I have had my Comet for 58 years and the brakes have always been terrible - even with the original green linings and I know this has always been a problem despite the claims of the old road tests.
I had new linings a year or so ago and these were machined to fit the brake drums which looked fine.
Have done around 5000 miles since then and at first the brakes were very poor but I hoped they would bed in.
However they are a little better now, but still very poor - at slow speed they are not too bad, but after initial bite more pulling on the lever does not seem to give more braking, though they are not very spongy. It feels like brake fade due to heat, but I am sure this is not the problem for the low speeds and short distances involved.
I have tried a few theories such as shortening the trailing shoe lining, making the holes at the pivot pin a little elliptical so that the back edge of the shoe is used etc. but none of these ideas shows much improvement.
Is there a solution, (other than fitting discs - which I think is cheating), because at least two of my Vincent owning friends have exactly the same problem with both front and rear brakes.
Is there a magic lining material which would work better or is there some other fundamental problem please?
Matty
I had new linings a year or so ago and these were machined to fit the brake drums which looked fine.
Have done around 5000 miles since then and at first the brakes were very poor but I hoped they would bed in.
However they are a little better now, but still very poor - at slow speed they are not too bad, but after initial bite more pulling on the lever does not seem to give more braking, though they are not very spongy. It feels like brake fade due to heat, but I am sure this is not the problem for the low speeds and short distances involved.
I have tried a few theories such as shortening the trailing shoe lining, making the holes at the pivot pin a little elliptical so that the back edge of the shoe is used etc. but none of these ideas shows much improvement.
Is there a solution, (other than fitting discs - which I think is cheating), because at least two of my Vincent owning friends have exactly the same problem with both front and rear brakes.
Is there a magic lining material which would work better or is there some other fundamental problem please?
Matty