Vintage Balloon Tire Bicycle Brakes

Video Transcript

"Most balloon tire bikes had a coaster brake in the rear, and some of them had a coaster brake, I'm sorry, a drum brake in the front. This has no front brake at all. Modern bikes, you might see a caliper brake up here. This bike has no braking in the front wheel. This is an example of a drum brake though, that you you'd find on a on a balloon tire bike. You'd spin it, you push this lever, and the the wheel stops moving. This lever would be actuated by a cable, and the shoes expand in the drum, and stop you, just like a motorcycle, or older car brakes. This has a rear coaster brake. You pedal to go forward, and you back pedal to stop. When you're back-pedaling, there are shoes in this hub that expand, and they stop the brake. Here's an example of the type of shoes that will move. This is a actually a two-speed hub, versus a single-speed hub, but when you move the sprocket, you can see these hubs, these splines are moving, and they would grab onto splines on the inside of the hub, and slow you down, and stop your bicycle."