Laïti Mono, aka the brainbreaker

However, if they are set to the point of almost dragging constantly, and the levers still pull to the bars, then there's more going on than just worn brake shoes... different pull ratios between levers and brakes?

I assume that the brake shoes are still goosed however, if you've stripped the bike

The Pull ratio of the XT M095 levers is the same as the original DiaCompe levers, so I think it was wrong to begin with. The feel does indeed remind me of my old Trek, which had V-brakes with a cantilever lever at the back. Somehow I had never made that connection before.
Perhaps I should look into V-brake levers or vintage motorcycle clutch+brake levers or shorter levers at the bottom, as those options will increase the pull ratio.

As for the wear, this picture says it all really :



That was when I just got the bike, before I replaced the cable and set it up properly. Now the part between the shoes (not sure what it's called in English) is at a much bigger angle.
The brakes were also suffering from the servo effect, causing them to stay on until the bike had stopped completely. That's normally a sign that they are well beyond their wear limit. But that problem has been greatly reduced since the maintenance. Now only the rear one occasionally doesn't want to release, but it gives in eventually.

If they are approximately 100mm diameter then they are just 50cc moped shoes. Search eBay for universal moped shoes, it's full of em!

Barneyballbags":2k2cqgoo said:

That's as mad as a box of frogs :shock:

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I have to say that it's so wrong, but I like it...

Pretty sure they are Tomos brake pads.

bren":32095q97 said:

If they are approximately 100mm diameter then they are just 50cc moped shoes. Search eBay for universal moped shoes, it's full of em!

Click to expand...

Wasmachineman NL":32095q97 said:

Pretty sure they are Tomos brake pads.

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Thanks for the suggestion. I was thinking in that direction too, but thought those would be too big. Turns out they weren't.
Today I found some that seem to fit, and according to the box they belong on a Peugeot 103 RCX.


Believe me, going to a motorcycle shop to have them look at a bicycle's brake is a lot of fun. The first two flat-out refused to look at it, the third one was laughing at me ... until he noticed that the Peugeot pads appeared to be the same width and diameter.
Of course I went back to the first two tell them that it used Peugeot pads and that I now bought them elsewhere. Revenge is a dish best served on the same day.

I have both the 103RCX brakes and slightly smaller ones from an older regular 103. However the latter ones appear less wide than the originals , so I'll have to figure out which shoes will fit. Once I know that, I'll buy a matching set for the Laïti's other end.




Unfortunately I can't play wth the brakes yet. When I went to my LBS to puck up a new rear shock for my modern, the Laïti suddenly started to develop quite a bit of play in the BB.
I don't have the tools to open that old Suntour BB and my LBS doesn't have the right tools for sale, so I had to leave the bike in my LBS' workshop.

Oh well, by the time I get it back, I'll probably have received the 3-finger V-brake levers and the Shimano SL-MY34 friction thumbies that I bought last night, so I can sort most of the bike's problems at once.

I really like this, be super cool as a fixie

Today I spent some quality time with the Laïti. I had new brake shoes, some 3-finger V-brake levers and a set of friction thumbies ready to go on.
I knew that the shoes where the right thickness and diameter, so I would be able to finally sort out the bike's braking problems.

This was going to be easy. Take the front wheel off, take the old brake shoes off, take the new brake shoes and ... oh bugger ...



Here's what happened :
I'm still thinking that the shoes are the correct size. However their pivot point is more towards the outside and they are intended for a smaller pivot too.
Unfortunately I can't file down the shoes to suit the old pivot because the resulting lack of meat below the pivot would mean that the pads would just shoot upwards and stick there every time I applied the brakes.
I can't just make a smaller pivot pin and move it outwards either, because the opposite side of the current one locks into the fork and chainstay.



Seeing as these brake shoes are readily available and the originals are impossible to find, I think it makes more sense to have a set of custom drum covers made to suit the new shoes.
Yes, it would probably be easier to just get my worn brake shoes re-lined. However if I do that I'll probably have to have them done again in a few years time and will probably have to search all over again.
If parts wear rapidly, I'd prefer them to be off-the-shelf items rather than one-offs.

I'll have a good look at them again tomorrow (a bit too tired to think straight really). I'll probably be ordering some slightly smaller pads and seeing if those do fit, but I'm not holding my breath.



Because the shoes didn't fit, there was little point in installing the brake levers either, which also meant that I might as well leave the ST-M095 on there rather than installing the friction shifters.
Today it was all or nothing really, and in the end it turned out to be nothing.

My chain tool also indicates that the chain is completely worn, which means I'll be getting a new chain and freewheel soon.
That's my chance to ditch all the Suntour parts and switch to Shimano, but it leaves me with another problem. Now I need to figure out how to get the freewheel assembly off the rear axle.
Normally you'd put a 4-pronged Suntour tool in a vice, put the entire wheel on top of that and turn the wheel. That's going to be difficult with this setup because that big bearing in the frame is actually a vital part of the wheel itself. I can't attach the wheel to the freewheel without that.
This job will probably require custom spacers and tools.





Bart, you have no idea how lucky you are to have gotten rid of that thing. It's giving me nightmares already.

Well, at least I now have a freewheel ... (switches to spanish accent) ... on a stick.

Ebays full of all sorts of shoes of varying but similar sizes. My first step if i was in your shoes (see what I did there?) would be to measure the I/D of the drums then search again. From a quick google it's looking like this is a Sachs drum which would be 90mm or thereabouts. Most moped drums seem to be 100-105mm with some larger sizes too but also a much smaller 80mm version.