review! husky bicycles 26" rim, sturmey archer drum brake

i assume everyone has seen this link passed around this site (i know i have, it's how i found it!)

26" FRONT WHEEL WITH DRUM BRAKE HUB: Husky Bicycles

after lots of searching around town getting ridiculous prices on having a drum brake/rim custom built for me, and having no luck finding anything online, i found that link on this site. so i'd been saving up for awhile (gotta remember to pay bills first), and finally ordered this guy last week. ordered thursday night, and it arrived tuesday afternoon. pretty damn good, colorado to maine $29 shipping via ups.

the rim came sandwiched between two large peices of cardboard in a heavy-duty cardboard box. the parts in a sealed bag (special cable/connectors, and a little mount to hold the brake arm to the fork). the tire is definitely heavy duty, large spokes 11g, well trued. the tire did not come with any rim tape, sadly i was unprepared for that. and the little mount for holding the brake arm in place is quite small, seems like it would fit on my road bike's fork, but not the large fork on my cranny. also it did not come with a brake lever, so i had to use the one i had on the bike already.

regardless, it didn't take me long to get it installed on the bike and rigged in place to work (wire ties!). probably less than an hour and it was adjusted and good to go. and riding around today breaking it in, i am quite impressed! going from a single side pull on the front, that burned through brake pads like i go through pad thai, all i can say is wow! my stopping distance has been cut in half. twice! and i'm not even really testing the brake to its fullest yet. but the rim rolls nice, and the brake is silent. quality made!

i am quite happy with the company (shipping at least), and the product thus far. i was skeptical at first ordering from a random company off of ebay/paypal, but they get two thumbs up from me!

my only issue now is that i don't really get how a drum brake works, so i've only just thought of the fact i could potentially have to change pads inside? will it wear out after not long? never really thought of that kind of stuff, just knew i wanted/needed one!

so yeah. uh. learned my lesson with those zip ties today. car cut off the car in front of me, tested the brake to it's fullest and all five zip ties snapped, the arm spun around and caught on the fender brace, pulled and wound the brake cable around the drum.

WHOA! almost went over the front, but wasn't going too fast. i'm still so suprised how well i took it. i just moved over to the sidewalk (was at a busy downtown tourist area, thus the people not knowing how to drive), and thankfully had my tools on me. cut the cable, took off the tire and bent the brace/fender back in place. the brake itself, and rim are completely unaffected thankfully. but D@MN!

after taking care of that, and having no brake i decided to head home, which is all up hill, so i went slow and dug my heels when needed. BUT halfway home my clutch cable snapped! inside the handle, like it was cut right through. i thankfully had more zip ties on me, so i zipped my clutch open, and pedaled home. but wow. not a fun afternoon.

now i have NO idea how to find a cheap replacement for that special sturmey archer brake cable... but i'm definitely going to use a Ubolt to hold that brake arm to my fork.

bah!