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Thursday, August 6, 2009

german judge: "a fixed sprocket is a brake"

we know that berlin has banned brakeless bikes, but recently a german court has decided that a fixed sprocket is indeed a brake. german law does not confine a brake to be solely mechanical.

"The cyclist, who won this case, actually wasn't a hipster-type young fellow, but some old roadie with a track-bike. He was stopped by a policeman, while track-standing at a redlight. He was charged for a missing brake, no bell and reflectors. The roadie didn't want to accept the charges and got in contact with his lawyer. She also happened to be a full-blooded tri-athletic and came up with the witty argument of the fixed sprocket being just as much a brake as every other brake. Fun story. Keep in mind, that this doesn't count as a precedent, and you still would have to be using two brakes on your fixed-gear to make it conformable with current law!"

story via straightchain

jmik.

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