Still, if you’re riding brakeless, your options for stopping in a hurry are pretty limited. Skip stops and skidding aren’t going to accomplish nearly as much in wet conditions, leaving you with… applying back pressure, and that’s about it.

Both fixies and bikes with brakes rely entirely on friction between the tire and the road to slow down. Bikes with brakes are affected by lower friction between the rim and brake pad during wet conditions, this is not an issue for fixies. Adding brakes to the mix adds an extra place for loss of friction.

Fixies are great if you want to look cool and only want to stick to the flat parts of town. Real cyclists choose gears, a freewheel and brakes because of the greater flexibility they bring.

Now don’t get me wrong – I think a fixie is a silly bike to be riding. But come on – this accident had absolutely nothing to do with the fact a fixie was involved.

My thoughts go out to the women who was hit and I hope for a hasty recovery.

Your rim is very much affected by wet conditions. You have that 1-second “whoa” period where your brakes do nothing because they are scraping off the micro-layer of water on the rim, and then they start to brake.

Drum brakes are the only bike brakes that are unaffected by wet conditions. Problem is they generally suck, but they suck equally rain or shine.

If you had actually logged any miles on the various scenarios you’re talking about (fixie rain or shine, caliper brakes rain or shine), you would not make this assertion.

Me, I’ll take a fixie in the rain any day.