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[another Allan]

Has anyone seen the old BSA/Triumph conical-hub TLS front brakes? The have no link, as such, between the operating levers. The brake cable outer abuts against the nearest lever, and the inner fits on the other lever. Thus, the braking force is automatically equalised between the shoes.
They had their problems (operating levers too short to give good leverage, I believe,) but they were simple to set-up and maintain.
Perhaps the Enfield TLS brake could be modified in a similar way (or, failing that, fit a front disc brake!)

[Beezabryan]

Yes Allan I have ridden BSAs (in US not at home) with the comical hub brake. Superb stoppers.

[jefrs]

Papasmurf, there are some true nightmares 'out there', one guy was using what a appeared to be a milling tool in an electric hand drill on a bike wheel loose on the bench.

This a brake lathe - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VvHsYsKFDpQ

[papasmurf]

Jefrs I am fully aware what brake drum/disc lathe is. PERSONALLY I prefer a normal lathe with a large four jaw chuck and using a dial gauge. (You would be surprised how often the mounting hole and the braking surface are not concentric and/or not parallel.)
I concur with earlier comments about wire spoked wheels. The wheel needs to be in good order before mounting in a lathe to do any turning truing of the brake drum.

[nab301]

@Jawa-Enfield Having been in the same situation as yourself with a '98 350 bullet back in '02 , I never got the front brake to work, and eventually sold the bike because of this.
Recently I purchased a Bullet 65 project, unfortunately with a drum brake.. I spent a lot of time with poor brakes and then found the postings here and elsewhere by TIM NZ ( thanks very much Tim !! ) If you follow his instructions to the letter you will have an excellent Brake, I haven't mastered rolling stoppies yet and I prefer discs but even with a standard cable there is no sponginess. Setting the levers as a parallelogram and removing all sloppiness by substituting trunnions until you find ones that fit perfectly is relatively easy , however I had been over tightening the backplate centre nut , once I realised this and tightened and shimmed it as recommended by Tim I soon had an excellent and consistent front brake .
Basically I had a single leading shoe brake , the unused shoe was only working on the trailing edge.

[nab301]

I haven't managed photo posting on here yet...
http://i146.photobucket.com/albums/r256 ... ol69sc.jpg

http://i146.photobucket.com/albums/r256 ... bdveww.jpg

[nab301]

[nab301]

Finally figured it out....

[jefrs]

Papasmurf, I can use a lathe too. Not many these days are taught how to use one though. Which is a shame, not many engineering works left. It is a skilled job though and even though I was qualified on the machines, I would have one of the regular machinists do a job like this for me; such jobs were called 'homers'.

[jawa-enfield]

Dear everyone, i am aware of how a drum brake like this should be adjusted, it is not higher mathematics, but at this bike it does not work(on my other bikes with double-leading front brakes, no problem.
The strange thing is that the plate seems to tilt a bit from the drum.
I machined down the cams to 20,0mm so get more power against the drum and make sure both cams were equal in shape(because they were not equal).
I took apart the brake -again- and it also looks the braking pads don't align under the same angle to the drum.


My new question is, i got the tip to loosen the central nut for better braking.. any comments on that?