Help - Coaster or Hand Brakes?

[Reid]

This coaster brake bias...

For powered bikes, yikes, YES, front brake, please!

But do recall reality: hundreds of millions of rear-wheeled manual bikes have been made since 1889 at the least. Many had no brakes or freewheel at all.
Most of us who are over fifty recall best, the "middleweight" HEAVY AS HECK, coaster brake bikes of our youth. We never crashed. Also, we rarely made more than ten mph on the flats. It's the hills that make ills.

I retrofitted my bike's bulletproof coaster brake with a grease-injection hole.
No "zerk" neeeded. This way, with a plastic glue syringe, I can inject fresh, soft, white grease at whatever intervals, flushing out wear products and dirt, from the internals.
I think, with its primitive cup and cone bearings, that I have a brake that will never need to be "taken down" for greasing/cleaning service.

Antique coaster bikes used a sort of heavy oil instead of grease.
Their drag is minimal. The coaster brake bike makes no sound at all, when coasting: no click, click click, which is nice.

But, again, yes! FRONT BRAKES please, for powered bikes?
And as for dirt? Planet Bike plastic fenders are cheap and easy to make a perfect, silent custom fit.
I actually LOOK for mud puddles to splash through!
I like them dulled from gloss black: Scotchbrite pad and soapy water, pre-mounting, rubbing along the length of the fender.

Just thoughts...and the poll will, naturally, run in favor of front brakes,
as it should.

 

[Reid]

hahah hilarious

In retrospection, it was hilarious indeed...that it happened to me. Anyone else might have died.
I wore no BMX helmet that day! How awesomely stupid!
I will never ride again without my Bell BMX helmet.

the man of one thousand, undeserved death-cheats,
r.

 

[suspect]

yeh, when you lean, you gotta coast and have the outer pedal down, but im sure that horse has well and truly bolted now...

 

[Reid]

yeh, when you lean, you gotta coast and have the outer pedal down, but im sure that horse has well and truly bolted now...

So true! So,
I figured out two alternatives for myself:
shorter pedals (less wide),
or just cut off my inside-turn leg with a hatchet,
cauterizing the stump with a hot iron
before my next crash
I mean, it is a powered bike; pedaling is a waste of Mars Bars' power.

Looks like the poll is heavily leaning toward front brakes.
This is good for sellers of levers, bowden cables, pads and calipers;
and bad for sellers of Universal Health Care Plans.

 

[sparky]

Coaster brakes are the DEVIL!

 

[fetor56]

Coaster brakes have their place,just not in my place.

 

[suspect]

mine gooped up on me today, and the chain fell off twice... not keen, must figure a way to mount the disc brakes i bought, it is a surprisingly challenging task.

 

[Reid]

mine gooped up on me today, and the chain fell off twice... not keen, must figure a way to mount the disc brakes i bought, it is a surprisingly challenging task.

Well, there you are.

Not a one of you has "said" anything really in opposition of what I've "championed", nor have I told any of you that the lowly, old coaster brake is failsafe.

But to repeat, if I have not said this already:

-The coaster brake must be kept in perfect order.
This means, usually, an annual tear-down, to clean and regrease.
Mine? I won't ever have to tear it down. It is new, first quality, and is grease-able
by injecting soft grease into a small hole I bored through the glass-hard steel hub. Carbide or diamond burrs needed for that.

CHAIN: bike chain does not break or fall off if it is
A) in line with the driving and driven cogs.
B) kept at a reasonable tension, not allowed to "stretch" so much that it's slack and bounces off. NO BRAKE then.
Bike chain and steel chainrings are CHEAP. Replace them if they start to look worn. Replace parts, keep them clean...it's just like pre-flight inspection of an airplane. Do this and NO failure will ever occur.

D) Don't expect a neglected, ten year old or older, coaster brake bike,
to be safe-performing at any speed. Its internal brake shoes may be running on hardened or burned grease and can LOCK UP at any moment.

The coaster brake as we see in most cheap but good coaster brake bikes (not wallmart bikes) is safe and reliable and is EXPECTED by the makers, that you will PAY a pro to R&R the unit, at least every thousand miles,
or yearly, or DIY all this yourself.

The job is easy if it's a single-speed rear hub coaster brake.

Finally: only Stupid Reid is Officially Certified (insert Curly portrait here) to
ride an e-bike with only one brake.

NINETEEN MILLION MODEL T FORDS ran well enough for nineteen years, rear brakes only.

About five hundred million (I make up this number) coaster brake bikes have been made, and used by millions of kids and geezers, for about one century.

My old man: the last time he rode a coaster brake bike was, until the other day, was the year 1948, and it was his older brother's ca. 1937 Columbia Silver Streak, then.
And its coaster brake NEVER gave trouble. It had an OIL CUP on the hub.
You put in a few drops of special oil per season. No grease.

Here, just the other day, Ernie rides again, for the first time in sixty one years.

IT IS A COASTER BRAKE-only bike, a Giant.
The fact that all the major bike makers like Trek and Giant, still sell tons
of rear-brake-manual-pedal only bikes, proves that =they= know their stuff,
and that they are not legally worried about the rare rider who fails to follow maintenance instructions.

World Record: Old Man Rides Bike For The First Time (no lie) in Sixty One Years
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKWK7Ixv0_g

(the video is twice as long as it needed to be, but...suddenly, SHE walked into the scene) Two of my favorite people. And it is an amazing bike.
And even a young man would get a kick from this sort of bike.
They are sweet to ride, not clunky or heavy, etc. And NO brake cables, etc.

NOT for power-izing...for fourteen mph easy-cruising.
Wait till you see my Trek Lime?
It's a man's bike, not this blue-girly-looking Giant Suede Coasting System bike.

 

[suspect]

my main issue with cruiser brakes is the way they function, for me, and the way i ride, not being able to backpedal is downright dangerous.
add to that the chain coming off and the brakes just being weird things that i dont really understand, and well, i just dont want em on my bike and could not advise anyone else to have them, on a slow bike that is only ridden on the flat, as most cruiser bikes are intended, its fine, it certainly looks nicer than having hand brakes, but for safety, id have the hand brakes any day.

 

[Reid]

Yes, all! It is important for a bike to be made powered, that it have front brakes.
That is the bottom line. Sheldon Brown would say the same, and you all know his experience and reputation.

That I have a front-drive e-bike with no front brake, and no brake-accident failures yet,
means nothing! I'm mechanically skilled and am lucky, and paid my money and take my chances. Don't any of you who might like to go faster than fifteen or so, manually, "copy" my potential deathtrap. What I gained is a cleaner look, is all. Simpler and cleaner, but NOT safer! So, put up with cables and pads and discs up front.
Because, for most any bike and rider, that's where the main brake should be.
And a rear brake as adjunct in case the front should ever fail, is a help.

I say this to be very sure that no-one ever gets hurt because this risk-taker said at one time,
"Oh, I have only a rear coaster brake and like it fine". NO. That could be the death of you.
I can hardly save myself, much less ensure anyone elses' relative safety.

Steel cruiser bikes with front brakes can and do make fine candidates for powering up.
You just have those extra parts that look less "slick" for their being there.
They still look better than any tombstone.

I ride, almost daily, a manual coaster brake bike, by pedal power.
Flat land, 14mph average. It's safe enough, but that is s-l-o-w
compared against the 20mph or even faster of a power assisted bike.
The stopping distances are MUCH greater, the faster we ride,
due to reaction time and weight transfer to the front, where and when,
the front brake does most of the braking---if it is present.