Viva la coaster brake revolucion!
 

I suspect that an offshoot of the whole fixey pehnomenon is a (sub)subcult of coaster brake bikes. Care to come out of the coaster closet and show your rides?

I have even noticed a few coaster brake bikes soiling the sanctity of the fixed gear gallery! (ok, only 1 so far, and I can't find the link, but still!)

jsn

you want to talk to jimv, he's the coastie-king around here.

coaster brake bikes are the coolest!

where do u get a coaster brake hub?

I get them from my basement closet. That is where most of the hubs I use are.

It got pulled for failing to be fixed. Really.

I used a coaster brake on my commuter for ten years.

The trick is to keep caliper brakes on the bike as well for emergency stops. Hard rear breaking on a coaster hub will twist up a wheel good.

CBs are really good for scrubing off a little speed while riding no hands.

For the record, Bendix hubs are the best.

Van Dessel made at least one coaster bike. It was sweet.

Viva la Coaster!

Matthew

This is my coaster brake mobile:
http://boozhoundlabs.com/austro-daimler/

As for stopping, a coaster brake will very readily lock up the rear wheel, and so a skidding hockey-stop works quite well for emergency situations. And you still ahve the front wheel to steer. As always, the more brakes the better for safety.

For a nice rundown on the various coaster brake hubs, check out this post:
http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=108422

I am currently using a Hi Stop coaster brake from an old BMX wheel I found in a junkyard. I have rebuilt it using high temperature automotive bearing grease to handle the temperatures a coaster brake will develop on long descents.

My advice is to stay away ffrom the multiple-disc style brakes, and only use the cone-and-brake-shoe style of hub, like the Hi Stop, the modern Shimanos, and I believe the Bendix red stripe. I have no experience with the roller style that jimv likes, but they sound pretty cool.

Does anyone have any experience with the Bendix yellow-stripe 2-speed kickback hubs? I used to have the red stripe version, but it was the disc style and was old and worn and very unreliable. It would be nice to have a little turbo-boost for riding in fast moving traffic.

jsn

I'm about a week away from getting my steamcoaster finished. Waiting for the correct spokes to come in. Pictures to follow soon after.

Coaster brakes rep-re-ZENT!

damn, i just asked this question over in commuter-land.... great minds.

so is there a coasterbrake hub still in production worth using?? spacing??

I have a Hi Stop that is OK. It is very similar to the Bendix Red Line, but it has a spring that actively disengages the brake shoes when you are not braking. The Hi Stop hubs also come in 32 hole, which is nice.

It does rattle a bit over bumps. I assume this is the shoes rattling around in the hub. Anyone have any ideas about this?

One thing I want to do with a Bendix hub I just got is to use loose ball bearings instead of the caged bearings so that I can add a ball or 2. The bearings seems very widely spaced as-is. Maybe it will smooth things out, and maybe it won't help a bit.

Oh, and most of these hubs are spaced for 110mm rear dropouts. They also use 3/8 (I think) by 24 tpi axles. I usually "cold set" frames for them, but it can be pretty extreme to move each stay 10mm. Cold setting can be too much when you can see the stay bend at the brake bridge!

jsn

Personally, I'd go back to a single speed w/ one brake before using a coaster brake bike.

See, I was thinking it'd be cool to have a road bike converted to ss with a coaster brake. Kicking it semi-old skool, like my very first bike.

when i built mine i just added washers and an old freewheel spacer to get the chainline right works great. I'll post pics in a bit.

Heres some pics
http://img184.echo.cx/img184/4919/dsc000231fr.jpg
http://img184.echo.cx/img184/3413/dsc000244gh.jpg

We at the Institute are strong advocates of the coaster-braked bike, and put on a race for them each year - The NYC Coaster Brake Criterium. This was the first year we allowed fixies to join in. More info at www.primitivecycling.org.

Best wishes,
Dr. Hans

Hi-Stops are made by KT (as are Shimano). If it's the current design, the Hi-stop has a much smaller driver and smaller shoes than the redline. One trick that KT added was the use of a small spring to provide the very small drag that a coasterbrake needs to operate reliably. As you backpedal, the driver threads push the clutch toward the shoes to provide braking action. Without a tiny bit of drag, there is no guarantee that the clutch will travel in a predictable way. The spring idea is nice in that it produces less drag while pedaling forward and more while back-pedalling. The Bendix simply slips the clutch beneath the slack (unbraked) shoes. This does work well too....and the drag we're talking about here is all but immeasurable. The only problem I've seen with the spring idea is that it can become brittle and snap if the hub is extremely overheated. I've seen 2 such springs that were broken and very discolored due to heat but this represents CB hub abuse.....not normal operation. Without the spring, the KT hub will not brake in a reliable/predictable way.

You are quite correct. Unlike the Sachs, Morrow or Musselman hubs, the Bendix does not actively retract the shoes and they are free to flop around a bit when not braking. You can usually quiet it down with a bit more grease on the shoes.

Hmmm, interesting idea. The balls are easily 'popped' from the cages. Bendix hubs are very sensitive to cone adjustment. With the chain removed, rotate the cog by hand. If there is the slightest bit of roughness, then the cone is too tight. It is better to set the hub with the slightest wobble in the cog if that's what it takes to make the cog rotate glassy smooth.

My bikes are 120mm spaced as are my Velosteels, but you are right that most hubs are spaced 110mm. I've used spacers with great success with 110mm hubs.

Jim

Osobike
 

If you want to get a bike that looks like a fix gear, with the coaster brake already on it, there are some cool bikes at www.********.com

thebikebiz has a custom coaster brake online wheel builder now,

http://www.thebikebiz.com/product_p/...l-custom02.htm

do these work good with knobby tires in winter conditions?

here's a coaster bike i just built for my sister a couple weeks ago.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v7...0926081951.jpghttp://img.photobucket.com/albums/v7...926081941a.jpg

Man, I thought EVERYBODY rode coaster brake bikes...

When they were ten years old.

:D

http://photos-a.ak.facebook.com/phot...072608_561.jpg

http://photos-e.ak.facebook.com/phot...40932_7501.jpg

That's not a little 500 bike is it?

I think you're supposed to pay to advertise here.

Beach racer:
http://www.bikeforums.net/attachment...5&d=1224380143

This was an unloved cruiser, had the rear wheel relaced to a mavic rim, subbed in a front mtn bike wheel, and got 1.25 slicks. English "Touring" bars with very shallow drop, Raleigh 3sp saddle.


"Slumber Party Beast":
http://www.bikeforums.net/attachment...3&d=1223831715

Cannondale Beast of the East frame w/ wheels from a kid's bike named "Slumber Party" that I found at the dump. Had to swap out the axel to fit the dropouts and the chainline is far from perfect. But it works. This is just to test 20" wheels on this frame (they work), with the thought of getting a set of 26" drum brake wheels relaced to 20" rims. Too lazy to delete the brake levers, shifters, derailleurs, and cables for this interim stage.

Coaster brakes are a total hoot.