Coaster brake bikes

I am having trouble finding any maker of bikes with three or five speed
hubs with
coaster brakes and disc brakes. I would like for it to also be a
road/city bike
(not a cruiser) and have at least a front shock suspension. Any
suggestions?

Side note - I hate rim brakes, they inevitably start rubbing against
the rim and
require adjustment. Other than that, any reliable (3-5 years where I
can forget they
exist) brake that can stop 200 lb at 20-30 mph is OK with me.

wrote:
I am having trouble finding any maker of bikes with three or five speed
hubs with
coaster brakes and disc brakes. I would like for it to also be a
road/city bike
(not a cruiser) and have at least a front shock suspension. Any
suggestions?

Not aware of any bikes that come in that configuration, though it
woudn't be hard to put one together by yourself.


Side note - I hate rim brakes, they inevitably start rubbing against
the rim and
require adjustment.

I haven't found this to be too inevitable, nor necessarily
objectionable if it happens. Modern rim brakes are very reliable and
mature technology. Inexpensive, too. Discs have their hassles, too, and
offer no real advantages on a city bike.

wrote in message
oups.com...
I am having trouble finding any maker of bikes with three or five speed
hubs with
coaster brakes and disc brakes. I would like for it to also be a
road/city bike
(not a cruiser) and have at least a front shock suspension. Any
suggestions?

Side note - I hate rim brakes, they inevitably start rubbing against
the rim and
require adjustment. Other than that, any reliable (3-5 years where I
can forget they
exist) brake that can stop 200 lb at 20-30 mph is OK with me.


Well you can get them but they aren't cheap. Probably around $1,000 or so.
There is a Dutch bike that fits that category, but I don't know of anyone in
the USA that is importing them though.
www.yellowjersey.org does import and sell the Eastman Roadster, of which
they can customize it for you with internal geared hubs and such.
You might contact them to see what they can come up with for you for other
bike frame combinations.
What I did was buy a used old Huffy three speed bike and turned it into a
shopping bike with racks and baskets.
Another method as mentioned already is to build your own. Sheldon Brown used
to do this for many years with road bikes by converting them over to
internal geared hub bikes.
The Shimano 7 and 8 speed internal gear hubs have a model that uses a roller
brake to good effect, plus they have coaster brake hubs as well.
Shimao also has a roller brake front hub that goes with the rear hubs too.
The three speed coaster brake hubs are found on a lot of bikes, you can get
a used bike easily enough from many sources and scrap it out for the parts
you want to use on your own bike. There are a number of old single and three
speed bikes with regular handlbars and a steel road bike like frame that one
can simply change out the handlebars and make it into a more aggressive
road/city bike no problem.
I think taking one of the Surly single speed offroad bike frames and putting
on a Shimano 7 or 8 speed hub, and the handlebars of your choice would be a
great way to go.
If one really wants to go big a Rohloff 14 speed hub would be pretty neat
too, but then you have to use rim brakes or disc brakes though.

I haven't seen multi-speed coaster hubs in decades, and I can't even
concieve of why anyone wuld build a multi=speed coaster with a disc.

If what you're looking for is an internal geared hub with disc, that
wouyld make a little more sense, but I cant think of anyone who makes
one. Why not go for a regular freehub w/disc? there common.

- -
Comments and opinions compliments of,
"Your Friendly Neighborhood Wheelman"

My web Site:
http://geocities.com/czcorner

To E-mail me:
ChrisZCorner "at" webtv "dot" net

Chris Z The Wheelman wrote:
I haven't seen multi-speed coaster hubs in decades,...

See http://www.sram.com/en/sram/comfort/t3/coasterbrakehub.php,
http://www.sram.com/en/sram/comfort/p5/coasterbrakehub.php and
http://www.sram.com/en/sram/comfort/s7/coasterbrakehub.php.

If what you're looking for is an internal geared hub with disc, that
wouyld make a little more sense, but I cant think of anyone who makes
one....

See http://www.rohloff.de/en/products/speedhub/index.html.

--
Tom Sherman - Behind the Cheddar Curtain

wrote:

Side note - I hate rim brakes, they inevitably start rubbing against
the rim and require adjustment.

I think you would be very disappointed by discs, then. My experience
with (cable actuated) discs is that they rub their pads more
frequently, and require adjustment more frequently, than good quality
linear-pull rim brakes do. Hydraulic discs don't go out of adjustment
as much, but their rotors rub the pads just as often-- and there are
fewer possible remedies when that occurs.

Disc brakes have several advantages over rim brakes: better wet-weather
stopping, no tire or fender clearance issues, free choice of rim
diameter and width, and much cleaner riding in the wet. They don't, in
my experience, offer any maintenance or reliability improvements over
good rim brakes.

Other than that, any reliable (3-5 years where I can forget they
exist) brake that can stop 200 lb at 20-30 mph is OK with me.

I think Sachs/SRAM or Sturmey Archer drum brakes would suit you. Such
brakes are basically maintenance-free, and they can offer decent
performance if matched to appropriate levers.

In my opinion, decent quality brakes are already one of the
lower-maintenance elements of a typical bicycle. If you find that
brakes impose too high a demand for repair and routine service, you are
likely to neglect your chain, shift mechanism, cables, spokes, and
rotating assemblies until they present functional issues of their own.


Chalo Colina

Chris Z The Wheelman wrote:

Why not go for a regular freehub w/disc?

Consider the implications for someone who thinks _brakes_ are too
maintenance-intensive.

Chalo

I have never had a problem with anything on a bike besides rubbing
sounds from
brakes. That probably has to do with:

a. I am light (200 lb)
b. I commute (5-10 mph typical) in relatively flat areas
c. I change bikes every few years as I move

Any recommendation on reliable brakes to back up coasters and capable
of staying truly and entirely out of my way for a few years is welcome.

Chalo wrote:
wrote:

Side note - I hate rim brakes, they inevitably start rubbing against
the rim and require adjustment.

I think you would be very disappointed by discs, then. My experience
with (cable actuated) discs is that they rub their pads more
frequently, and require adjustment more frequently, than good quality
linear-pull rim brakes do. Hydraulic discs don't go out of adjustment
as much, but their rotors rub the pads just as often-- and there are
fewer possible remedies when that occurs.

Disc brakes have several advantages over rim brakes: better wet-weather
stopping, no tire or fender clearance issues, free choice of rim
diameter and width, and much cleaner riding in the wet. They don't, in
my experience, offer any maintenance or reliability improvements over
good rim brakes.

Other than that, any reliable (3-5 years where I can forget they
exist) brake that can stop 200 lb at 20-30 mph is OK with me.

I think Sachs/SRAM or Sturmey Archer drum brakes would suit you. Such
brakes are basically maintenance-free, and they can offer decent
performance if matched to appropriate levers.

In my opinion, decent quality brakes are already one of the
lower-maintenance elements of a typical bicycle. If you find that
brakes impose too high a demand for repair and routine service, you are
likely to neglect your chain, shift mechanism, cables, spokes, and
rotating assemblies until they present functional issues of their own.


Chalo Colina

On 22 Aug 2006 18:13:14 -0700, "Chalo" wrote:

wrote:

Side note - I hate rim brakes, they inevitably start rubbing against
the rim and require adjustment.

I think you would be very disappointed by discs, then. My experience
with (cable actuated) discs is that they rub their pads more
frequently, and require adjustment more frequently, than good quality
linear-pull rim brakes do. Hydraulic discs don't go out of adjustment
as much, but their rotors rub the pads just as often-- and there are
fewer possible remedies when that occurs.

Disc brakes have several advantages over rim brakes: better wet-weather
stopping, no tire or fender clearance issues, free choice of rim
diameter and width, and much cleaner riding in the wet.

They also neither distort the rim; nor are affected by changes in the
rim surface or width, both of which are likely to occur as the wheel
ages.