Front brake conumdrum

Malleon · Post by **Malleon** » Tue Jul 13, 2010 10:29 pm

Hello Peter,
I know you stated that this bike was a newly restored project, but do you know how the grease came to be in the brake drum in the first place ?
Were the hub seals in good condition, or replacements ?
You won't want a recurrence !
Best regards

Stan Palmer · Post by **Stan Palmer** » Wed Jul 14, 2010 9:00 am

Peter, one thing I noticed in your first mail was 'wider radius centres to give more pull'. Not exactly sure what you mean, but larger distance between pivot and cable will give increased movement but less force. It's the ratio of distance to the pivot from where your hand sits on the lever to the pivot to cable centres. The standard centres for AMC is 7/8" : an increase to 1" will give 12.5% less force in the cable.
Stan

petert120r · Post by **petert120r** » Wed Jul 14, 2010 9:26 am

Malleon, I don't know where the grease came form originally but I've replaced the seals so should be OK now.

Stan, thanks for that. You're right of course - I assumed the 1" ones would give greater leverage. I'll put the 7/8" ones back on. We live and learn!

bob · Post by **bob** » Wed Jul 14, 2010 6:43 pm

Stan
We have the guide . The MOT brake test , which my 1960 - 31 passed on Monday . As I was in a queue with a modern Duke and a modern Beamer , crap brakes was mentioned , to which the tester hit the rear brake on my bike - got a 100 reading
( 100 whats ? I don't know ) and said there's nowt wrong with them brakes , thats as good as them - pointing to the other 2 bikes .
Unfortunatly I did'nt get the reading for the front brake , but I will try to call back and ask him to give me a reading on the front brake . The linings are all from the bikes past history and are probably from the late 1970's , so are likely to be 100% deadly asbestos .
bob

RayRST · Post by **RayRST** » Wed Jul 14, 2010 9:13 pm

The recent MOT on my 48 16M gave a test value of 76% for the front brake which then locked up. The tester said that it was better than most of the modern drum bikes he tests. The rear was 56% which he said was normal. What ever it all means but the bike does pull up when I want it to.
Ray

Stan Palmer · Post by **Stan Palmer** » Thu Jul 15, 2010 9:57 am

My front brake locked up fairly easily on MOT rolling road, to the extent that he asked me to do it again gradually applied. It doesn't lock up on the road though. That in itself is perhaps not a bad thing but I could do with a bit better emergency braking.
Also I once had a singer gazelle with appalling brakes, but it passed the MOT, at that time they used an accelerometer in the car on road test. After a few near misses I found that the pads had been replaced with cheap after market type. With original pads the brakes were good again.
Stan