Rear Brakes

http://www.hopetech.com/page.aspx?itemID=SPG131 hope brakes

http://www.hopetech.com/page.aspx?itemID=SPG154 Hope C2 disc brakes

spares are still available http://www.hopetech.com/page.aspx?itemID=SPG45


again more experience from Firebrox

http://www.cyclingcrowd.com/Uwe/Forum.aspx/uk-bicycle/18783/New-Commuter-bike

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I wish this were universally true, but we've had nothing but trouble
from the Hope C2s on the back of our Brox. I reckon it's done about 400
mostly dry miles on tarmac this year, and even after new cylinders, new
seals and several bleeds we still have the choice between "dragging" and
"ineffective".

-dan

We took it to a bike shop (one that specialises in workbikes) and said
"it's dragging, can you work out what's wrong?", and they bled it - I am
assuming they'd have looked at all possible causes. The mount is a
fairly low-tech bit of steel with some threads tapped into it so
adjustment is kind of limited anyway: we've spent an inordinate amount
of time messing around with aluminium shims of different widths to
fiddle with the alignment, but the bottom line seems to be that the
master cylinder doesn't shift enough fluid to get sufficient travel in
the piston between "brake is definitely on" and "brake is definitely
off" positions. Bearing in mind that there's going to be a certain
amount of flex between the no-load-bearing position when the axle's
jacked up and the fully loaded position when it has 50kg of Stuff in
the back - and shimming it is enough of a faff when it's off the ground,
you definitely don't want to be messing about continually unbolting and
rebolting the caliper body when you can't get under the bike anyway -
I'm running out of ideas.

On the other hand, the Cycles Maximus bikes that the rickshaw folks use
are even heavier and operate the same brake design apparently without
problem (the one I used seemed to work, anyway), so I guess it works for
them.

I'm not saying that rim brakes or cable brakes would be any better in
this scenario (apart from anything else, there's nowhere to mount rim
brakes ...) just that in the light of our experience I tend not to
respond so well to the oft-repeated claim in these parts for hydraulic
discs as perfect and completely maintenance-free.

-dan