Tandem Cycling - Newbie question RE: Drum Brakes

Just getting into tandems, I bought and old Santana, Elan I think, with drum brakes on the rear wheel.
I actually have more than 1 newbie question. First, how does one go about adjusting this thing? If I tighten the cable enough to stop the bike, the shoes drag all the time. If I loosen the cable enough to let the rear wheel freewheel, the brake is ineffective.

I have read that it is to be used as a drag brake that can be "set". This one is controlled by a typical brake lever on the left-hand side of the handlebar. Can this one be set? If so, how?

We live in flat country, is it even necessary?

You can easily see that I don't know what I'm getting into.
:)

I had one that was activated by a thumb shifter mounted on he handle bar and one that was controlled by a bar end shifter. Either way the brake would stay activated until I manually released it.

The drag brake is not necessary unless you do steep, prolonged, twisty, etc. descents; particularly with a heavy team or while loaded touring.

....""We live in flat country, is it even necessary?""....

No! and congrats on the new ride..have fun.

Bill J.

Can't help you on setting it up, but I do agree with the OP's. Just take it off.
Sheldon Brown offers a little advice on drum brakes .http://www.sheldonbrown.com/tandem-brakes.html

Jack

Thank you for your answers. It would be kinda handy to be able to use it without having it drag all the time. Apparently there is a fine line to the proper cable length that I have not been able to hit yet.

I used to own an Elan. Ours was light blue with 27" wheels. I think it was an 84 model year. It had a 25" rear top tube which is quite short by modern standards.

Ours came with both canty brakes operated by the right brake lever and the Aria drum on the left. I eventually routed each canty brake to it's own brake lever and operated the drum with a thumb shifter. The drum wasn't really powerful enough to stop the bike (I don't think). It would, however, scrub off speed on long downhills enough to make controlling the bike with the handbrakes more manageable. If you never ride long downhills, I think it's pretty much pointless.

If you do decide to leave it on (I recommend removal), you can center the brake shoe plate to the drum by releasing the nut that holds the plate to the axle so that is just less than snug, actuate the brake arm so that both shoes are in contact with the inside of the drum and then tighten the axle nut fully. We have found that the drum might keep you from going crazy fast down a steep descent but does not provide enough braking power to stop the bike.

I used to own an Elan. Ours was light blue with 27" wheels. I think it was an 84 model year. It had a 25" rear top tube which is quite short by modern standards.

Ours came with both canty brakes operated by the right brake lever and the Aria drum on the left. I eventually routed each canty brake to it's own brake lever and operated the drum with a thumb shifter. The drum wasn't really powerful enough to stop the bike (I don't think). It would, however, scrub off speed on long downhills enough to make controlling the bike with the handbrakes more manageable. If you never ride long downhills, I think it's pretty much pointless.

I had considered that very solution. I guess that any old type of lever could be used to set the drag, or did you use some special type?

If you do decide to leave it on (I recommend removal), you can center the brake shoe plate to the drum by releasing the nut that holds the plate to the axle so that is just less than snug, actuate the brake arm so that both shoes are in contact with the inside of the drum and then tighten the axle nut fully. We have found that the drum might keep you from going crazy fast down a steep descent but does not provide enough braking power to stop the bike.

Thanks for that info, oldacura. If I should decide to leave it on, that adjustment may just make it worth while.

The drum brake does not actually stop the bike, only shaves speed to take load and heat away from the rim brakes, you might think it is not effective because you expect it to work like a rim or a disk brake. However over a long descent it is very effective.

I had considered that very solution. I guess that any old type of lever could be used to set the drag, or did you use some special type?

Yup. I paid less than $5.00 for the thumb shifter that I used but it was adequate.

My circa-1980 Kuwahara tandem came with an Arai drum, cabled to a brake lever, with the other lever operating two Mafac canti-brakes. Highly ineffective! I too gave each rim brake its own lever and attached a thumb shifter off a mountain bike (they weren't indexed in those days) to drum. I didn't realize at that time that I had an effective drag brake; I just assumed that it would make a good parking brake (!). I eventually removed the drum, but I may install it again if I do some riding in hilly country, as team weight is over 320# and I have done descents on the single where I've blown tires due to the rim heating up from the caliper brake (try the crazy descent from Guatemala City to Antigua sometime...).
If you send your drum to Tandems East with $35 (?), they will send you back a lightweight shaved drum without all the cooling fins, much lighter. I don't think you have to worry about overheating an Arai drum, whereas I've read that you don't want to use a disk brake as a drag brake because the heat will melt any plastic on it. And you certainly do not want to use a hydraulic disk, as the heat will cause the fluid to overheat and expand or evaporate, leading to some real problems on the descent.

L.

Why would you remove them? We don`t use ours when riding either, but as mentioned, it makes a dandy parking brake. I wouldn`t buy one just for that, but since it`s already there...

Why would you remove them? We don`t use ours when riding either, but as mentioned, it makes a dandy parking brake. I wouldn`t buy one just for that, but since it`s already there...

Drum brakes weigh over a pound.

+1 on the centering operation. It's an important step in the initial setup, that may have been neglected.
Ours works like a champ, but it IS heavy.

I see that you have a couple of recommendations to remove the drag brake because of the weight of the brake, cables, lever, etc., however, I did not see a mention of having spacers ready to put on the axle to make up the difference when removing the brake assembly. Just something to keep in mind since you stated that you were a noobe, uh, newbie.

Good point, WillFam-Reno. I had wondered about that. As slow as my wife and I are at this point in our tandem experience, we probably don't even notice a pound or two. That may become noticable as we improve.