Adding a Front Brake...advice, suggestions, please

[girlgofast]

All I have right now is a rear coaster brake and I want to add something on the front. I first ran into problems with finding a place on the handle bars for the additional lever. (I saw the dual-pull ones in another thread but I don't want the clutch and brake to operate together.) Is there another form of dual-lever that mounts as one but pulls separately? (two levers, one mount)

My next issue was mounting the caliper brake system. The stem already had the center hole so I assumed there'd be no fit problems. Due to the nature of my fork, I had to space the brakes really far forward with a bunch of washers (which I am not at all happy with). Also, there isn't a lot of room between the fork and rim for the shoes to have full clearance or even the calipers to open fully. And I'm thinking as soon as I brake the first time, all the paint on the rim will come off.

Maybe a disk brake is a better solution? Will that work on this hub/frame setup?
Also, anyone have a guess at what year and make this frame is? Best I've been able to get is 1960s Huffy...

[Zev0]

I use a drum brake on my front wheel and love it.

[markeatmark]

cut the pads down

[Dave31]

The dual brake lever operates both brakes, not clutch and brakes.

http://motorbicycling.com/f31/brakes...ours-1221.html

[Ilikeabikea]

Can you put it on the back of the fork instead of the front? Or there not enough room???????

[RedB66]

When you squeeze the brake caliper together are the tabs long enough to make contact with the wheel? From the pictures it looks as if those brake arms are too short. Once you squeeze the calipers together the pads should clear the forks, they will be just to the inside. You may need to get pads that have a shallow profile. I've found that BMX brakes are plenty long enough to mate up with the wheel.Brakes - Pyramid MX Brake Set bike brake set bicycle brake set front brake rear brake | BikeWorldUSA | Bicycle Parts and Bike Accessories.

As far as the dual pull lever... both brake lines will be attatched to it and the clutch will have an independent (seperate) lever.

Another option is disc brakes with an adaptor...Brakes

[Goat Herder]

Brakes
Bicycle brake systems - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Check these links. I use a mechanical front disk and v brake in the rear off a dual caliper on the bars.

[HoughMade]

Originally Posted by Ilikeabikea

Can you put it on the back of the fork instead of the front? Or there not enough room???????

All I can say is that a caliper works fine on the back of the fork...not that anyone will copy my mount.

[girlgofast]

Even if I cut the pads down lengthwise there still wouldn't be enough space between the fork and the rim for the caliper to open all the way with any shoe on there. I think I would have to shave at least half the thickness off as well. Factor this in with the mounting issue and I figure there has to be a better option (though I might end up doing this).

Already tried mounting on the back of the fork, the angle is totally off and nothing reaches/lines up. I need something like HoughMade's, awesome!!!

I thought the dual-lever said it could be used for clutch and brake, woops. I don't have a lever for rear brake so I guess that won't do anything for me. Anyone know anything about/have experience with twist-handle style clutches? They're like the ones on vespas. (The only other way I can come up with to reduce number of levers in my way.)

Thanks for the links and info everyone. ChainGang has some great stuff, even disk brake solutions for forks without caliper mount

I'll check to make sure the tabs are long enough, then figure out a way to mount it on the back of the fork, or go with disk brakes.

1960s Huffy... got a better guess?

[toad772]

Nice bike only thing wrong with it is the exhaust