Re: [CR] Phil Wood Disc Brake

(Example: Framebuilders)

From: "Tom Harriman" <transition202@hotmail.com>
To: <verktyg@aol.com>, Classic Rendezvous <classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>
Date: Wed, 7 Jul 2010 01:33:06 +0000
In-Reply-To: <4C3240ED.2040100@aol.com>
References: <20100705.160750.1888.3.t2moseman@juno.com>
Subject: Re: [CR] Phil Wood Disc Brake


Good Evening all.

A few weeks ago I was looking at Phil hubs on ebay, and there was a seller with one of these old disk brakes for the asking price of (I'm not kidding) 485.00 dollars. I considered writing to him perhaps suggest he could donate it to a cycling museum, to be displayed on the "not that good an idea shelf", but I didn't have the heart to let him down. The last time I looked he had taken it down without a single offer. Here's wishing all of you good braking this summer.

Tom Harriman San Francisco, Ca


> Date: Mon, 5 Jul 2010 13:30:37 -0700
> From: verktyg@aol.com
> To: Classicrendezvous@bikelist.org
> Subject: Re: [CR] Phil Wood Disc Brake
>
> I built up a few tandems with Phil Wood disc brakes too. Wasn't there a
> special lubricant that need to be applied to the splines of the disk and
> hub?
>
> I seem to remember one that had problems but I think that it had been
> set up by the owner???
>
> We found a good connection for Maxicar hubs and went that way instead of
> the Phil Wood hubs.
>
> The first few 48 spoke Phil Wood wheels that we built were trial and
> error because there we no guidelines at that time.
>
> Chas. Colerich
> Oakland, CA USA
>
> t2moseman@juno.com wrote:
> > I set up many of my tandems with the Phil Wood Disc Brake without and
> > problems. I would caution buyers that there was an "O" ring that held
> > the disc in place on the hub axle. If the "O" ring was allowed to age to
> > the point it could fall off, it would allow the brake to migrate away
> > from the disc resulting in less than optimum disc to splined driver
> > contact. The disc does require some skill to assure proper setup and
> > adjustment. The disc should float freely so that there is no side
> > stresses on the reaction arm where it contacts the frame.
> >
> > Replacement discs are no longer available. In my private stash I still
> > think that have one or two reserved for the original customers that I
> > built tandems for.
> >
> > The very earliest Phil Wood disc brakes had a friction disc that did not
> > have the reinforced center section. These would be more prone to failure
> > when not set up properly. Phil would modify earlier brakes to
> > accommodate the newer design disc.
> >
> > All the tandems that I built had a "pacman" tab on the frame and the Phil
> > disc reaction arm modified so that it made use of the "pacman".
> > http://www.classicrendezvous.com/USA/Phil/Phil_pics_1.htm
> >
> > Rodney Moseman