phantom front caliper brakes

[Freqman1]

I'll take a Forebrake any day!

 

[phantom]

I'll take a Forebrake any day!

Yeah I would agree most of the time. Most forebrakes are about five times the price of this setup. So, on a $300 dollar or so bike this could be the ticket.

 

[1817cent]

I am in the camp that they are a poor choice if you have a springer fork. They lack stopping power and add too much "bounce" for me.

 

[phantom]

I am in the camp that they are a poor choice if you have a springer fork. They lack stopping power and add too much "bounce" for me.

I am never on a bike that is rolling more than about 7 mph. For me it's just a cool accessory like a light or a speedometer that I have on bikes that are purely cosmetics.

 

[Rivnut]

@Risk Man For the brakes on a Whizzer you could incorporate disk brakes, both front and rear. Not original, but they would stop you.

 

[SirMike1983]

Fork add-on brakes depend a great deal on how robust the mounting clamps/brackets are made and how tightly they fit to the fork. Look carefully at the mounting before relying on them. The sign of bad or ill-fitting add-on brakes will be that they buckle forward under load or shift in-out with use. I have used a few different types of add-on brakes over the years and the universal with them is you need to be careful of your mounting set up and do a little testing before really relying on them. The same is true of standard calipers or drums but the aftermarket nature of the add-on brakes means you really have to be careful about proper fit.

 

[fattyre]

do you have them on your bike?

I have owned and ridden them in the past. I installed an NOS in the box set that I had on a Panther for a while. Between the lack of power and scuffing of the rim sidewalls is why I ultimately sold them. Changed the pads to modern ones after a while but then they looked really out of place. The other bike that had them was a pitina monster and they honestly had no hope of ever performing like they would have new. Rusty cables, rusty pivots etc.

 

[Risk Man]

I am in the camp that they are a poor choice if you have a springer fork. They lack stopping power and add too much "bounce" for me.

@Risk Man For the brakes on a Whizzer you could incorporate disk brakes, both front and rear. Not original, but they would stop you.

I have disc brakes on my new 2 cylinder engine motor bike builds. But not sure how to add a disk to these old S-2 hubs front or rear? Then the other challenge (which i have done with custom brackets on beach cruiser 2 stroke builds) is mounting the disc calipers. Of course the tabs could be welded on, but I am still stuck in my master woodworker's shop mode since starting on the bikes a year ago and have not gotten to welding yet! Thanks for the suggestions.

 

[Jon Olson]

If you use Schwinn caliper brakes be careful to use the right brackets. The bracket on the right is for springer tubular fork and has a set screw to help prevent rotation.

 

[49autocycledeluxe]

one if not all of the original Mt. Tam downhill Klunkers in the Marin Museum of Bicycling have these brakes on them. I put a set on my 41 Schwinn to be cool like Joe Breeze and his '41 that is in the museum. mine have original hard as rocks pads and I just bolted them on and made no adjustments, so performance is marginal.

there is a lot of monkey motion in the cables the way Schwinn put them together. way too much housing. I have seen these brakes set up more like a older mountain bike with housings only from the brake lever to a mount on the stem, I am sure that works much better.

some day I will fiddle with them an replace the pads to get them more functional. mostly I put then on to look cool.