I have no trouble believing that you found yours to be effective. The effectiveness of a drum brake has a lot to do with setting them up correctly. Most people don't mess with them so I assume that variations of fit and assembly can make the difference between a good and bad one. The best and worst drum brakes I ever used were the Arai tandem drum. One provided almost imperceptible retardation. Another, on Bill McReady's original Santana triple prototype, hauled 500+ pounds to a stop quite nicely. Bill claimed he rarely used the front brake.
I assumed Pete Eagan of VeloVision knows how to optimize them, but maybe not. I'll send him instructions. Back when I was riding motorcycle Observed Trials in the '70s, brakes were snuff tin sized drums and were often submerged in one section and then sorely tested on a tricky downhill in the next. Those of us who knew how to get the most out of them got a lot fewer bruises.
Are/Were your drums 90 or 70mm? Steel shell/drum or alloy shell w/cast iron drum? Old or modern?
At 6/26/2007 05:59 PM -0400, Gilbert Anderson wrote:
>Hello folks,
>
>On Sturmey drum brakes; I I have little personal experience with the
>Dynohub version but the standard Drum Brake will toss you over the
>bars easily. I was so impressed I bought a pair (drum brake
>hubs) front and rear for an old Raleigh Gran Sport. No
>maintenance, clean rims, weather proof., strong large flanges, cool.
>
>The standard supplied brake levers for the hubs suck however, they
>are nylon, are flexible and have limited travel and as far as I'm
>concerned, unsafe and non functional. We have sold hundred of the
>old Pashley Roadsters with these brakes front and rear coupled with
>Mountain Bike levers with zero complaints. My personal bike had
>Campagnolo record road levers and again you can easily lock up both
>wheels but they have better modularity than linear pull
>brakes. Linear pull a and disk brakes take less hand pressure to
>lock up the wheel than an SA drum brake but you have to wonder if
>being able to easily lock up a wheel is a good thing.
>
>I would be surprised if the Dynohub brake performs any different
>from the non Dynohub version.
Shouldn't, assuming same shoe size and leverage. I'd love to have
the generator drum in the front and the XRD5
http://www.sturmey-archer.com/
><<Date: Fri, 22 Jun 2007 16:13:35 -0500
>From: Mark Stonich <bikesmith@earthlink.net>
>
>Subject: Re: [CR]re: why no dynohubs?
>At 6/22/2007 05:00 PM -0400, John Betmanis wrote:
>>The S-A Dynohub is no longer made,
>
>http://www.sturmey-archer.com/hubs_fh_XFDD.php
>According to a long term report in VeloVision #25 they work quite
>well, but the drum brake leaves a bit to be desired.
>
>Mark Stonich;
> BikeSmith Design & Fabrication>>
>
>
>Yours in Cycling,
>
>Gilbert Anderson
>
>North Road Bicycle Company
>PO Box 840
>166 Court Square
>Yanceyville, NC 27379
>USA
>
>Our newest direct local Yanceyville Area phone is 336-421-4054
>Toll Free Research Triangle Area, NC area 919-828-8999
>Toll free Nationwide 800-321-5511
>
>email: cyclestore@aol.com
>
>www.northroadbicycle.com ----> New Website Improved Daily
>
>
>_______________________________________________
Mark Stonich;
BikeSmith Design & Fabrication
5349 Elliot Ave S. - Minneapolis. MN 55417
Ph. (612) 824-2372 http://bikesmithdesign.com
http://mnhpva.org