since it technically has foot brakes- is a track bike legal in a triathlon? ( there is a local, mini sprint near here this september; thought I would try using the track bike for fun and go old school)
wasn’t sure if a bike was required to have hand brakes, etc.
thx!
If you’re talking USAT rules, then no - under 5.11, Bicycle Specifications, “(j) There must be one working brake on each of the two wheels.”.
If you have a brake on the front, I believe you can ride it, even under UCI regs – the fixie counts as a brake on the rear.
I am under the impression that USAT rules require a bicycle to have a certain number of gears. That might be a WTC rule though. I know that “Retroman”, the guy who has done a bunch of Ironmans on a single speed Schwinn has come under scrutiny for that.
I say if a dude can complete Ironman on a single speed Schwinn with a banana seat he oughtta be allowed.
here’s a race report from Khai on that subject. He doesn’t mention what his brake setup was, though. Also, I don’t know if the rules in Canada differ at all from those in the US.
I queried a USAT official about that, and the party line was inline with USA Cycling’s…bike needs to have 2 working brakes. A rear fixed-gear is considered a brake, thus all you need to do is add a front brake.
I did my last tri on a singlespeed P2K…thus only really one working brake, the front. No issues from the officials (granted, it was a small local race). Lots of fun passing people fiddling around with gears. In reality, nobody will probably catch onto it, and if they do…the jaw usually drops.
Go fast, turn left.