H: Hubs, Wheels and Tyres Front brake help please

kerry

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VOC Member
On my bike I have been trying to improve the 'spongy' front brake, I have the angled arms fitted but when looking on images all I see is straight, which should I have please ?
I am no expert so appreciate help as I have had in the past on this nice forum.
Kerry.
P1070896.JPG
P1070897.JPG
 

lee_812d

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VOC Member
Is the picture of the wheel with the brake applied? At the point of max braking you want 90 degrees between cable and arm.
 

timetraveller

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VOC Member
I think that you might have misunderstood something. Look up H12/4, that is what I would call a non straight brake arm, They were used on the rear of Series 'D's. They are longer than the original front brake arms and that is what you are looking for. You only need to use the curvaceous ones if you have air scoops fitted. The length is the important thing as that means that for a given force on the handlebar lever more force is exerted on expanding the brake shoes, at the expense of more movement. However, more than that change is required if you want to get rid of sponginess. Buy, or make, very robust brake cables. Two of them. Get rid of the balance beam and replace it with a separate support on each fork leg. That means that you have to have a handlebar lever with its own balancing system. Enfield or modern Japanese ones are available. Then have a look at your brake plates. Are they the original steel plates with no stiffeners? if so they need to be either stiffened or replace with thicker and stiffer ali ones. Finally, are the brake shoes touching equally all the way round? If not then if you use ali plates ensure that the central hole is oversized and then when fitting the brakes, and before tightening up the tommy bar spindle, apply the brake as hard as you can to centralise the shoes and then, while holding the brake on tighten up the tommy bar spindle.
See also Lee's comment above.
 

Speedtwin

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VOC Member
One very knowledgeable Vincent rider spotted my spongy front brake couple of years back.
Problem was the bushings in the brake plate badly worn.
I replaced the bushes and sorted out cable alignment by bending the balance beam on the lhs and set the bottom arms up correctly as described above with brake on.
He also spotted that my balance beam was not pivoting correctly due to wrong size bush being squeezed rather than free movement.
Sorted with an angle grinder lovely job.

Transformation was wonderful.
No more bum clenching.
The rapide now has Speet brakes which do the job very nicely.
Al
 

Simon Dinsdale

VOC Machine Registrar
VOC Member
VOC Forum Moderator
The front brake on my Rapide was standard and was a very spongy brake. I then fitted twin leading brakes to my Rapide which I machined up myself from cast alloy castings provided to me by a very knowledgeable member / engineer who had them cast 25 plus years ago and I kept the same standard brake cables (which were not that thick) and the standard balance beam. The result was the brake now has no sponge feeling at all and is a great brake which to me shows that the brake cable and balance beam are not the cause of the spongy feeling as those were not changed.

Try this. With the bike stationary apply the brake gently until you cannot push the bike forward and so the brake is fully on. Then looking down at the brake arms and apply more preasure on the handlebar brake lever and I bet the brake arms keep moving as you get that spongy feeling at the handlebar. This is because the problem is not the brake cable nor is it the balance beam. The problem is inside the brake drum and is usually either the brake shoes bending or the pivot pins the brake shoes mount onto no longer at 90 degrees to the brake plate and so the brake shoes are over at an angle and so the lining is not parallel to the drum surface as these pins are not well supported in the steel brakeplates.

Every old steel brake plate I have ever looked at (and its quite a few) these shoe mounting pins have moved over at a slight angle and one I found was loose and could rotate and so this causes the shoes to then out of alignment. Consider this, the steel brakeplates are only 1/8" thick and so the shoe mounting pins are only mounted and supported along an 1/8" length of the pin. The alloy twin leading brake plates I used are 5/8" thick at the area where the brake shoe pins are mounted so are well supported and cannot bend over or move. That and any other wear like in the brake cam pivot bore will all create the sponge feeling.
 
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