/back on a curb. It sucked, scraped up my back pretty nicely. then i had to ride 8 miles home on my .243 by myself.

:mad:

[Late Bloomer]

(note to self) Avoid high-speed manuals on the road.




(additional note) Learn how to manual.;)

[Bryce]

Originally posted by Nick2468
what do you check to make sure your brakes arent gonna die going down a hill i have hayes mags

its pretty tough to predict but usually if they feel mushy at the beginning, thats a bad sign. Mushiness = time for a bleed

[polytics]

Never had my Hayes fail well riding... just didn't like the feel... now I run a Shimano XT Disk 8" up front and a Magura HS22 rim brake ((my current SS frame has no Disk mounts)) out back and again no failures... I've run magura rim brakes for ever before I got disks so I never had Canti-issues...

that said... in '99 coming down Randy's on Eagle ridge I had both my front and back brake fail resulting in a face first crash into a rock section near the top... My CODA disks had dual failed because the fluid they used expanded in the lines and then the brake lines did not constrict back into shape ((effectively making it so there wasn't enough fluid in the lines))... I go at least twice a year now to the dentist to get my half fake front teeth replaced... I had different variations fail again and again overtime (("pad contamination" from BC soil... yeah f'in' right)) until Cannondale saw things my way and ((thanks to the folks at Blak Dog)) sprung for some hayes for me

[Somebody]

worst spot i've lost my rear brake was going at the top of lower joyride.:( =/ :eek2: :censored: :dead: :| :hurt:

[robike]

my first time on fromme ever: on upper oilcan I was riding a bike with v brakes and my rear brake lever broke clean off after my first bail. I was greatly humbled by the resulting plethora of nose manuals to headplants on the rest of the ride.

[bunny]

nice. :) i used to nose manual down EVERYTHING... til i realized what i was doing, got scared, and put a stop to that nonsense. comes from learning to ride on a bike without back brakes.

funniest ever was at sunpeaks and having my brake hanging off by one little loose bolt. didn't matter though cuz brakes are for pansies. :P

[freerideforever]

Rode down town brakless. Dragging foot on ground to slow down. Hit a nail and it poked my foot through my shoe. On the steepest part of coure. Flew through a few intersections, and finally managed to stop with the otehr foot.

-nate

[pete]

after groovula, coming down st.marys.....

where there is the mandatory curve...

went to fast couldnt stop fast enough... went over a divider into a fence

[REID2003]

I got owned by a car when ii was 13. My friends disconnected my V breaks whenh we took a break on seymour. On the way down by the exit of neds i had no breaks and hit a parked car cuz it was parked right infront of the hill u come out of. Luckly i didnt die i just mangled the pavement pretty good and lefted a big dent in the car

[JoeC]

i rode for about 2 weeks with no brakes and just relied on standing on the back tyre with one foot as a brake, well those were 2 interesting weeks at the local djs :(

[SPOKE]

I lost mine just after the enterance of message on Egale

[Front Line Films]

Originally posted by REID2003
I got owned by a car when ii was 13. My friends disconnected my V breaks whenh we took a break on seymour. On the way down by the exit of neds i had no breaks and hit a parked car cuz it was parked right infront of the hill u come out of. Luckly i didnt die i just mangled the pavement pretty good and lefted a big dent in the car

The Man, The Myth, The Legend, Mike Reid. It was funny thought Mike, there were a few other good times when we disconnected your brakes aswell, that was probly the best tho. :grinno:

[Scott]

comming down a fire road a pkill....the fire road thing isnt bad...but it ends witha like a 10 foot roller...that if you go fast is a 10 foot drop that 90 degrees with another fire road...and if you go straight off the roller you fly off another drop into trees....

[free ryder]

on top of platinum

[Ghetto Smurf]

roll down on crack addict :eek:

[Sobot_FR]

My brakes aren't very good. But they always work.
One time I was speeding down a dirt-hill and there was a turn that I had to make because I would have gone into trees. But this time, my brakes worked too good:D.... so... I hit my front brakes (I like front brake better) They like literally lock.. and I go flying into the place with trees....

*trees don't move.
I think that's all I have to say:D

[Sobot_FR]

Originally posted by REID2003
I got owned by a car when ii was 13. My friends disconnected my V breaks whenh we took a break on seymour. On the way down by the exit of neds i had no breaks and hit a parked car cuz it was parked right infront of the hill u come out of. Luckly i didnt die i just mangled the pavement pretty good and lefted a big dent in the car

Nice friends ;)

[Infamous]

haha reid....you idiot.

down neds was pretty sketchy with only a front brake....

or the Panorama DH Course that sucked

[fergs]

Front brake failure on Sex boy last spring. That sucked.

[brodierider_fReak]

Originally posted by shore king
ya i relaized my back brake didn't work at a bad time. it full on was not connected to the rest of my bike but the lever was stillt ight and shit so i didn't bother checking. i go off side show, land it fine, keep riding and realizing my crappy front brake is the on;py thing wokring, while i crash right into the stump at the bottem and pile my ehad into it but it's all good i guess iw as fine


the funny part is you say you were find but then the grammar and spelling in your post suggest otherwise :D :lol:

[DangerousDean]

i lost my front brake on a-line... or soemthing? maybe schlyer... nothing bad

[*GiMpY_jR*]

manualing at about 40km at leased on a highway fliping back and spining while i slowed down