Up date the brakes

2door said:

I have those exact rims on my Norton bike (Schwinn Jaguar). They came with the disc brake hub and I made my own caliper brackets. That thing will throw me over the bars if I romp down on the brakes.

Tom

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I really like the rims. They're good rims for a MB because they're really strong, but reasonably priced. They also come in 36H, or 32H. That's important, because most of the good disk brake hubs are 32H.

Their main weak point is they weigh a little more than expensive rims, but who cares, we're not peddling.

Alright, thanks for the really good information.
I have been scanning ebay for the various options, and am having a hard time finding the Rhyno Lite wheel in a 36H version. The reason why I'm looking for a 36H version is that I have found several new front drum brake units selling really cheap, and they have 36 holes; maybe that is the reason they are going cheap?
Check out the drum unit I found on ebay:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/130742565830?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1438.l2649

-Fred

dracothered said:

What do you think of this brand of drum brakes (ARAI Front Drum Brake)?

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I just bought one of these ARAI NEW front drum brakes on ebay. Appears Random Bike Parts must have a bunch of them to sell as they are running non-stop auctions, bought mine for $27 shipped. They are 90mm.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=390451644939

I have not yet recieved it so I cannot comment on the quality nor the braking power. But on my build thread (Cheap B@st@rd Dyno Build in DIY) wheelbender6 posted that they own this brake and that it works well.

another pic:



I'm thinking that a couple people that read this forum must have bought these drums because right after I posted the info on the auction, they sold 6 more.

Dude!
I just got one of those too! I'm not sure when I'll get to putting in on. Other sellers seem to have this unit too.
-Fred

I can no longer advocate coaster brakes only. picked up a worksman front drum wheel at the east coast rally for $35. The stopping power of the front drum by itself is probably not as good as a disc (never had disc brakes, so I cant speak from personal experience), but with the front drum and the rear coaster togeth, I can stop on a dime. its waaaay better than caliper brakes, and im very happy with it. btw, I weigh 280 lbs and i still get pretty good stopping power with the coaster and the drum.

atombikes said:

I just bought one of these ARAI NEW front drum brakes on ebay. Appears Random Bike Parts must have a bunch of them to sell as they are running non-stop auctions, bought mine for $27 shipped. They are 90mm.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=390451644939

I have not yet recieved it so I cannot comment on the quality nor the braking power. But on my build thread (Cheap B@st@rd Dyno Build in DIY) wheelbender6 posted that they own this brake and that it works well.

another pic:

I'm thinking that a couple people that read this forum must have bought these drums because right after I posted the info on the auction, they sold 6 more.

Click to expand...

Alright! Well, I just put this front drum brake hub together with a wheel, and it stops the bike, but not all that great... Maybe it needs to brake in a little more. But when I step back and look at the wheel, it seems like it's a little small for a motorized bicycle. I'm starting to think I should have gone with a disk brake. Oh, well, it's all good experience. First time I laced up a wheel; boy, that was hard to do!



-Fred

crmachineman said:

Alright! Well, I just put this front drum brake hub together with a wheel, and it stops the bike, but not all that great... Maybe it needs to brake in a little more. But when I step back and look at the wheel, it seems like it's a little small for a motorized bicycle. I'm starting to think I should have gone with a disk brake. Oh, well, it's all good experience. First time I laced up a wheel; boy, that was hard to do!



-Fred

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3 things. 1: Yes, the drum needs to break in a little. The shoes are smooth as a baby's butt right now, and wont grab too hard till they get a little scuffed. 2: You need a brake lever that has a good amount of pull behind it. If you have a brake lever that only sits about 1" away from the handlebar, it won't have enough force to bring the shoes all the way down against the drum. This was my experience. I had a regular brake lever when I first got my drum, and wasnt getting the shoes to grab. I thought I had gotten a lemon. Someone suggested a different brake lever, and that did the trick for me. My shoes were already well broken in. 3: you will also need to adjust the tension on the cable properly. too little tension, shoes won't grab. Too much, shoes will drag against the drum and you will end up glazing the shoes. You dont want those shoes glazed. As far as drum vs disc brakes, my good friend Jay (known here as jbcruisin) has drums on all his bikes, and they are some pretty fast bikes. His '99 Whizzer (as in 1999, not 99cc) does about 50mph, and he has a 99cc Predator engine in another bike, that one does about 45. The rest of his bikes are all performance enhanced Whizzer bikes except for one 79cc tandem bike that only does maybe 30mph or so. All his bikes have front drum and rear coaster except one Whizzer bike that he recently purchased and hasn't had a chance to install a drum on yet. So if he can go 50mph and trust a drum brake, then I think a drum is good enough for me. disc brakes are the strongest, but drums are definitely the next step right below disc.

crmachineman said:

Alright! Well, I just put this front drum brake hub together with a wheel, and it stops the bike, but not all that great... Maybe it needs to brake in a little more. But when I step back and look at the wheel, it seems like it's a little small for a motorized bicycle. I'm starting to think I should have gone with a disk brake. Oh, well, it's all good experience. First time I laced up a wheel; boy, that was hard to do!



-Fred

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Fred- You're fast! So how did you do the lacing? 4 cross? Did you use the existing spokes, or did you have to buy new spokes?

Hah, well, perhaps I got around to lacing up the wheel sooner than I thought, but it took me like 4 hours to do it!! I'm a total novice with wheels. I don't know anything about techniques and terminology. I did reuse the spokes that the Walmart alloy wheel came with. They did seem a little too long, but was able to find a pattern that allowed spokes of that length to be used. Getting started was a bit hard, but once the pattern was started, it got easier. Then I had to true the wheel, and that takes a lot of skill which I do not have!

What I learned is that doing wheels is a skill that requires a lot of practice!

-Fred

crmachineman said:

Alright! Well, I just put this front drum brake hub together with a wheel, and it stops the bike, but not all that great... Maybe it needs to brake in a little more. But when I step back and look at the wheel, it seems like it's a little small for a motorized bicycle. I'm starting to think I should have gone with a disk brake. Oh, well, it's all good experience. First time I laced up a wheel; boy, that was hard to do!



-Fred

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Hi Fred, I just bought this hub off of ebay as well and am trying to source 18ga spokes and rim to build a wheel, but can't find any specs for the hub diameter. Did you build a 26" wheel? What spoke length did you use? Thanks.

18g spokes are not going to be very sturdy at all. The higher the number, the smaller the width. 14g spokes are standard on some bicycles, and 12g spokes are one size thicker. 11g spokes are the thickets bicycle spokes i know of. There could also be thicker spokes available that I havent heard of because they just arent commonly used. a few here have also used motorcycle spokes, which are thicker than bicycle spokes.