birdmove

I have owned a Huffy Cranbrook cruiser, which I gave to my adult daughter a while back. It used a rather fragile little metal clamp to anchor the arm for the coaster to the frame of the bike. The one on that bike broke at the first flat repair. I just installed a stout hose clamp. While at WM today, I was looking at the mens and lady's Kent Sea change cruisers, and I noticed these bikes have a much better setup to anchor that arm. They have a welded on bracket with a slotted hole for the screw, which should last forever. The slot to allow the bolt to slide for and aft for chain adjustments. No need for a clamp. The Kent's just have a a much nicer arrangement, and the welds are good. The Huffy's are known to often have very bad looking welds, though the ones on my Cranbrook looked good.

rhenning

I used to use pipe strapping for bikes with strap this missing. Always worked good. Roger

restlessswind

I have come across those chainstay bosses that are out of alignment and need an array of washers to keep the arm from binding. The loose clamps are a better design, and have been used since the inception of coaster hubs. ACE hardware sells a rubberized P clamp that will fit without scratching the paint for $.59. I like to use a button type hex bolt and self-locking flanged nut instead of a standard bolt with a nylon lock nut. Easier for roadside repair and looks great.

birdmove

Thanks for that. I haven't owned or worked on a Kent with the welded on bracket. I'll take your word for it on that.

Rolla

I had a coaster bike with the welded-on bracket, and found that the slot wasn't long enough to accommodate for the change in wheel position when I changed the size of the rear cog. I much prefer the Wald coaster brake strap.

seanppower

Recomedations on beach bikes?

Moe Zhoost

I've worked on a lot of coaster brake bikes in my volunteer work and have never seen a broken strap, though most of them are beat up a bit. Like others have mentioned, the welded tabs sometimes have an alignment problem. It really doesn't take much to hold the coaster brake arm in place, the thin metal straps work well for the most part.

I recall, as a kid, replacing a broken brake arm strap with a lashing of shoelace. This held up until I rode the wheels off of that J.C. Higgins.

canopus 

I always bent the coaster arm to land in the middle of the chain stay, drill the arm so it could handle a 5mm bolt and then use some bar tape and an old Dia-Compe hinged seat post clamp instead of the skimpy band. The arm needs to be kept from moving and that was a very sturdy setup for doing small ramp tricks.