Disc Brakes vs Drum Brakes (rear)

[yambabe]

Wow.

Today was the first time I've ridden a bike with a rear disc brake, all my previous ones have been drums.

I couldn't believe how keen they are! Couple of scary moments in the first few miles until I'd got the hang of how much pressure I needed on the lever.

I can see how easy it would be to lock up the back with these brakes, something I've never managed to do on my other bikes yet.

I'm not sure though whether disc brakes are so much sharper all the time though or I've just been riding bikes with crap rear brakes up until now.
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[Blau Zedong]

It depends on the bike obviously, but I'm not a fan of rear discs on smaller / slower bikes, generally a bit too sharp and also added complexity. Drums have a nice action for use on the rear and require less maintenance. I'm not saying a GSXR1000 should have a rear drum however .
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[Teaman]

drum brakes are ineefective if hot, are crap at removing water and its hard to see if you need to service it, where as the disk brakes are easy to maintain(unless there mine) cool down better, cope with water fine, lighter and a lot more responsive but then Ive had drum brakes that if set up correctly are just as effective, its more noticable over prolonged useage and harder braking that you start to notice.
If you had rode a cx 500 or any single piston hona with solid disks you would know just how useless disk brakes can be.
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[mchaggis]

[craigs23]

My first two bikes both had drum rear brakes, found them adequate at best, despite regular servicing. I now find that if I can't lock a wheel up at will, it's not strong enough.

[Kickstart]

Hi

Dislike rear drums, just because they are a pain in the bum to work on compared to a reasonable disk setup.

All the best

Keith
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[Blau Zedong]

[Kickstart]

Hi

Certainly do seize. Horrible pivots. Then no doubt a couple of springs inside to go pinging off into corners of the garage when trying to get new shoes in. Cannot see how worn the shoes are without taking the wheel off (hopefully nobody trusts the pointer on the outside of the drum).

All a bike needs on the back is a single piston sliding caliper. Doddle to work on, and can be easily worked on with no need to remove the rear wheel.

And best of all, disks do not tend to lock on when the shoes are worn and the pivot goes over centre.

Sorry, drums I hate. Worse than disk brakes including a handbrake mechanism.

All the best

Keith
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Traxpics, track day and racing photographs - Bimota Forum - Bike performance / thrust graphs for choosing gearing

[yambabe]

My rear drum on the ZL didn't sieze, it actually disintegrated to such a point that the pads? liners? were stuck to the hub rather than the shoes, and it passed an MOT like that. I only found out about a week later when it stopped working altogether and we took the wheel off to have a look.........

https://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a229/Yambabe/Jul06044.jpg
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[jay12329]

Last week the guy at the garage comented that my rear pads look new, dispite the 4000miles on the bike. So why do we nead rear stoppers at all?
J

[Blau Zedong]

Drums will only go "over centre" if they have been bodged by moving the lever one spline round to squeeze more adjustment out of knackered shoes. There are other advantages too, on wire wheels drums aid stiffness and therefore handling (shorter spokes due to bigger hub equals less flex), and I bet that a drum setup is lighter then some old school discs.
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18:54:59 Rob Fzs: unless its their clothes/ hair/ golden teeth

[MarJay]

I've ridden bikes with excellent rear brakes, and ones with shite rear brakes (like the Daytona 955i) and I have to say I don't think it makes the blindest bit of difference.

My KE100 has drums on the front... which will be scary
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[Kickstart]

[mr.z]

The only regular problem with my bike is the rear disc :/ the drum version braked better, needed less messing with and never went wrong (apart from needing to be taken apart to copper grease the cam) the single piston brakes were pretty shitty, especially for a 230kg lump.. but i think allot is down to the (generally original) rubber hoses, braided lines made a world of difference..

One other thing with drums is they are enclosed, no need to worry about road filth getting at pistons e.t.c. good for offroad and other such larks.

The real point is their use, rear brake isn't the primary brake, drums are more than enough to lock the rear wheel, there for low speed control and for assisting in iffy situations.

The worst i've ever tryed were on a 125 varadero, they were like an on/off switch, terrifying! no feel to them at all i bet its led to plenty of shitted pants with rear wheels locking up solid with the faintest bit of pressure on the pedal, yikes!
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[Kickstart]

[Blau Zedong]

Was going to mention before - I recently rode a TLS equipped RD200, it was without doubt the most overbraked bike I have ever ridden. Got the same brake on my YR5, supposed to be very very good but more prone to fade than the iron TZ caliper fitted to the RD models.

Cable discs are, I agree, totally uselss - mate had a GT50 with one and it struggled to stop that .
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18:54:48 Rob Fzs: jews don't give away stuff for free

18:54:59 Rob Fzs: unless its their clothes/ hair/ golden teeth

[Kickstart]

I had a cable operated disk on a CB100N. Would be happy never to experience one of those brakes ever again.

All the best

Keith
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Traxpics, track day and racing photographs - Bimota Forum - Bike performance / thrust graphs for choosing gearing

[stinkwheel]

It strikes me that nearly every problem people have mentioned having on their rear drums can be put directly down to shoddy/no maintainance.

It isn't hard, you have to take the bloody thing off every time you change a tyre. 30 seconds with some emery paper to take the 'rim' or rust/crap out of the drum, maybe put a wee bit fo a chamfer on the leading edge of the shoe and grease the pivot and spring. Two minutes tops. If the shoes are worn out, buy new ones (once in a blue moon).

Drum brakes CAN be awesome. My Dad has a KH350 with twin leaders on it and you can stoppie that with two fingers. The rear drum on my kawasaki will lock the rear in a predictable fashion with a gentle dab of your toe. I would far rather have a good honest drum on the rear than the feeble effort of a single pot calliper fitted as standard to most kawasakis.

The one on my last GPZ spat the 'loose' pad out twice. Come to mention it, the one on my KLE spat all the brake fluid out today from round one of the sealing washers on the calliper.

[yambabe]

I've never had a problem with the drum brake on the ZL (well, apart from the disintegration thing, but it had been stood for 6 years at the time and it was a case of, brake works, get it MOT'd, off you go rather than stripping it down first which I know we really should have done), it was always perfectly adequate and the bike stopped - I thought - reasonably quickly.

I was just a bit astounded at how quickly the disc gripped and bit with the same pressure on the lever on the Zephyr. (And a bit disconcerted cos I wasn't expecting it and it caused a couple of wobbly moments til I got used to it......... )
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[Dischord]

My Dad has a KH350 with twin leaders on it and you can stoppie that with two fingers

that must be a fucking awesome drum brake.
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[stinkwheel]

You want to see the four leading drum brakes they fitted to race bikes back in the 60's/ early 70's.

[Redd]

[RS1Banger]

i used to have an rxs100 (drum front and rear)
i got up to 70 and stopped, 4 times in five minutes (bloody lights)and the brakes were cooked

thats not the worst bit, i spat on the forks and it fizzled, the heat had conducted into the forks and they were baked too, it didnt handle the same after...

[kawakid]

I came off once after managing to lock the rear.

When I was talking to a mechanic, he said "he hadn't used his rear brake since 1988 after he nearly locked it whilst using it to break on a bend."

Now I must admit, I don't use it anywhere near as much as I used to.
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[Blau Zedong]