Sturmey Archer

Hi,
I had a bicylcle with a Sturmey Archer brake. Front wheel. A few
months ago,I had a terrible accident because the wheel blocked, going
down-hill. I survived.
A shop said they did not want to repair because the brake is very
dangerous, they could not give any guarantee on the repair.
Is it true? Is this brake known to block, any time you do not expect
it? it says in the wheel: sturmey archer-limited made in Enland 8 86.
Thanks for any answer. I am rather handicapped now and want to know
why.
LvS

On Fri, 4 Jul 2008 11:22:49 -0700 (PDT)
wrote:

Hi,
I had a bicylcle with a Sturmey Archer brake. Front wheel. A few
months ago,I had a terrible accident because the wheel blocked, going
down-hill. I survived.
A shop said they did not want to repair because the brake is very
dangerous, they could not give any guarantee on the repair.
Is it true? Is this brake known to block, any time you do not expect
it? it says in the wheel: sturmey archer-limited made in Enland 8 86.
Thanks for any answer. I am rather handicapped now and want to know
why.
LvS

Most drum brakes will look up if poorly maintained, but are perfectly
safe in maintained regularly. Recumbent maker Greenspeed uses Sturmey
drums on their trikes and I've never heard of one locking up.

Cheers

Joel

Joel Mayes wrote:

I had a bicycle with a Sturmey Archer brake. Front wheel. A few
months ago,I had a terrible accident because the wheel blocked,
going down-hill. I survived.

A shop said they did not want to repair because the brake is very
dangerous, they could not give any guarantee on the repair. Is it
true? Is this brake known to block, any time you do not expect it?
it says in the wheel: Sturmey Archer-limited made in England 8 86.
Thanks for any answer. I am rather handicapped now and want to
know why.

Most drum brakes will lock up if poorly maintained, but are
perfectly safe in maintained regularly. Recumbent maker Greenspeed
uses Sturmey drums on their trikes and I've never heard of one
locking up.

None of them are safe on a conventional road fork that cannot support
brake torque at the small end of one fork leg. Breaking off a fork
end on one side is not survivable without major injuries.

Jobst Brandt

wrote in message
...

None of them are safe on a conventional road fork that cannot support
brake torque at the small end of one fork leg. Breaking off a fork
end on one side is not survivable without major injuries.

In case you think Jobst kids:

Coming down little Pinehurst on my Look, my clipless pedal broke out and
apparently my foot touched the ground at about 30 mph. The foot and leg
swung back and I suppose I pulled it forward to keep from falling in the
turn. Made it around the turn just as the foot swung into the front wheel
spokes breaking off the carbon fork blade.

I must have gone almost straight up and come straight down landing on my
left shoulder, hip, knee, elbow. Touched the helmet to the ground lightly on
the left side. This jammed the sunglasses into my face making a deep cut
about where the line runs from your tear duct to the edge of your mouth. It
was hard enough that the bones in the area were all broken.

That was 6 weeks ago. I'm mostly recovered at this point. The medical bills
for that emergency ride are $15,000 so far and I'm sure they're still coming
in.

Next day I replaced the fork since I had an extra on the shelf. One
advantage of threadless steerers is that you can replace the whole thing in
less than 30 minutes.

No damage to my foot save some very minor scratches on the top of two toes
and the shoe had the heal pulled loose though that wasn't apparent until I'd
ridden them for a week.

I've started riding my Basso Loto steel bike and to tell you the truth I
can't tell the difference in its ride and that of my Time VX which I thought
was my best handling bike.

Oops - forgot to mention - the next day was a "Ride to Work Day" and some
new rider on a bike path struck the steel post in the center of the path at
an intersection designed to keep cars off of the bike path, flipped over the
handlebars and was killed instantly.

On 5 jul, 02:11, Joel Mayes wrote:

Most drum brakes will look up if poorly maintained, but are perfectly
safe in maintained regularly. Recumbent maker Greenspeed uses Sturmey
drums on their trikes and I've never heard of one locking up.

Thanks. It could be caused by poor maintanance. The bike was second
hand (or third?). Bought it from a well known shop for quite a lot of
money though. I bought a brand new bike after this. But I walk now
when going down hill...

LvS

On 5 jul, 02:54, "Tom Kunich" cyclintom@yahoo. com wrote:
Oops - forgot to mention - the next day was a "Ride to Work Day" and some
new rider on a bike path struck the steel post in the center of the path at
an intersection designed to keep cars off of the bike path, flipped over the
handlebars and was killed instantly.


Awful.
My doctor told me I am extremely lucky to have survived the accident.
Only my left hand is still injured now, after 4 months. But this is
mainly caused by an infection of the wounds. Emergency did not
desinfect them immediately, they waited 2,5 hours before doing so.
Damn.

LvS

wrote:

I had a bicylcle with a Sturmey Archer brake. Front wheel. A few
months ago,I had a terrible accident because the wheel blocked, going
down-hill. I survived.
A shop said they did not want to repair because the brake is very
dangerous, they could not give any guarantee on the repair.
Is it true? Is this brake known to block, any time you do not expect
it? it says in the wheel: sturmey archer-limited made in Enland 8 86.

I have never observed brake lockup in a drum brake. I own and use
bikes with Sturmey Archer, Sachs, and Shimano drum brakes. Not all of
them are as strong as I would like, but none have ever threatened to
lock up. They are more consistent and predictable than rim or disc
brakes.

I'm curious what happened to yours to make it brake uncontrollably.

Chalo

Tom Kunich wrote:

Oops - forgot to mention - the next day was a "Ride to Work Day" and
some new rider on a bike path struck the steel post in the center of
the path at an intersection designed to keep cars off of the bike
path, flipped over the handlebars and was killed instantly.

I think you mean he died instantly, otherwise I'd like to hear about
his murderer.

Jobst Brandt

Chalo Colina wrote:

I had a bicylcle with a Sturmey Archer brake. Front wheel. A few
months ago,I had a terrible accident because the wheel blocked,
going down-hill. I survived.

A shop said they did not want to repair because the brake is very
dangerous, they could not give any guarantee on the repair. Is it
true? Is this brake known to block, any time you do not expect it?
it says in the wheel: sturmey archer-limited made in Enland 8 86.

I have never observed brake lockup in a drum brake. I own and use
bikes with Sturmey Archer, Sachs, and Shimano drum brakes. Not all
of them are as strong as I would like, but none have ever threatened
to lock up. They are more consistent and predictable than rim or
disc brakes.

I'm curious what happened to yours to make it brake uncontrollably.

I guess you missed the discussion of drum brake lockup and holes in
brake shoes and disk brakes.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brake_f...in_drum_brakes

Jobst Brandt