screetch

Hi,

I travel with my tandem and have issues with my brakes and wheels. I have heard that it is good to use an arai brake on the back wheel. I do not have the possibility to install disk brakes (tandem is too old) or arai brakes on my rear hub. I just changed my rear wheel for a shimano 48 spokes wheel. I intend to change my front wheel and use an arai brake at the front.

I am curious to know why it looks like the hub brake is always used on the back wheel. Is it better than the front? Also where can I get good front brake hub?

If you have any advices, let me know.

Thanks

djsincla

The Arai will only fit on the back with 145/160mm rear spacing. Thats why you only see it on the back.

More importantly, it designed to be a drag brake and not your primary method of stopping.

screetch

Is it a good idea to install a drum brake at the front?

Thanks

TandemGeek

No.

cornucopia72

[QUOTE=djsincla;6098138]The Arai will only fit on the back with 145/160mm rear spacing. /QUOTE]

The Arai will also fit on a 135 rear spacing.

jgg3

Can you explain this? I don't understand your use of the term "drag brake". All brakes are drag brakes of some sort. I am sure this is some kind of special meaning here, but I don't see what good a brake is unless you can use it for stopping.

merlinextraligh

A drag brake is used to control speed descending. So if you want to go slower down a hill, you apply a given amount of force and keep it applied, and it creates "drag" all the way down the descent.

In other words, it's meant to be applied on a prolonged basis to slow the bike, as oppossed to being used intermittently to slow or stop the bike.

If you apply a rim brake for a prolonged period like this on steep enough descent, with enough weight on the bike, you can have problems heating the rim.

TandemGeek

Just to cover all of the bases, as I suspect someone will bring this up...

There are a few front hub / drum brakes on the market: Sturmey-Archer Elite, the SRAM VT5000 (formerly Sachs), the SRAM iBrake which has a max weight limit of 275lbs, and perhaps a few others that I'm not aware of. The Elite and VT5000 have made their way onto small-wheeled tandems from Bike Friday and others.

You could probably use the Sturmey or SRAM as a light-duty drag brake with a beefier front fork -- one designed / approved for use with for a hub brake and, well, that's where it starts to become less practical -- remembering that this is your front wheel... the one that must also do the steering and primary braking.

Therefore, while these work well on small wheeled tandems and larger wheeled 'cruiser-type' tandems, a prudent technician would have to know a lot more about how it was going to be used on a conventional tandem (total max bike weight, the type of terrain, which fork, etc...) before they gave it much consideration.

Hence, my original response: No. Drag brakes are best left on the rear wheel of a full-size conventional tandem. That's just my opinion, others who've used the front hub brakes (you might give the tech dept at Bike Friday a call) might be able to advise you differently.

TandemGeek

A hub-mounted drum brake = drag brake, e.g., an Arai as depicted and described on this web site: https://www.precisiontandems.com/arai.htm

Interestingly enough, the Arai drum brake is kind of like a post-it note: It'll slow two or more adults on a tandem while descending a hill and will absorb a lot of heat/friction in doing so, but it can't create enough friction to actually stop the tandem.

simsi

However, it is sort of embarassing if you have you drum brake on at traffic lights (at the bottom of a hill I must say) and then try to start cycling. There is enough friction to prevent you from starting!