[CR]Re: Brakes

(Example: Framebuilding:Paint)

From: <StuartMX4@aol.com>
Date: Sun, 21 Aug 2005 16:25:22 EDT
To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org
Subject: [CR]Re: Brakes

Rudge had a design in the thirties with a non moving part fixed by a bolt through the fork crown. That also provided a pivot point for the cantilever on each side. The push was provided by a stirrup through which the inner Bowden cable passed. The end of the Bowden inner was anchored on the fixed plate. The end of the outer cable abutted on the top of the stirrup. When the brake lever pulled on the inner cable, there was nowhere for it to go so the outer cable had to push on the top of the stirrup. (Pushing the outer rather than pulling the inner is a fairly common practice. Twin leading shoe motorbike and car brakes sometimes pulled with the inner and pushed with the outer.)

I have just read that and I cannot follow it at all! I could probably fish one out and take a photo if anyone is interested. As a design, it alwasys seems to me to be better than the Resilion which was so popular at the time but I have yet to try a Rudge brake in anger.

Stuart Tallack in West Sussex

"If you have never coasted down a long and steep and rather jolty hill, standing on one leg on the step of a bicycle, with a camera banging about wildly in your rear, you have missed one of the most fearsome joys in creation."
                                                              Tickner Edwardes