KneesUp
Guru
I've been toying with getting drum brakes on my bike for some time, largely because
a) I get annoyed at my cantis squeaking in the damp
b) I get annoyed by my cantis not working as well in the wet
c) I am tight, and I don't like braking wearing out my rims, and I really don't like the resulting black gunk, especially in winter
d) I like the idea of a brake that doesn't rely on the wheel being totally straight, especially on a bike used for all sorts - but my frame has no disc mounts
e) They're unusual, and if I'm honest that appeals
So I now have a Sturmey Archer X-FD (70mm) on my front wheel - I wanted an XL-FD (90mm) or even an XL-FDD (90mm with dynamo) but the FD was a (secondhand) bargain so I picked it up to see if I actually like the feel of drums. I thought I'd post my initial thoughts in case anyone else has been thinking about it.
It isn't massively heavy - certainly in the hand it doesn't feel significantly different to the 32-spoke generic Specialized rim / Deore LX wheel that I took off once it's got a tube and tyre on. Of course it does weigh more I suspect, but it's not an order of magnitude such that when you pick it up you think 'chuffin 'ell" Of course I've been able to remove the cantis too, so there is a weight 'credit' there. Overall it's heavier - it's got more brkae outer, and the clamp on the fork - but the rim is lighter, and the hub is not massively more than the other hub plus cantis. I guess the larger XL-FD will be more, and the XL-FDD more again. As a bonus, the barely used Sturmey hub runs a lot more smoothly than my "I-really-should-service-them" old hub was.
Fitting was fairly simple -all I got was the wheel and hub and the adjuster. The adjuster is really important - you can't fit them without one as it anchors the cable to the reaction arm. I didn't get a proper Sturmey clamp, so I've used a jubilee clip and a it of inner tube to clamp it to the fork leg. I got one with a wing-nut arrangement so it's easier to slacken off should I need to get the wheel off. Fitting was just a case of putting in a new cable (because the old one was too short - it has to go down the fork leg) with a full length outer. Ideally you use Sturmey's own double ended cable, but they seem to be 90cm long, which is 20cm too long for my bike. Plus I couldn't find one locally to buy. The adjuster came with a little metal cylinde with a hole which sits in the bit the cable pulls, so I just used a pinch bolt to hold that in place, because the pinch bolt didn't fit in the recess the cylinder bit is supposed to go in. Sturmey do their own specific correct-sized pinch bolt for this but again, nowhere local has them, and I was too impatient for the internet to deliver.
Anyway, it took maybe half an hour to fit, but 20 minutes of that was fiddling about trying to get something to clamp on the end of the cable - I tried a 'solderless nipple' first but that wouldn't hold under a full braking load - if I'd had the proper Sturmey part it'd all have been done in 10 to 15 minutes.
I've ridden it to work this morning, and first thoughts were it didn't feel any better than the cantis. However, commuter traffic being commuter traffic I had to hit the brakes hard at one point this morning and I stopped pretty quickly. It's good to know that the performance should be the same regardless of the weather too. I guess it may improve as the shoes bed in (if they're not already) and a 90mm XL-Fd might be better, but it's perfectly fine now. I have read that compressionless cables make them better - mines on boggo Clarks outer but I won't be rushing to upgrade. I've seen elsewhere that people have bent forks using compressionless outers, but my forks are chunky steel MTB ones so I think they'd be ok.
So there you go - initial thoughts are it's quite good and will be the same regardless of the weather, hopefully. The shoes might not be bedded in yet, and it might be even better with compressionless outer. It's not loads heavier, and hopefully will be largely maintenance free. I'll update if anything changes.
a) I get annoyed at my cantis squeaking in the damp
b) I get annoyed by my cantis not working as well in the wet
c) I am tight, and I don't like braking wearing out my rims, and I really don't like the resulting black gunk, especially in winter
d) I like the idea of a brake that doesn't rely on the wheel being totally straight, especially on a bike used for all sorts - but my frame has no disc mounts
e) They're unusual, and if I'm honest that appeals
So I now have a Sturmey Archer X-FD (70mm) on my front wheel - I wanted an XL-FD (90mm) or even an XL-FDD (90mm with dynamo) but the FD was a (secondhand) bargain so I picked it up to see if I actually like the feel of drums. I thought I'd post my initial thoughts in case anyone else has been thinking about it.
It isn't massively heavy - certainly in the hand it doesn't feel significantly different to the 32-spoke generic Specialized rim / Deore LX wheel that I took off once it's got a tube and tyre on. Of course it does weigh more I suspect, but it's not an order of magnitude such that when you pick it up you think 'chuffin 'ell" Of course I've been able to remove the cantis too, so there is a weight 'credit' there. Overall it's heavier - it's got more brkae outer, and the clamp on the fork - but the rim is lighter, and the hub is not massively more than the other hub plus cantis. I guess the larger XL-FD will be more, and the XL-FDD more again. As a bonus, the barely used Sturmey hub runs a lot more smoothly than my "I-really-should-service-them" old hub was.
Fitting was fairly simple -all I got was the wheel and hub and the adjuster. The adjuster is really important - you can't fit them without one as it anchors the cable to the reaction arm. I didn't get a proper Sturmey clamp, so I've used a jubilee clip and a it of inner tube to clamp it to the fork leg. I got one with a wing-nut arrangement so it's easier to slacken off should I need to get the wheel off. Fitting was just a case of putting in a new cable (because the old one was too short - it has to go down the fork leg) with a full length outer. Ideally you use Sturmey's own double ended cable, but they seem to be 90cm long, which is 20cm too long for my bike. Plus I couldn't find one locally to buy. The adjuster came with a little metal cylinde with a hole which sits in the bit the cable pulls, so I just used a pinch bolt to hold that in place, because the pinch bolt didn't fit in the recess the cylinder bit is supposed to go in. Sturmey do their own specific correct-sized pinch bolt for this but again, nowhere local has them, and I was too impatient for the internet to deliver.
Anyway, it took maybe half an hour to fit, but 20 minutes of that was fiddling about trying to get something to clamp on the end of the cable - I tried a 'solderless nipple' first but that wouldn't hold under a full braking load - if I'd had the proper Sturmey part it'd all have been done in 10 to 15 minutes.
I've ridden it to work this morning, and first thoughts were it didn't feel any better than the cantis. However, commuter traffic being commuter traffic I had to hit the brakes hard at one point this morning and I stopped pretty quickly. It's good to know that the performance should be the same regardless of the weather too. I guess it may improve as the shoes bed in (if they're not already) and a 90mm XL-Fd might be better, but it's perfectly fine now. I have read that compressionless cables make them better - mines on boggo Clarks outer but I won't be rushing to upgrade. I've seen elsewhere that people have bent forks using compressionless outers, but my forks are chunky steel MTB ones so I think they'd be ok.
So there you go - initial thoughts are it's quite good and will be the same regardless of the weather, hopefully. The shoes might not be bedded in yet, and it might be even better with compressionless outer. It's not loads heavier, and hopefully will be largely maintenance free. I'll update if anything changes.