Velosteel Coaster Brake Hub

Velosteel Coaster Brake Hub

Tech

Price: $83.00 (this was including shipping to the UK from the US) and I think I paid about £12.00 import tax on top of that

From Where: www.elegantwheels.net

Tech Specs: 36 Hole, OLD 130mm, 16t cog

For those of you who never had one on your bike as a child (not going to lie, feeling kind of sorry for you about that) a coaster brake is an older piece of bicycle technology, allowing the rider to brake by pedalling backwards (it is sometimes referred to as a back-pedal brake), and there the sort of thing that used to get fitted to old school BMX bikes, and still do get fitted to town/beach cruiser bikes. Head to Amsterdam for the day and I guarantee you’ll nearly be killed/forced to jump into the canal by at least five or six of these. Rather than me try and explain the working of the thing, it would be best to go here for the skinny:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coaster_brake#Coaster_brakes

 

The shop in question does these reconditioned hubs in a variety of spoke hole drillings and over lock nut dimensions (that’s the rear frame spacing to you and I), in just about every permutation you could ask for. I got mine for a 36 hole rim and at a 130mm standard road bike spacing. The flanges are the same on each side and equidistant from the hub centre, making the wheel much easier to build without the need for dishing, which as far as I’m concerned is an absolute God-send as I do not own a wheel jig. Same size spokes for each side, boom! Job done.  The hubs are equipped with a standard fixed gear style threaded cog and lock ring, so although you’re asked to specify which cog size you want (I’m running a 16t, 36t front ring) you could in theory swap it for an after-market upgrade in whatever size takes your fancy. The guy there (coincidentally called Guy) is extremely knowledgeable about all things retro bike related, so if you’re not sure, ask him and he’ll be able to point you in the right direction. They also do the hubs in a variety of colours/finishes, I got mine in chrome a) because it looks mint and b) because the finish stands a better chance of surviving a British winter.

                Straight out of the package, I’m really digging the finish, the chrome was definitely the right choice. My other first impression upon handling the thing is that it is pretty heavy, but when you take into account the fact that the whole hub contains a full breaking mechanism this is not really that surprising. Given that the current trend is to have everything super light-weight, in a variety of naff colours, I can imagine that there are those of you who are going to be put off intensely by this statement. But then again, if you fall into this category, you probably won’t read the rest of this review, go and furiously shave your legs and then head out for a 70km ride, snorting derisively to yourself about people who don’t have carbon fibre headset spacers, pausing only to expel the contents of your nose every time you reach a set of traffic lights.

                Right, so now that the weight conscious have left to talk seriously about carbs, let’s get down to brass tax. Like I said, the thing was a doddle to build into a wheel and it definitely feels solid. The c clip which anchors the braking arm to the frame supplied was way too large for any modern road bike frame, however, I managed to bodge this pretty easily with a length of old grip and some electrical tape. I have since picked up a correctly sized c clip from a local hardware shop for the massive sum of about 16 pence, so I’m not really considering this to be a massive problem.

                It took an awful lot of getting used to, including spectacularly eating shit on more than one occasion at a junction, but now that I am, I absolutely love the thing. The fact of the matter is that it is not an instinctive reaction to apply pressure to the back foot in order to stop, but once you’ve worked out the subtleties of it is beautiful to behold. The problems I remember from my bikes as a kid just simply aren’t there; it’s never locked up and it never skips. The engagement is smooth and positive every single time. A lot of coaster brakes suffer from having no modulation to their braking – that is to say, they’re either locked on, or not engaged at all. For the Velosteel, this does not appear to be the case. The braking is certainly not as instantaneous as a cantilever or disc brake, but it was never going to be, and without a rear cable, my road bike certainly looks a lot cleaner than it previously did. I’ve been running it now, eight miles a day for about four months in pretty horrendous conditions (this is the North of England after all) and I’ve felt no need to adjust it. This is the beauty of the coaster brake system – unlike discs and canti brakes, the performance is not affected by the rain and all the parts are stored within the hub. The finish is still perfect; no mean feat given how much I intensely dislike cleaning my bike.

                I still have a front brake as back up, and I’m afraid there’s no escaping that fact. I have ridden home without the front brake when I snapped cable, but I certainly feel safer with it than without. The fact of the matter is that people these days seem more interested in looking at their smart phones than checking the traffic, so it’s always good to have a backup. But do you know what the best thing is about it? You can do skids! And for just a moment on a rainy ride home I remember a little of what it used to feel like when all we did was rode for fun, and you can’t put a price on that.

Score: 9 / 10

To Sum Up: What a quality piece of gear. The only thing keeping this from a ten is the weight, but as my name isn’t Norbert and I don’t still live with mother, I’m not letting this worry me.