Originally Posted By: Ducked
Don't see any sign of brake hardware, so my guess is its a fairly good frame that's been retrofitted with a backpedal ("coaster") brake.
Seems to be a "thing" with the small bike shops here, probably partly because Taiwanese don't do maintenance so there's a big supply of frames with wrecked derailler gearsets. Didn't know it was done anywhere else.
They tend to be fairly cheap and sold mostly to yoofs, but I've had a few (built from salvaged bits like the shops probably do) and am running a couple of them at the moment. They go all right but they don't stop very well.
People occaisionally ask why my bike has no brakes and I tell them brakes stop you being at one with the Zen of the traffic flow. Sometimes they actually buy it.
It's not uncommon for cyclists here to retrofit old multispeed bikes here with a single-speed rear hub and studded tires to make a cheap and reliable winter bike. The derailleurs really get beaten up by the salty slush here. (This would not be as common in Taiwan I would think.)
Jr did this with my old Norco Bigfoot mountain bike, and made it a fixi as well, and so only retained the front brake.
