Originally Posted by
venturi95
I think there is a reason that all modern high-performance cars, motorcycles, and bicycles use disc brakes and not drums, and it is not the surface area of the pads. I have only ridden one bike with Sturmey-Archer drum brakes years ago, and I was not impressed. I know some trike riders like them. I haven't seen a tandem with a drum drag brake since the late 1980s, but I don't get out much.
When my Sturmey Archer drum brake (pictured in a previous post) was made in the 1960s, it compared reasonably well with the alternatives for brakes on bikes at that time, especially in the rain. Some bikes still used rod brakes at that time.