The dumbest bike law you've never heard of

50 years ago, the United States Consumer Product Safety Commission drafted a set of (well meaning) regulations concerning bicycles. As a result, we are required to sell "sidewalk bicycles" with foot brakes, otherwise known as "coaster brakes". While this only applies to the smallest bicycles, it does limit our choices, and seriously limits how smaller mountain bikes can be engineered. Today we'll talk about this law and what it means.

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[moof]

Finally Seth has found a bike that looks small on him. Tearing down zombie laws like this should not be so hard for sure.

[johnnyBravo]

Obviously the regulators forgot to get an engineer involved. An engineer would have specified a minimum stopping distance in rain with a given force applied on a specified handle determined to be within the capability of a 3year old. We would have had hydraulic brakes 20years sooner.

[freestyle]

"if it's not working properly, you can just counteract it with brute 😂 I feel like you've just summarized my entire life.

[JCintheBCC]

I love riding my daughter's Prevelo. When we ordered it, the rear disc brake upgrade was $1. It was clear that was how Prevelo intended to sell the bike.

[montanawhite]

As a kid I used to love my coaster break, burning rubber for hours. I’d literally drive up and down my driveway locking up the back and turning. So fun.

[Snotnarok]

I grew up with coaster breaks and was very confused and had to relearn how to ride when I got my first hand-me-down mountain bike. Which was also pretty steep since it was "If you do it wrong you'll fly over your handle bars" oh, that's scary.

Today my dad hates hand breaks because he's so used to coaster breaks. He's confused why they got rid of them and I'll certainly be sending him this video later because I'm sure it'll answer a lot of his questions.

We really like either not teaching at all or teaching you how to do it wrong first then figure out the right way later.

[GARBO]

Gotta remember a lot of people buy their bikes at Walmart where the normal brakes might be defective or installed improperly out of the box

[commander]

Hi from Australia,
I learnt to ride with those stupid brakes and would lock up on me causing many a scraped knee. The 1st time I rode a mountain bike my friend forgot to tell me about the hand break and I was rapidly pedaling backward and ended up sailing right into someone's tent

[SethsBikeHacks]

I'm aware that few different manufacturers have found clever ways around this law, but it usually means doing something confusing or expensive. How many other laws do you know of like this? Example: requiring new mountain bikes to come with reflectors preinstalled

[GeneralKitten]

I really loved the simplicity of coaster brakes as a kid, never did mountain biking though. I always had front and rear brakes too. They were just simple, reliable, and fun. When i did upgrade to a mountain bike it was easy to get used to free hubs.

[indianadave]

I always hated coaster brakes on kids bikes. Never knew it was because of a law, though.
The first thing a kid does when panicking is take their feet off the pedals, and try to use their feet to stop.
Hate coaster brakes almost as much as training wheels, and try to dissuade people away from both.
Love your videos, Seth, both as a mountain biker, and a fellow parent.

[malkire]

coaster brakes are the reason I got 28 stitches as a child. The chain fell off and I couldn't stop and I went over a 6ft cliff. (not big to me now but back then was quite big) Thanks for the information about this law, I agree with you on this subject and hope there is change in the future.

[RobbinChewings]

This brought back a memory from my childhood from the '50s. I learned to ride a bike on a hand-me-down with coaster brakes. When I got my first new bike for Christmas, I have a vivid memory of taking off down the street and when I tried to stop there was no Coster brake. There were no handbreaks either! I ended up colliding with a parked car so I came out okay. When my mom caught up with me she figured out that the bike was direct drive. Kind of like the penny farthing (great video, BTW).
My other vivid memory was my mom's rage at the bike shop owner who said that's just the way they came. If we wanted brakes, it would be an extra charge.

I suspect that's the kind of bike the whacko law was intended to outlaw.

[mc]

I grew up with coaster brakes obviously and I loved them. They were so fun doing burn outs, but I grew up in the mountains. When I got my first mountain bike as a 12ish year old, the free wheel was crazy to me. I thought it was so cool, but it took literal years for me to understand that I wouldn’t break the bike if I peddled backwards. It also took me much longer to be confident braking with the hand brakes. Now every bike I ride is a free wheel, and when I ride coaster bikes I always accidentally engage the brakes at full speed!

[eelcogg]

Dutch person here. A coaster brake is great because it frees up your hands to carry groceries. You have full control of the bike without having to hold the handle bars.

[Philobiblion]

I'm 74 and have been a serious cyclist for over 50 years. In my stable of bicycles I have two '70s Raleigh Sports, one of which has a coaster brake (and a front caliper brake). I use the English bikes with it's raining, because they have fenders and a chain guard, and I ride the coaster brake model when it is really wet, because it absolutely will stop even if it's pouring, whereas the other Sports with two caliper brakes may not stop.

[James.._]

Coaster brakes taught us all how to throw a bike sideways too, they're an educational aid!

[jasonberezny]

When I was a kid in 70’s I had a coaster brake that also had 3 speeds internally by changed by clicking back on the coaster brake. Loved that feature.

[WardenWolf]

When I was very young, I didn't have the coordination to operate handbrakes while maintaining control. The coaster brake allowed me to stop the bike without affecting the front wheel and also simply put my feet on the ground to stabilize it if I needed to. It actually does still have a place for kids who aren't yet able to coordinate multiple things with their hands and feet at once. The hands have one job, to manage the front wheel, and the feet have one job, to work the pedals (including backwards to stop if need be).

[MrMartinSchou]

You should issue a challenge to all visitors to Berm Peak - run that kids bike (with the freehub and disc brakes of course) through the place, and their times up on a leader board.