drum brakes?

[British Petrol Biker]

okay okay more silly ideas,
lately i have been looking at different ways of braking, my bike only has the basic rim style caliper or ''vee'' brakes i am told, and i just thought it would be nicer if my bike were to slow down at least within the nearest hour of my squeezing my handlebars and especially in hill devon where i live where at the bottom of every single steep hill is a sharp bend or bridge/stream or even worse a farmer in his great big nissan navara or whatever they drive, but back onto subject.. i thought at first disc brakes but then my frame has not got the mounts to hold the calipers and the rear sprocket top hat adapters look like a ballache so then i thought about drum brakes and i know sturmey archer make drum brakes for bikes but after presenting my idea to my uncle who is into extreme downhill mountain biking says that they are generally not worth it and especially with our great hills the brake fade would soon overpower the weight of the bike so i though brilliant, guess i am stuck with v brakes then.. until the other day when i saw these:

half width brake hubs for the older style royal enfield's/bsa's
and it got me thinking would it be possible to mount these to a rim and put your rag joint sprocket on the smaller side and have the pedals connected to the toothed side (and yes i will have to put on a set of pedals with a front freewheel) there are also front wheel variants i already have motorcycle cable levers so that is not a problem, but provided i can get these mounted to a rim, would there be any reason they would not work? or just general thoughts,

cheers,
Jack

 

[DieselTech]

Find a old moped & remove the drum brakes out of wheels & have them re-laced to your particular rims you want to use.

 

[Karl Snarl]

They make drum brakes for bikes, front and back. A lot of times its coupled to a dynamo or a multispeed hub.

 

[British Petrol Biker]

It's easier and well worth the expense to just fork swap to something disc caliper ready and set it up on a 203mm rotor. Bigger rotors are better to an extent, just not the way most would shoot off nonsense about.

There is a common misconception in this hobby that bigger rotor= more stopping power. NO! ABSOLUTELY NOT TRUE!
What a bigger rotor means is more surface area. Extra surface area means the rotor doesn't get as hot as fast, and can cool faster when it does. Since it can cool better and faster it means it takes more abuse to cause heat fade, pad glazing, and cause heat enduced rotor warping.

Yeah I guess it would be A lot easier to switch to disks, I was reading online that discs can be less effective when wet or muddy and especially during the British winter times it’s wet almost every day and where I am ,the wet turns to mud, would the braking efficiency be decreased enough to cause a problem,

 

[British Petrol Biker]

Dunno where you read that nonsense, but that's all it is best I can figure.

Serious questions of logic if that were even somewhat accurate...
Why do nearly all motorcycles since 1980 use disc's?
Why do nearly all dirt bikes since 1985 use discs?
Extreme Downhill racing MTB... disc again.

I'm not attempting to be mean spirited, I'm just looking for the logic and just get IF=THEN added to personal experience and knowledge acquired.


There is one other brake type you overlooked, they're called "roller brakes" but as I understand it some cheaper versions have been know to outright burst into flames in extreme braking conditions... don't hold me accountable to the accuracy of that intell, I've used disc brakes pretty exclusively even before tossing motors in the mix.

Thanks for the advice
I will have to look into getting a frame that fits callipers and I’m a bit of heavy on the brakes so maybe the more robust ones you suggested especially for the long hills I have around me are the more wiser choice

 

[DAMIEN1307]

I will have to look into getting a frame that fits callipers and I’m a bit of heavy on the brakes so maybe the more robust ones you suggested especially for the long hills I have around me are the more wiser choice

My frame wasn't designed to fit calipers and yet i have them...Just made my own adapters is all...Also made my own front motor mount as well...All of my bike is rock solid...DAMIEN

 

[British Petrol Biker]

My frame wasn't designed to fit calipers amd yet i have them...Just made my own adapters is all...Also made my own front motor mount as well...All of my bike is rock solid...DAMIEN

That is one amazing bike not far off what i one day I will have built for the roads my side of the pond.. I guess if I were to put my mind to it and do some research I could possibly fabricate some mounts up, I do add are you using a top hat adapter for the rear wheel ?

 

[DAMIEN1307]

I do add are you using a top hat adapter for the rear wheel ?

On my particular mag wheel set, it comes with a set of rotors, calipers, 36t rearsprocket as well as the spacer between the rear sprocket and rear disk...I have a thousand trouble free miles on the setup thus far...DAMIEN

BBR Tuning 26 Inch Heavy Duty 3 Spoke Motorized Bike Mag Wheel Set

Are you looking for a heavy-duty wheel set built for speed? Sick of having to make constant adjustments and to your spoked rim? Then the BBR Tuning 26 Inch Heavy Duty 3 Spoke Motorized Bike Mag Wheel Set is exactly what you’ve been looking for! Built to be disc-brake ready and pre-installed with...

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[DAMIEN1307]

I stick with ONLY the three spoked ones and they work flawlessly...no cracks, no breaks, etc...But then again, its not being used for racing or off roading either, strictly street running around town and a little on highway...YMMV...lol...DAMIEN

 

[gary55]

Agree that Disc is the way to go. Agree that larger discs cool faster. Agree that roller brakes suck. Disagree that larger discs don't give more stopping power. They have to. The larger radius is a longer lever. Just as a larger sprocket is. Larger sprocket faster acceleration. Larger disc faster faster stopping. Their is also more disc passing through the caliper per rotation thus more surface area and more friction per rotation. This can have diminishing returns on the front disc cause the larger disc can give you flying lessons. Since you live in a hilly area you might want disc front V brake rear as usually a small sprocket and large disc is needed for sprocket/caliper clearances on the rear. Not sure where you BP live over there, but their is a guy on here called Furryontheinside who also lives in the UK that might have some good sources for you.