On Mar 31, 4:03 pm, landotter <
[email protected]> wrote:
> On Mar 31, 9:39 am, Dan Burkhart wrote:
> > Jay Wrote:
>
> > > Due to popular demand in other RBT threads, I am rushing these pre-
> > > release Electra pics into worldwide distribution:
>
> > >http://orion.neiu.edu/~jbollyn/bike/electra/
>
> > > J.
........
> > Also, I've seen that particuclar roller brake on lots of Nexus 7s, but
> > never on an 8. Just an observation, I'm sure it will work fine in the
> > flat country.
>
> I like those roller brakes a lot. They get dissed by folks that think
> ya need disc brake face planting fingertip response at all times--but
> for riding at "conversational" speeds in slop--they're fantastic.
They're fantastic for much more demanding riding than that. On my
first Dutch city bike I cautiously chose a version with a disc front
brake and roller rear brake. My riding is on hills; it is almost
impossible to find a flat road here; and I ride down those hill flat
out. I was so impressed with the rear roller brake (50 series) on my
Gazelle Toulouse that for my second Dutch city bike, even with the all-
disc Alfine hubs-gears and -dynamos already available, I chose instead
to go with the Trek Cybernexus, which has the 75/70 rollerbrake
combination front and rear. In my opinion, the latest generation of
roller brakes give nothing away to discs under even the most stressful
circumstances. In addition roller brakes require less service and
money spent on them, and are a bit easier to control than discs. I did
measured rear wheel only stops in a short steep private lane next to
my neighbour, and discovered that the 50 series rear roller brake
stops within fractions as well as the latest 70 series rear roller
brake. I repeated the test with 20 hard applications (just short of
skidding, front brake used a little if necessary) each on a long on a
long hill in a short space of time to check if the much bigger, finned
heatsink on the 70 series brake makes a difference. The 70 series disc
was not perceptibly warm, the thin 50 series disc was maybe a bit
warmer than ambient. A disc brake in the same use gets perceptibly
warmer, but never too hot to touch. I conclude that both disc and
roller brakes are much more than plenty good enough: they're overkill.
I'm not sure under what circumstances, excluding one-upmanship, one
would choose to lash out for the top of the range 70/75 roller brakes
rather than those in the middle of the range which are already
considered good enough by the people who know, the Dutch, to use on
pretty pricey city-sporting bikes. I imagine Trek put them on my
Smover because they came with the upmarket Cyber Nexus groupset. The
middle of the roller brake range, as fitted by Gazelle to my Toulouse,
is more indicative, I think.
I weight about the same as Jay and like him I carry quite a bit of
stuff on the bike, but as I said above I ride on much hillier terrain,
so I imagine we'll have to wait until Jay takes up loaded touring on
mountain passes to find out what his brakes can really do. Even my
hilly terrain doesn't have any descents long enough to ride the brake
for more than a few minutes at the time, which just about gets either
roller brakes or discs warm -- even though these hills are steep and
long enough with rim brakes to make metal brake block fittings and
sometimes the rim too hot to touch.
And that puts the debate in its true perspective: roller brakes are
superior to rim brakes.
Mind you, a guy who in descending a mountain doesn't have time to stop
and take in the view while his brakes cool doesn't have time to be a
cyclist either. The late Mr Travers Jeffers, who owned a local
sporting goods emporium, had a self-important American tourist at his
fishing counter one day. Nothing was good enough for this American. Mr
Travers, as he was known, saw me cast an eye over this man's brand new
flycasting gear, the best that could be ordered from Abercrombie but
totally unused, and shook his head at me ever so slightly to stop me
telling the fellow he should save his gear to display in his living
room at home, and instead borrow a rod and ask Mr Travers to wind him
a couple of his special dinner special flies that always caught the
big ones. Finally this fellow, having demonstrated that he had heard
all the technical terms but hadn't bothered about the meanings,
demanded, "Well, I want, prestretched line." Mr Travers put the drawer
of excellent fishing line he stocked away. "Ah, sir," he said
urbanely, "round these parts we believe that a fisherman who doesn't
have time to stretch his own line doesn't have time to fish."
> I
> just rode the Electra Amsterdam "Fat Frank" at the LBS for kicks a
> couple days ago, with 9spd derailleur and 2 RBs and it stops like a
> champ. Noiseless, with great feel. They do need to be repacked with
> grease every Chicago winter or two as needed, just wait till you hear
> them grind. I believe it's just a matter of popping open the grease
> port, squeezing in the approved grease, and wiping off the old--and
> you're good to go.
It's a thirty second operation. Nothing to wipe off if you use
Shimano's official roller brake grease which has a nozzle that goes
right inside and comes back out without mess. You gotta pop the bung
back in the port when you finish. In theory you should be able to tell
from additional slackness in the brake lever that the roller brakes
need grease; I think it's ******** because I did have a dry or drying
brake and there was no additional play in the lever: I knew because
the stops were a bit rough and getting rougher, and the roughness went
away immediately after a squirt of the special grease; not because of
any noise either, which is supposed to be the other indicator.
>I've used Phil's grease in them with no problem,
> but YMMV.
I think it is better to stick to the official specially formulated
roller brake grease. It's cheap enough and the big t00ml tube will
last forever. I can't remember where I read it now, but Sheldon or
someone else with experience said that all the cases of a wrecked
internal gear hubs he'd seen was down to precautionary maintenance
with the wrong grease, and it seems to me likely that the same would
apply to roller brakes.
>The "Fat Frank" is a hoot, btw--but suited for a dry climate
> as it's nature is to be free of fenders. It's like riding marshmallows
> on top of breast implants.
What an image!
How often do you put grease in your roller brakes, Landotter? And you,
Dan?
Andre Jute
http://members.lycos.co.uk/fiultra/BICYCLE & CYCLING.html