Are we legal as a fixie?

With the tragic death of Kim Briggs by the collision in London by Charlie Alliston this year and his subsequent trial there has been a lot said in the press about the legal use of fixies.  Well... we ride fixies all the time on the road - Yes... that is what a Penny farthing and Unicycles are.  The majority of them do not have ant additional brakes fitted to them.  So are they legal on UK roads or not?

The quick answer is yes.  The reason is that the main wheel for braking on a bike, is the front and this is where regulations are directed.  There are also multiple exception to allow older bikes and variants to kept legal (including kids bikes).  There is also the realisation that a fixed wheel is a brake.

For a penny farthing fitting a front brake creates a danger for going over the front and since you are trapped in to the frame you are more than likely to have a bad accident if it is used aggressively.  The rear brake when used is inefficient, when it is applied aggressively the wheel just skips along the ground offering almost zero braking due to the wheel having no weight on it.  There are of course solutions, like transferring weight over to the back wheel by standing on the pegs.  This makes the front brake safer to use and the rear efficient.

For a unicycle, it is legal... it is the front and rear wheel in one go and it is fixed!  We do add brakes to them to help on steep hills, but the rider is not constrained with the frame so falls off the front are not a great danger.



Cycling UK, explains it better than I can, here is their summation:

I've already noted that fixed wheel counts as a brake. Taking that a stage further: if one wheel is not only incapable of rotating independently of the pedals, but the pedals are fixed directly to it without any intervening chain or gears, the cycle does not have to be equipped with any actual brakes at all. This is obviously designed to allow various antique machines to be exercised on the highway without adding incongruous modern accessories!

For a fuller explanation of the Charlie Allistion case I would recommend reading the Guardian Law blog by Martin Porter.