When wrenching at the LBS in '81 I bought a Phil disk brake/hub, and built it into a front wheel for my Bertin commuter. I tooled around the parking lot, thought it felt pretty nice, then let the shop owner take a spin. He tried to stand the bike on the front wheel, and the aluminum plate holding the two small fork/stay stops bent. This allowed the entire brake to rotate with the hub, after which it proceeded to strike and bend the fork blade. I had to throw in a new fork to ride home that night.
We called Phil, who was apologetic and asked us to send the offending bent piece back. After a couple of weeks he sent back a shorter, thicker plate, which seemed to work fine. I never tried to do a fork stand with it, though, and never let the shop owner ride it again. I commuted on that front brake for a couple of years without any further problems.
Phil said he would make a running change to the new plate. I don't know whether he did anything about previous production.
Mark referred to "the thicker, less strippable interface between the fiber disk and the aluminum piece on the hub." My disk is a few mm thicker at the "teeth" which mesh with the toothed aluminum piece on the hub. My memory has grown hazy, but I think the original disk was all one thickness, and at some point Phil sent me the improved one that was thicker at the teeth.
I also had a set of Phil platform pedals that I sold to a co-worker. He kept them on his bench for a couple of weeks before finally installing them. First ride out of the parking lot the right pedal spindle snapped.
Something about Phil components and parking lots?
Cheers,
PB
On Sat, 27 Apr 2002 23:14:41 -0700, Mark Bulgier <mark@bulgier.net>
wrote:
>Harvey Sachs wrote:
>> The item for sale is a front wheel with Phil Disk Brake. My
>> experience argues strongly against the use of these on the front,
>> in the way it was done. The standard application wound up with
>> a dished front wheel. I was very surprised when riding one on a
>> fine day, starting up a hill. I suddenly had to turn the wheel
>> hard, and it just crumpled. The experience (and others) left me
>> with the strong belief that road front wheels need widely spaced,
>> symmetrical flanges. Fronts have significant sideways loads that
>> backs rarely see.
>
>A "me too"; I watched a couple take delivery of their new tandem and buckle
>the front wheel within 10 seconds of climbing aboard. They turned to get
>off the sidewalk and into the street, and sproing, instant taco. This was a
>dished wheel for Phil disk, the first tandem we'd made for the Phil front at
>Rodriguez, I wanna say about '80-'82? We rebuilt the fork and wheel with
>110mm spacing and had no more problems.
>
>I built a tandem for Mr. Wood himself, unique in that he insisted it *not*
>have cantilever studs or drilled crown or brake bridge - no provision for
>any brakes other than the F&R Phil disks.
>
>Harvey, can you tell if the one on ebay is the newer one with the thicker,
>less strippable interface between the fiber disk and the aluminum piece on
>the hub? Those were interesting brakes.
>
>Mark Bulgier
Paul C. Brodek
Hillsdale, N.J. U.S.A.
E-mail: pcb@skyweb.net