adjusting rear brake

mlee10018 · Post by **mlee10018** » Sat Oct 28, 2006 3:33 am

Has anyone adjusted their rear brake? I feel that mine is not quite tight enough. I have to really sqeeze it to stop myself from slightly rolling if I am stopped on a little bit of an incline. Is this normal?

jrsjr · Post by **jrsjr** » Sat Oct 28, 2006 4:29 am

Before I say anything else, I have to issue the standard disclaimer that your front brake is your primary source of braking power.

My question to you is this: Has your rear brake suddenly gotten worse, or is this the baseline normal behavior you're asking about?

If this is how your rear brake has always been, then I would say... Adjusting the linkage to the brake won't make it more effective. That adjustment will change how far you have to pull the lever to apply the brake, but not how hard you have to squeeze the lever. Try adjusting the linkage and you'll see what I mean. If you fiddle with the adjustment, you may find that there's a "sweet spot" for your hand size where you have optimum leverage on the brake lever just at the moment it grips the brake, and that's about as good as it gets. P.S. Be sure you snug the adjuster up. You don't want that to vibrate loose and leave you with no rear brake.

If your rear brake has suddenly gotten worse, that's another story. In that case, I would be concerned that maybe you have brake dust in the drum or that you've glazed your brake shoe. If your brake has suddenly gotten worse, and that's why you're posting, then you need to bring it to your dealer and have them service the rear brake.

The story on this has to do with how drum brakes work. Inside your drum is a curved "shoe" which pushes outward against the inside wall of the drum to produce friction and, hence, stopping power. There are several things that can happen to reduce stopping power: 1) If moisture gets in there, water acts as a lubricant and reduces your braking power. Usually, just using the brakes will dry this off and and restore your braking power, so that's not what I'm concerned about, but you should know this when you ride in the wet. 2) If brake dust collects inside the drum, that dust can also act as a lubricant to reduce the friction and, hence, your braking power. 3) The brake shoe can get glazed from the heat of braking. If the working surface of the brake shoe gets "glazed," then it doesn't produce as much friction when it presses against the wall of the drum, hence way less stopping power. And that's why, if you're suddenly experiencing decreased braking power from what you had before, I suggest you bring the scoot to your dealer.

Sorry for the BW.

Hope this helps...

rajron · Post by **rajron** » Sat Oct 28, 2006 12:18 pm

I totally agree with jrsjr â€“ I just wanted to add one other thing that makes the rear breaks inherently inferior to the front brakes on our scoot â€“ the rear brakes are mechanical opposed to the fronts that are hydraulic which adds to the sloppy feel. With all things equal hydraulic to hydraulic, disc to disc, or drum to drum a motorcycle would have about 2/3rds stopping power biased to the fronts but as pointed out our scoot has a mechanical drum on the rear making it seem weak.

mlee10018 · Post by **mlee10018** » Sat Oct 28, 2006 5:55 pm

I feel that the brake has always been this way, I wanted to see if I can adjust them to work a little better. Or may be that is just how these drum brakes work?
thanks.

jrsjr · Post by **jrsjr** » Sun Oct 29, 2006 9:49 pm

mlee10018 wrote:I feel that the brake has always been this way, I wanted to see if I can adjust them to work a little better. Or may be that is just how these drum brakes work?
thanks.

The Buddy's rear drum brake is not as strong as a disk would be. The folks who designed the Buddy went with a drum brake because it's less expensive and they were trying hard to keep the Buddy's price down.

My final thought is, if you're concerned about your rear brake, even if you just want somebody to adjust it to perfection so that you can get the most out of it, just mention it to your dealer when your bring it in for service.

mlee10018 · Post by **mlee10018** » Sun Oct 29, 2006 11:17 pm

I just checked the tire pressure and added for the first time since leaving the dealers. I assumed that they would have made sure it is correct on my way out initially or the first visit at 200 miles, of course I am not sure. Well the point it that the front brake is much more effective than I have been used to, even a bit touchy, the rear brake may still be about the same, I think. Has anyone experienced this before? I will take the bike into to the dealers next weekend to have the rear brake adjusted.
thanks John,

AxeYrCat · Post by **AxeYrCat** » Mon Oct 30, 2006 1:19 pm

There's a small adjustment screw on the the left side of the rear wheel -- like a threaded cable, not unlike you'd see on a bicycle.

You can adjust the 'tightness' of the brake with that.

rablack · Post by **rablack** » Tue Oct 31, 2006 10:16 pm

AxeYrCat wrote:There's a small adjustment screw on the the left side of the rear wheel -- like a threaded cable, not unlike you'd see on a bicycle.

You can adjust the 'tightness' of the brake with that.

My back brake lever seemed to be running out of room before the rear brake did its work. Adjusting the cable worked great for me.

mlee10018 · Post by **mlee10018** » Sun Nov 05, 2006 1:49 am

thanks all,
adjusting that screw really helped. I don't have to squeeze the lever as far before the rear brake catches now.

For anyone who is wondering which screw (like I was), engage your rear brake and the cable/screw that moves is the one.