[QUOTE=Asi;16193354]It's called spoon brake, and it was done before in the early 1900's

"The spoon brake, or plunger brake was probably the first type of bicycle brake and precedes the pneumatic tyre" (1) [and was therefore not designed to work with one].

"Though made obsolete by the introduction of the duck brake, coaster brake, and rod brake, spoon brakes continued to be used in the West supplementally on adult bicycles until the 1930s, and on children's bicycles until the 1950s. In the developing world, they were manufactured until much more recently".(2) So they can't be that bad, can they?

Plus, you have to compare like with like. A valid comparison to those spoon brakes pictured would be a rod-actuated caliper brake from the same era. A present-day design (working on a tyre designed to use it) would be nothing like a spoon brake.

Of course it wouldn't work with a flat tyre, but you can't ride the bike with a flat tyre. Come to that, you could say the same thing about most of the components on the bike (don't work well when incorrectly maintained or adjusted).


1. Bicycling Science (2nd ed.), pp.153–154
2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bicycle_brake#Spoon_brakes