Wow, fascinating discussion. Thanks for all the information. I see so many of these bikes in NYC that I have gotten really curious about them. Catrin, yes, there are people riding brakeless bikes, often without helmets, in NYC traffic. Go figure.

A question -- if there's just one brake, why a front one? I'm really curious about this for two reasons -- first, I want to understand bikes better. Second, I have gotten into a heated argument in my kick scooter group. I've been riding a Xootr for nine years and never once even thought about tossing myself over the handlebars when I use the front brake. The people in this group are aghast; they apparently are routinely sailing over their handlebars and are switching to scooters with only a rear foot brake.

Three of these cheap brakeless wonders have almost made me crash my bike in the past six weeks which cannot possibly be a coincidence. I personally think if you can't operate a hand brake safely you probably shouldn't be on a scooter, but I've kept that thought to myself (so far).

I'd love to add info from the bike world to my pro-front brake argument.