Cycles of all sorts

The spoon brake was one of the first types of bicycle brakes and precedes the pneumatic tire. They were first used on penny farthings with solid rubber tires in the late 1800's and continued to be used after the introduction of the pneumatic tired safety bicycle. It consists of a pad (often leather) which is pressed onto the top of the front tire. These were almost always rod-operated by a right-hand lever. In developing countries, a foot-operated form of the spoon brake is sometimes retrofitted to old rod brake roadsters. It consists of a spring-loaded flap attached to the back of the fork crown. This is depressed against the front tire by the rider's foot.

Perhaps more so than any other form of bicycle brake, the spoon brake is very sensitive to road conditions and increases tire wear dramatically.

Though made obsolete by the introduction of the coaster brake and rod brake, they continued to be used supplementally on adult bicycles until the 1930's and children's bicycles until the 1950's, in the West. In the developing world, they were manufactured until much more recently.