I was kidding about Kool Stops. As for leather pads, back 40 or 50 years ago domestic industry leather replacement pads were available for the impecunious and were quite common. After a year or so in alternating wet and then hot + dry, they'd condense to the consistency of cheap ceramic with corresponding efficacy in braking.
I know all about the wear. The trick used by the roadside bicycle wallahs was to take a big pair of pliers and kink a bend in the long rod running under the downtube. That took up the slack, until, of course, you put tension on the rod, at which point it expanded again -- the solution reduced the rattling but little more. The front brakes were generally more consistent over the long term thanks to the shorter linkage -- consistently bad, compared to bad and then useless. BTW, as to speed, as a teenager in 1 mile high Nairobi, I could draft the slower motor vehicles on the flat with such a roadster -- I remember once drafting a Peugeot 403 pickup for a mile or so at about 30 mph along northbound Limuru road a couple miles north of the Muthaiga ( of colonial white bwana "altitude, alcohol and adultery" fame) junction. Them were the days .... On Tue, Dec 14, 2010 at 3:34 PM, Steve Palincsar <[email protected]> wrote: > On Tue, 2010-12-14 at 14:55 -0700, PATRICK MOORE wrote: >> I'm tempted to pay $5 just for a photo of the rod brake stuff, for >> sentimental reasons (but I won't). The Indian ones never worked after >> the first few miles; I wonder if the Raleighs etc worked better? Kool >> Stop salmon pads? Old and long outdated technology, like Woods valves, >> or simply bad quality? > > Well, to some extent it depends on your standards for "worked". My > Raleigh DL-1 had those brakes, and in dry conditions and on the level > when new the brakes were certainly adequate to the performance level of > the bike. It's awfully hard to get a DL-1 to go much faster than 10 mph > on the level, and the bike seems to have a "hull speed" that keeps the > speed down no matter what you do. Leisurely speed, leisurely brakes, a > reasonably good match. > > In the wet, steel rims and black rubber brakes, fuggedaboutit. > "Stopping" is just not going to happen, no matter how hard you mash on > those levers. Your life passes before your eyes as you feel like you're > falling from a great height... > > There is not and never was a Kool Stop brake to fit. No salmon rubber. > Back in the early 20th century there used to be leather brake pads that > allegedly worked better on wet steel rims than anything I ever saw -- > Fibrax was the brand, I believe -- but certainly by 1980, when I bought > my DL-1, they had vanished into the mists of time. > > Over the course of time, I'm not sure what happened to my DL-1 - uneven > rim wear? out of round condition? but after four or five years when I'd > put the brakes on they'd shudder as some sections grabbed and others did > not. The LBS tried but was unable to resolve the problem. > > Also over the course of several years the moving parts in the brake > lever system wear and develop "lost motion" you can't dial out. Slack > develops, and the lever can only move so far before it bottoms out on > the handlebar, so you lose maximum braking pressure. > > There are some very charming things about old English roadsters -- but > their brakes really aren't one of them. > > > > > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "RBW Owners Bunch" group. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > [email protected]. > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch?hl=en. > > -- Patrick Moore Albuquerque, NM For professional resumes, contact Patrick Moore, ACRW at [email protected] -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch?hl=en.
