The dumbest bike law you've never heard of

BIG UPDATE! The CPSC is accepting public comments about removing the footbrake requirement for kids bikes. Go to this link to submit a comment: www.regulations.gov/commenton/CPSC-2023-0023-0001 The more people that go there and post that they support revoking the footbrake requirement, the better. This was an initiative championed by Woom, a large manufacturer of children's bikes. Good on them for getting the ball rolling, and putting some real dollars into getting the message out.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

Seth’s one to talk about safety, he’s the king of sketchy stuff! 😂

😂 "When my 2 yr. Old expresses interest in bicycles, I will fight zombies to make it a better experience for her" 😂👍💯

Seen from Europe, America sometimes seems like the land of contradictions: you have to have double brakes for safety on a children's bike but you can change the engine of your 1982 VW T3 that has 45 horsepower to a 150 horsepower Subaru engine (or more) without anyone coming to check if you have adequate brakes. We love you for this, because you are crazy!