Singlespeed & Fixed Gear - Coaster Brake SS?

I'm thinking of building up a 700c rear coaster brake wheel for my track frame. Anyone ever done this before or have insight into why it might be a bad idea, asthetics aside? I'd also be interested to find out where I could get a 32 hole coaster brake only hub (NOT the nexus, 3 speed or otherwise). It seems like it would be a good idea to me. The only major problems I can see would be is have alot of weight in the back and getting a hub with as decent bearings as I have now (sealed or at least Shimano).

they don't really make good coaster hubs anymore. get an older one, maybe ask in the "classic & vintage" forum. I hear that sachs made a good one back in the day...

...and why NOT put a 3-speed hub on your track bike? Sturmey archer is the bomb-sheezy

http://www.nycbikes.com/item.php?item_id=450
http://www.nycbikes.com/item.php?item_id=353

Most costers came 36 holes.24 on the smaller bikes(20/24" wheeled). and I think 28 holes on stingrays but not sure.I have a rare 40 hole bendix .I have not heard of a 32 hole coaster hub.

i have built up 3 wheels with 36 hole osterbrake, and i bought 2 from nyc bikes. It's pretty easy, and usualy needs to be spaced out to 120. think it JB importers who has them is lot's of sizes just go to you local shop and ask to flip thru the qbp and Jb catalogs and you should find them in a few hole paterns

If you search the archives you'll find several who have. jimv most notably has some beautiful 700c coaster bikes.

Earlier this year I had a Steamroller built up with a Shimano E-type coaster hub. The only minor problem was having to use extra thick tandem spokes because the holes in the hub were too big for regular ones.

Hmmm...interesting. The plot thickens (as do the spokes apparently). I think I'll ride fixed until I get injured and then maybe make the conversion. How does that sound for preventative maintenance? Thanks for those links though, that really gives me a good idea as to what I might build up in the future.

One last question though: How do they ride? Is the braking distance better or worse than a fixed gear? How about skidding, is it a big problem with the 700c tires? The last coaster bike I owned was a 16" huffy so I don't know how a thinner tire will hold up.

If you're doing it on a track frame, watch out for those chainstays. Otherwise, sounds sweet. (Kevin Bacon stylee!)

Dude, rather than getting a coaster, and relying on your rear wheel (rear braking=poor braking), why not save yourself a lot of aggrivation and get a FRONT BRAKE. Coaster brakes are annoying anyway, because you can't backpedal when you want to start from a red light. You can always take the brake off when you want to look "cool" :D

How do they ride? Is the braking distance better or worse than a fixed gear? How about skidding, is it a big problem with the 700c tires?

Stopping distance is no better or worse than fixed as far as I can tell. It stops better than I thought it would considering the tires.
So far I haven't had a problem with skidding when I didn't want to, but I also haven't been down any steep hills in the rain. Or dealt with icy/slushy roads. Skids on purpose are very easy.
As usual, yeah, a front brake in addition to the coaster would be safer. I'll put one on eventually.

Well, I do have a front brake on my bike already. I kinda just wanted something that didn't look as obtrusive but was reliable, especially in the winter. Also, I just like to tinker with bikes. It's fun in and of itself.

The other thing is that although my fixed gear bike can go faster than my MTB SS, I find that using a coasting bike is just easier when I'm riding around a congested campus or urban enviornment. Surprisingly I've found my fixed gear bike to be a better distance road bike rather than an urban bike. It almost makes me wonder whether a freewheeling bike would be better for messengers or not, right? I mean, just thinking ahead to winter, I can already see my poor braking on the fixed gear as opposed to the coaster brake wheel (the lesser of two evils I suppose).

If you search the archives you'll find several who have. jimv most notably has some beautiful 700c coaster bikes.

Earlier this year I had a Steamroller built up with a Shimano E-type coaster hub. The only minor problem was having to use extra thick tandem spokes because the holes in the hub were too big for regular ones.

Many CB hubs come drilled for the fatter 12ga spokes. Lots of cruiser style bikes were built w/ coasters and these heavy spokes. Ths is what lz4005 is talking about.

You can use 14ga spokes in thpse hubs without any problem.

Well, I do have a front brake on my bike already. I kinda just wanted something that didn't look as obtrusive but was reliable, especially in the winter. Also, I just like to tinker with bikes. It's fun in and of itself.

The other thing is that although my fixed gear bike can go faster than my MTB SS, I find that using a coasting bike is just easier when I'm riding around a congested campus or urban enviornment. Surprisingly I've found my fixed gear bike to be a better distance road bike rather than an urban bike. It almost makes me wonder whether a freewheeling bike would be better for messengers or not, right? I mean, just thinking ahead to winter, I can already see my poor braking on the fixed gear as opposed to the coaster brake wheel (the lesser of two evils I suppose).

Coaster brakes ARE good for winter, in that they are self-contained, and work equally well in poor or good weather. However, coaster brakes do not work as well as a well-adjusted front brake with kool-stop salmon pads in ANY weather.

The bearings also suck, and they are heavy. You really don't need rear brakes at all. In my experience, they hardly do anything unless you have discs or very good vbrakes. If you don't like your fixie in congested areas, consider lowering your gear ratio.

Many CB hubs come drilled for the fatter 12ga spokes. Lots of cruiser style bikes were built w/ coasters and these heavy spokes. Ths is what lz4005 is talking about.
You can use 14ga spokes in thpse hubs without any problem.

We did a test lace with 14ga and they were so loose it literally looked like they might pull right through the holes. The wheel builder at the LBS thought it wouldn't be structurally sound to lace it that way and basically refused to do it as a safety precaution. This is the same guy who told me not to put a front brake on because it looked cooler (mostly kidding), so he's not a safety nazi by any means.

Since he's built and fixed hundreds of wheels to my 0, I trust his judgement. And considering the added strain a coaster puts on spoke ends compared to rim brakes, it was worth the extra time and money to me.

Coaster brakes ARE good for winter, in that they are self-contained, and work equally well in poor or good weather. However, coaster brakes do not work as well as a well-adjusted front brake with kool-stop salmon pads in ANY weather.

The bearings also suck, and they are heavy. You really don't need rear brakes at all. In my experience, they hardly do anything unless you have discs or very good vbrakes. If you don't like your fixie in congested areas, consider lowering your gear ratio.

You really can't rely on a coaster brake to stop yourself. You need at least one other brake.

Coaster brakes are good for scrubbing off a bit of speed. Like when you're about to enter a corner too fast. Being able to reduce your speed without having to use your hands is kool.

Coaster brakes have another good attribute: they freewheel without any ratchet noise. So they're the most quiet rear hub.

They take a little getting used to. And they may not be your cup of tea. But, as someone pointed out above, the old ones are well made and they're easy to maintain and they go forever.

MG

I was checking out the Sturmey Archer site and they have a pretty cool sealed bearing coaster hub...although I don't know if it's too long yet or not. However, it looks pretty good.

Scratch that, the sealed bearing one is a drum brake hub.

You really don't need rear brakes at all. In my experience, they hardly do anything unless you have discs or very good vbrakes. If you don't like your fixie in congested areas, consider lowering your gear ratio.

my old bmx only ever had a rear brake (against regulations to have a front brake when racing), and I could always stop just fine. it's not so much the brake, but the set up. do a crappy job adjusting the brake, you'll get crappy performance.

^^^--Sure, but a well adjusted front brake will have far more stopping power than a rear brake with the same adjustment.

yes, but this is not what you said in your original statement.

"...they hardly do anything unless you have discs or very good vbrakes." != "...a well adjusted front brake will have far more stopping power than a rear brake with the same adjustment."

the way you ride will also affect how you brake. in normal posture a front brake forces your weight forward, forcing the load of the bike and ride on the front wheel. standing up out of the saddle, putting your butt over the rear wheel, and using only the rear brake can have the same effect, since you are loading the rear wheel. on most any bike I ride, I usually only use the rear brake, and stop just fine, rarely using the front brake to scrub speed.

I have done this before although it was ages ago and I sold the bike to a Toronto messenger when I left the biz. it worked just fine for me for the 3 or so years I had the bike-great winter bike as the brake in the coaster is not affected by adverse weather conditions-run a front brake too please!! as for finding a decent hub-you just have to keep looking...If I remember the stock cog on my hub was a 17 or 18 which i ran with a 52 ring-hey my knees were young and strong and the bike was just mainly for delivering not for touring. good luck!!

Matthew, Calgary AB

This is good info. I guess my ideal hub would be one with sealed bearings...though my search isn't looking ver fruitful. A 16t cog would be great (I'm running 45:16 right now) so I don't think I'll have a problem there. As for a front brake...well, I don't know. I think I might take it off if I'm gonna go with a coaster brake...I guess I just want to look cool and 'minimalist' (jk).

So yeah...anyone know of any good coaster hubs? Let me know!

I run a SS coaster on the bike I usually ride these days (a 70s Motobecane). I love it, works fine.

I find the cheapo Shimano types perfectly usable, inexpensive, and ubiquitous. Not classy by any means, but it just works. Never had problems using 14g spokes. The only classy new SS coaster brake hub I'm aware of is the Velosteel. Copied from the old Sachs design. Classy in that it's nicely made, precision machined and pretty. Unfortunately, it weighs about half a pound more than the cheap Shimano style hub and seems to not brake as well. A real bummer. And it's damn near impossble to get, anyway.

Almost all SS coaster brake hubs are spaced for 110mm. However, it seems pretty common for them to have extra long axles, and will accomodate many spacers. My MTB is a SS coaster, and uses extra nuts from a junked kid's bike as spacers to fill out the rest of the 135mm rear spacing.

I do ride a couple of bikes with only a coaster brake, and they are sufficient. I personally have a hard time believing a coaster brake would be worse than a brakeless fixie, and more likely almost always better, in terms of stopping power.

Any new hub you get might do well with a good grease packing before use. If you manage to get a Velosteel, it's absolutely imperative to grease it, as it comes from the factory with only a symbolic amount of grease (looked more like a very thin coat of vaseline to me).

Older coaster brake hubs are not too difficult to dig up, and some are pretty decent. I'd stick with Bendix or Sachs if you want "old" and "decent". Try to make sure they're functional before lacing them up, though. Getting replacement parts can be tricky. Fortunately, SS coaster brake hubs in general are very sturdy beasts that last a long time.

Lastly, I find that tire size makes a difference with coaster brake stopping power. Skinnier, bigger diameter tires typical on road bikes (27", 700c) seem to exhibit less stopping power than fatter smaller diameter tires (such as 26" and smaller MTB/cruiser/BMX, etc). Road bike tires also tend to be thinner constructed, and much more prone to wear out, as a rear brake tends to skid (if even just a little bit).

I used to run a coaster brake on a track frame, and loved it.
The only problem was they wore out pretty quick.
After about 5 months of daily use the brakes would jam up or the pedals would stick it would act weird and dangerous.
I went back to fixed.

Coaster brakes were invented for wood wheels---and they remain the very best brake for wood wheels.
But a good bendix single red band hub(bendix 76 is also OK) would be the very best hub you could git for this build because there are 1000s of them ,great chrome hubs for a good look,and most important---lots of replacement brake blocks avalible!Overhaul takes about 30min if your slow.---sam PS stay away from any english coaster!

I used to run a coaster brake on a track frame, and loved it.
The only problem was they wore out pretty quick.
After about 5 months of daily use the brakes would jam up or the pedals would stick it would act weird and dangerous.
I went back to fixed.

Did you 'repack' the hub when it started to seize up?

I guess the other thing too is that I like how a fixed gear bike perpetuates momentum differently than a freewheeling or coasting bike. Did anyone who made the switch notice they were having a harder time going up hills?

I guess we lost interest in this one huh? I was hoping to get some more stats or pics if anyone has any other stories about riding coaster brake on a fixed frame. The other stuff that people have said sounds good and is nice.

I built up an old Flandria as a WWI era scorcher lookalike with a 27" coaster brake. I wanted it "clean" (no cables). The coaster brake is NOS but about 50yrs old, never laced to a wheel. The bike rides great but the brake is almost worthless, even after repacking. The hub looks like it's very high quality, maybe nickel plated. I can lock up the rear wheel if I'm not going very fast and use enough pressure but I have to anticipate stops, which kinda sucks.

I too have been thinking of building one of these. It will be my first step into any kind of road/street bike. This post has been very helpful, now I just need to find a frame...

I guess we lost interest in this one huh? I was hoping to get some more stats or pics if anyone has any other stories about riding coaster brake on a fixed frame. The other stuff that people have said sounds good and is nice.


This is mine - at the time it had 26 inch wheels (but not any more) and was being bombarded by love rays from heaven (still is).

I'm a big fan of this type of bike, and of coaster brake bikes generally, especially for poking around in a place like NYC.

Good way to have nice clean looking bike without going brakeless. Other than that not quite as fun as a fixed gear in my opinion.

Best wishes,
Dr. Hans

My primary city ride: Steamroller frame w/coaster rear.
Rides like a dream, but needs a front brake for winter.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v520/lz4005/steamcoaster700.jpg

Nice, Nice! That's what I'm talkin' about. Now, I've got a Pista myself (go ahead, make fun of me) and I thought it would look nice with a coaster. I don't know why the coaster brake bikes aren't more popular or as popular as fixed gear bikes. It makes more sense, right?

I don't know why the coaster brake bikes aren't more popular or as popular as fixed gear bikes. It makes more sense, right?

The main reason is that no major manufacturer currently sells a good quality 700c coaster wheel or complete bike. Also, no real improvements have been made in coaster brake technology in basically ever.

I think they will become more popular than they currently are, especially when the trendy fixers move on to something else and get rid of or coasterize their bikes.

A 700c coaster makes more sense for me, but they aren't any better or worse than fixed. It is totally a matter of personal preference.

I think the bikes the use for the "Little Five" Races at Indiana Univ. are Coaster bikes. Pretty sure they are IROC style, where everyone gets the same type of bike. I have also heard that after the race these bikes sell real cheap. I am going to try to get my hands on one next year in April.

I don't know why the coaster brake bikes aren't more popular or as popular as fixed gear bikes.

They are. It's just that they're more popular with bike riders rather than bicycle enthusiasts.

The Little 500 bike is even more up my alley. I'd just as soon give up three piece cranks for a one piece if a reasonable frame came out that would support the BB size.

http://www.nycbikes.com/item.php?item_id=450
http://www.nycbikes.com/item.php?item_id=353

Thanks for the info!
http://www.nycbikes.com/images/items/_353_1.jpg

I ordered those today. Could't resist the price. I can't do fixed right now due to the tender knee but I hate the look of my bike with brakes on it.

i used to have a 2-speed bendix coaster on my bike. in that odd quarter turn of nothingness when you apply the brake, it shifts into a lower/higher gear. it was tight.

I just found these spokes which look like they will adapt the 12g hube to 14g rims

http://www.sapim.be/index.php?st=products&sub=spokes&category=3960&id=3387&detail=butted

These are butted spokes, 2.3mm at the head, but go down to 2.0mm for the body.

Most of the spokes I have broken were at the head.

Bringing this thread back because I'm definitely going to switch over to a coaster...after riding about 800 miles fixed since the end of July my knees are starting to hurt...especially after 2 hour riding sessions.

So...basically what I found was a Shimano coaster brake hub that Seattle Bike Supply sells which I wanted to lace to some Velocity Deep Vs. After that I'm lost. I know someone mentioned spoke gauge. Do you think I'd have to buy special spokes in order to do this also?

Some coaster brake hubs - those made for BMX bikes etc. had super big holes to accomodate fat spokes (sorry, I don't recall the different hole diameters offhand). Most of the Shimanos that you would buy new would have the "normal" spoke holes. Even the "normal" spoke holes are pretty large though. You can build those up with regular spokes, but you will increase spoke life if you take measures - I recommend using DT spoke washers under the spoke heads, which are made specifically for this purpose. I have built coaster wheels with and without this precaution, though, and both methods worked just fine.

Best wishes,
Dr. Hans

<<I'm thinking of building up a 700c rear coaster brake wheel for my track frame. Anyone ever done this before or have insight into why it might be a bad idea, asthetics aside?>>

Bad idea IMO. Probably no worse though than riding a fixie without a front brake on the road.

Try this. Remove the the front brake from your road bike. If you enjoy riding with that ammount of braking then that is what you should expect.

A while back I ripped around wrecklessly on my 1939 elgin through a parking lot. when I needed to brake I had to shift my weight behind the seat and pray. The problem was not modulation or strength but just not enough tire.

Being the tire is about 3 inches across on the fattie the problem would even be more pronounced on a skinny tire.

From experience the bendix does not have the modulation or quality or older units but is lighter.

Should I take advice from a meatwad? hahaha, jk.

I was the one who had to use fatter tandem spokes because the holes in my shimano hub were 'roomy'. It cost a couple extra bucks, but the wheel has worked flawlessly for me. Thicker spokes are also a good idea considering how much extra stress is put on them by a hub brake as compared to a conventional rim brake.

It would work either way, but I feel better having the larger spokes.

meatwad makes a great point about the skinny rear tire braking. I personally am not usually comfortable riding a bike without a front brake. Anecdotally, i find coaster brake wheels with fat tires offer better braking than coaster brake wheels with skinny tires. But there are variables such as frame geometry and wheel diameter that are not accounted for.

It seems, however, a coaster brake would offer at least as good braking as any brakeless fixie with a good rider.

I was originally thinking of going for a coaster, but because fixed gear seems to require a whole different riding style(which intruiges me) and the lack of newer and readily available coaster hubs and the rumors that you will just burn through those rear brakes in no time, lead me to choose to try a fixed gear first.