Bike messenger makes his way around NYC traffic without brakes

This is a video of bike messenger Cooper Ray and videographer Terry Barentsen (the guy behind the camera) making their way around NYC traffic. You know that movie Premium Rush starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt where the premise of the movie is that he doesn’t have brakes on his bike? Well this is that:

What makes Cooper’s riding style even more amazing, is he does not have any gears or brakes on his bike.

When it comes to braking, I’ve seen Cooper jump off the bike and slow down on foot, also I have seen him use his foot on the back wheel like a brake, but otherwise he just keeps riding.

Also the bike Cooper is riding is a track bike made for racing at a velodrome, it is a fixed gear bike with no brakes and no freewheel. Which means the rear wheel drives the pedals, so as long as the bike is moving the pedals are turning.

This is obviously super dangerous for Cooper but it actually makes things more dangerous for other non-insane cyclists. The general idea behind road safety is predictability and this guy is the opposite of that. It’s easy to avoid something going in a straight line, it becomes much more difficult when the thing starts swerving and not following rules and being a general menace to everybody around them. Cool video though.

Keep going for the full video that probably infuriates “normal” cyclists everywhere.