Originally Posted by
skye
A bit OT, but I have drum brakes on one of my rides. Damn things are infallible, maintenance-free, and can get me down a mountain safely with full gear.
I've never understood why anybody would want to use anything else. They always work, they always work in the same way, rain, cold or dirt, and they will always work in the same lovely way with a good feel for the required stopping power. There's always more stopping power than you need.
Once every 2 decades you have to replace the brake shoes, that's if you brake a lot. And I have rod operated ones so I don't have to get my tools out to adjust them for wear, once a year. I just turn the round nut by hand that connects the rod to the lever on the brake to compensate for wear. When there's snow and ice I loosen the front brake in the same way, because you don't want you front tire slipping.
Those modern ones have a cooling disc attached, so now they won't overheat when you're descending a high mountain with a fully packed cargo bike.