wvginseng

I wonder if anyone has any experience or opinions about what is the best coaster brake hubs as far as quality, but also in least resistance{coast further**, easier to pedal, and braking? I have always liked bendix red band, 70, and 76 because it did pretty good with all the things I mentioned plus it is one of the easiest coaster brakes to take apart and put back together. I have just got a komet super date code b{1959** and after I cleaned it all the grease and a little rust out, I compared it to my best bendix that was clean and dry for least resistance and the komet super won, plus it was easier to pedal{turning sprocket by hand with hub in my hand**. So after greasing the komet super coaster brake I am going to try it on my bike. I have not had the pleasure of trying perry, sturmey archer, or some of the others that I have not mentioned. I have tried Shimano and never liked it due to it having a spring inside making it difficult to put back together, never saw any improvements anyway. I also had a New Departure model D skip tooth and thought it had more resistance than Bendix. What is your experience or opinions on coaster brakes. I am going to be running a 13 tooth sprocket on rear and 44 tooth on front with this new setup. Daniel

-=(8)=-

If you do a search, there is a coaster wizard on here somewhere, but I forget his name right now. Lots of good info, Im sure it will be the first thing that comes up in a BF or Google search.

This might help also: https://coasties.com/

I have a KT on my current bike. It's sorted out now, but I had problems, weird ones, out-of-the-box.

Flying Merkel

Another vote for the classic Bendix red band!

wvginseng

all the new coaster brakes are not very good quality and the KT has that spring just like Shimano. I recommend Bendix for most people interested in coaster brakes as it is very easy to put together and there is a lot of them on ebay whole or parts.

-=(8)=-

What spring, wvinseng?
I took mine apart trying to exorcise the crazy demon that made random knocking noises and even had it locking up completely on an extremely wet commute, and didnt find a spring.

What is you opinion of 3 speed / coaster set-ups? Best one of new school stuff ?

fietsbob

US, Bendix; Older German Made Sachs. add a IGH and UK Sturmey Coaster brake AWC.

Sun Race Bought out Sturmey Archer , now they make the AWC. in ROC.

Now, Sturmey Archer is Promoting ' a coaster brake hub for Adults' .. stay tuned, they are wanting your kind of buyer.

RaleighSport

I've got a shimano nexus SS coaster hub on my green machine, I've heard people complain about them but I've had zero issues with mine.

wvginseng

I took a shimano apart back in the early 90's and it had a spring and I never fooled with one again. I have a new Falcon coaster brake that I will never use and it has the spring just like shimano so I figured the hi-stop and KT were built using the same design, even without the spring I still would not like them until I was proven wrong. Now for 3 speeds, I never liked them harder to put back together, more parts inside the hub means more coasting resistance. I do not mind pedaling hard until I get my speed up.

wvginseng

My questions, if anyone has done tests, is to find the least resistant coasting coaster brake. was there any improvements to the Komet Super after 1959. Bendix went from 2 brake shoes to 4 brake shoes in 76, I always thought this was an improvement but it seems like the red band Bendix coasts just as good if not better. Braking may be better though but one could put the 4 shoes in the red band and it fits. thanks for your replies

wvginseng

I have read on the internet that velosteel coaster brake is one of the best new coaster brakes to buy.

wvginseng

The Bendix red band may get my vote for best overall coasterbrake. One experiment to make it easier to pedal though, I took the spring that goes around the two piece driver and spread it a little and that makes it easier to pedal hopefully without any bad side effects.

Nikola

Velosteel coaster brake hub is maybe the best coaster brake hub on the market today. Robust and sturdy, and it requiers proper (and regular) maintenance.

Rollfast

I would have looked at the bearings and axle first. Bearings did wonders for the Open Road middleweight I sold a friend when he worked on it. Wish I had thought of it first, made it like a brand new bike, it was so much easier to pedal!

rickpaulos

First factor is hub shell design. A shell cast/machined from a single piece of steel beats the 3 piece shell design hands down.

Most boxmart bikes use those cheap 3 piece shell hubs. The flanges will creak and groan under load. The flanges are 1/8" mild steel, pressed onto a piece of pipe. Junk.

Many of the new hubs use 3/32" thick cogs instead of the old school 1/8" cogs. The thinner cogs tend to rattle around on the driver adding more noise. You may need to add a shim to stop that from happening.
A 3/32" cog is lighter as is a 3/32" chain and you can use 10-speed chainrings.

Many old hubs are worn out by now. Cones will be pitted and are hard to find replacements for. Stacked disc brake hubs will have worn out copper discs and are also hard to find spares.

Joe Mama

I cannot speak from a repair standpoint but....... For braking performance My sturmey archer 3 speed brakes were great. Could lock up the wheel on any surface. I have now switched to a nexus 8 speed and cannot skid on anything but gravel or wet grass.

yodatic

Somebody made me buy another Raleigh Sports for spare parts. I inflated the tyres and it's still going! It has the TWC? 3speed with coaster brake hub and the daughter loves it.

Sculch

On this bike I have a Bendix laced on a 27" rim and I like it.



My friends have a few Sturmey Archer 2-speed kick shift and they work well so far. I liked the idea of 2 gears set below and above my Bendix, so I bought one for another build.

pipeline

I'm riding the Sturmey Archer 2-speed kick shift on my work-day commuter and it's still working after about 9 months.

Rollfast

I agree with the OP that the Komet hubs were super and I wish I had thought to keep mine when the wheel was replaced (Rollfast). After that it's Bendix and New Departure.