Hitchcocks Forum

I have discovered that a creaking sound when pressing back brake pedal with bike stopped is a sure sign of failure of sprocket bearing in qd rear wheel. Even with this bearing shot, the bike will go on and on due to it's design - but the brake may become "grabby" and perhaps dangerous. I wonder how many of us have carried on in this condition oblivious of the failure? I just replaced my bearing and the bike feels so much better, but deterioration had been so gradual that I had hardly noticed. I posted a while back about the great improvement I found by fitting stronger return springs on my TLS front drum shoes, and likewise I discovered that the original front springs are same size, but stronger, than original rear ones, so hence having a setof surplus front ones sitting on the bench, I fitted them to the back shoes, and found a similar improvment to smooth progressive braking as i had found at the front.... so worth a try if you feel your brakes are snatchy! I also suspect that with the flimsy springs the leading shoes tended to hold on with servo effect, but now they release cleanly.
Hope this may help to make someone elses ride smoother and safer!

Thanks P, Thats the sort of info we need on the forum, wheel bearings are cheap and vital to safety, often overlooked is the sprocket bearing..

A timely reminder to check these out when the wheels off for a new tyre or break lining check.. good stuff..

Hi P where did you get your stronger front brake springs.

My new front shoe springs were out of the "junk box" but as near as I can say, 3mm dia wire, 6 or 7 turns of 16mm dia, and eye to eye 50mm. ...... a tough little spring! Probably twice the strength of old one, which in turn is probably nearly twice that of the original back one. Despite this, the brakes don't feel heavy to apply.

"a creaking sound when pressing back brake pedal with bike stopped is a sure sign of failure of sprocket bearing in qd rear wheel".........or not. Mine started to creak only AFTER replacing sprocket bearing.

Hi John. I assume the creaking is caused when one shoe - or toe or heel of shoe - contacts before the other; as when the shot bearing allows the drum to float out of true, but as both the backplate and the cam position are variable it is a bit hit and miss to get it all centred on the new bearing...... not that I'm suggesting you didn't, but it is the only thing I can think of.

This isn't the first time my experience seems to be at odds with that of other owners (now "past" experience, as I've sold the bike). My front brake was also inclined to creak ; in a similar state of affairs to the the gearbox outer cover, the brake plate would suffer noticable flexure in use. I don't recall anyone else reporting this.........both f. and r. brake plates centred correctly, of course.

I guess its 'cheers for that!'



My brake pedal went up and down with the wheel revolution, and if i wanted to brake hard, the pedal would vibrate and make a loud horrible noise.



I am assuming that as the brake pivot does not rotate but seems to twist sideays. that my sprocket/bushy thing has gone as well.



Will have to wait as I am off to France tomorrow and Tornado has gone to the RE shop for storage (with other bullets). Got rather attached to him, feel a bit sad now.