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

Brox in Bristol

 My Brox Compact has made it to Bristol. However, as it is a rather heavy machine it has been a gradual process to get fit enough to ride it on a more regular basis. The first ride was up the railway path to Mangotsfield station.

 Since then I've managed to make it to Warmley Station. The first time the queue was too long to wait for a mug of tea,

A few days later I managed the same ride and a mug of Earl Grey.

I have also ridden this month's Critical Mass on the Brox, so now the aim is to rebuild both the ride and the sound system in the new year. 

 

Peter York's Hipster Handbook

Broadcast on BBC Four, Peter York's Hipster Handbook featured a Brox Compact as used by Square Root Sodas for ferrying produce.



It is an early Brox Compact with rear drum brakes and updated front mudguards.

From Velovision - "Brox sells 50 Compacts to DHL"

Cloned from http://www.velovision.com/ftp-admin/VVArchive/www.velovisionmag.co.uk/showStoryeb48.html?storynum=37 as the future of Velovision is in doubt.

Brox sells 50 Compacts to DHL

Brox, the load-carrying quad bike manufacturer, has sold 50 of its machines to logistics giant DHL. They'll be put into service in London - and other cities may follow.

Posted by Peter Eland on Thursday 18 Jan 2001

Five pre-production Baby Broxes (or 'Compacts' as they are officially known), and some original Broxes, have been working in the City of London for some months. (The link takes you to a page on the Bikefix website - where there's lots of Brox info. Brox don't appear to have their own site, but you can email Rob Brock.)

According to Rob Brock of Brox, the deal was put together by Jim Geeling of E-mission Control, who ran a small fleet of Original BROXes for DHL under contract for six months before joining the DHL team as a consultant and introducing the Baby BROX to them. E-mission Control operated the Red Star HPV operation (before Lynx absorbed it) and also did HPV contract work for FedEx before finally teaming up with DHL.



As far as Rob is aware, the 50 are for London initially, but there are also feasibility studies underway for other large cities in Europe and one in the USA - probably New York. DHL have had a special 'Hi Cube' box designed, 20% bigger than the one pictured. They have ordered 50 vehicles to be delivered over a 12 months period starting the end of this month. The only other modification they have requested is that they are having disc brakes on the front, rather than hydraulic drums, and bigger Nokian tires as fitted on the original Brox.

Rob Brock is bullish about the prospects, and is looking forward to starting their first series production run: "Although we have approx a dozen Baby BROXes out there at present, the vehicle is still really only at a pre-production stage. The feedback from these initial customers will be incorporated where possible into the first production models - the DHL ones will be a large percentage of the first production run. The only reason that we are happy to go into series production at this early point is because the learning curve on the Baby should be considerably less than the Original BROX as we using existing technology such as the BROX torsional articulation and gauge of tubing etc - combined with tried and tested components from the AnthroTech trike. For instance, the kingpin layout and sliding bottom bracket system are basically AnthroTech designs beefed up for our use. I approached AnthroTech for permission to incorporate these parts because there is no point in re-inventing something that works right. They were kind enough to allow me to use them. That's the spirit of HPVers."

Brox Compact No 16

Found on LFGSS

Needs a service as the hydraulic brakes aren't working. Frame No 16 so quite an early one. Needs a good clean and going over. Can be ridden as is but the brakes are terrible. Selling on behalf of a friend who wants a very optimistic £900

Looks quite good with the replacement mudguards.



However, it is so early it has rear drum brakes.



I think some young person has enjoyed many a ride on this one.



I the price might be rather optimistic if the front brakes need replacement rather than straightforward servicing.

mADbikes advertising Trike

Bit of a mystery this one, can only find a couple of photos on the web.


From Gareth Lewis


From http://www.freewebs.com/adbike/madbikes.htm

The front looks like a copy of the original Brox.

Climate Change March 2006

It is not often I come across pictures of my machine on the web. I think the problem is that people don't consistently tag the Brox as they don't know what to call it.



Joe Rowing labled this one "Quadricycle" which is how I came across it.

Sky Ride 2012

I decided to try out the route this year, complete with sound system and trailer with A-board on the back. Here are a couple of photos off the web...



and from Ella who rode with me much of the way



Sadly the ride was a corporate exercise in advertising rather than a meaningful community event.

Sound System Rebuild

A couple of weeks ago the sound system got a makeover. Here it is in the original tatty green with the remains of all manner of posters and stickers all over it.





The old sticky-backed-plastic came off without too much difficulty, and much of the wiring was stripped out and tidied up.





The new covering of gloss sticky backed plastic went on without too much difficulty, though the finish isn't brilliantly smooth.



However, the general effect, with the new led reflector lights front, side and back is pretty good. I also managed to improve the bass end of the sound system by adjusting the crossover, resulting in a nice firm bottom end.



The system got it's first outing at last month's critical mass in Manchester.

Brox Compact vs Mini

Cars used to be a lot smaller. It's quite striking when you do find proper old cars just how small they are.



This old Mini really is not much longer than a Brox, and the green colour almost matches.



Photos from MOSI Mini Maker Fair.

P.S. the following day the Brox was actually longer with trailer...



Trundling home fully loaded...

Brox Sound System with ride on DJ

London Critical Mass May 2002.

"Medwinds Bikes go to Manchester"

Here's a variation on the advertising Brox Compact done for clothing company Medwinds.



And some shots of them in Manchester back in March 2011.

from https://www.facebook.com/medwinds.uk







It's just a shame they had to stand in front of the machines in every photo...

Four Wheels on the TV

Bit faster than the Brox...

Not a Brox but...

I know nothing about this home made 4 wheeler.

I found it here whilst doing an image search for Critical Mass

March Manchester Critical Mass

Photo by Ness

Music was Spiro Kaleidophonica and Easy All Stars Dubber Side of the Moon

A Brox on Lindisfarne

From arbm on Flickr

Manchester Brox with sound system

I haven't posted too many pictures of my machine here, so here's one from the start of the Moving Planet Day, back in September.



And a couple of videos of it out on Critical Mass in back in May

The New Firebrox Web Site

Firebrox has undergone a major overhaul, and you can follow its progress over at the new web site http://www.firebrox.com/.



More photos here, including details of those new brakes.

Sim Bamford's Brox Based Sound System

A Brox Compact was fitted with a sound system by Sim Bamford in 2002.

These photos from Sim's web site show the first version.








It was photographed at the big stop the war march in 2003 after it had been modified to lower the centre of gravity.



This machine is not the same as Firebrox as far as I know.

Firebrox (take 2)

Probably the most well known Brox Compact in the UK, Firebrox is the main sound system for the London Friday Night Skate.



I caught up with it at the original 2007 London Freewheel. Note the striking blue wheel hubs.

The machine is heavilly modified to help carry the 2kW PA system, with 52 gears and from odd forum posts it seems the hard work it goes through results in it needing a significant amount of maintenance, there is a detailed post covering the problems here.

Thanks to dan_b's comments and his photos on Flickr (below) I can now tell the correct series of events. The version of Firebox in my photo above, piloted by dan_b, was bought as chassis plus the aluminium flatbed load tray in 2006 from an employee of Brixton Cycles.

There were two versions of Firebox, the first was based on the standard tray (plus a repaint) and a steel support for the speaker:



And the second has the reworked back,



dan-b also sais that "Sadly it's currently off the road *again* as the drive axle snapped earlier this year and we've been unable to source a replacement. We're planning to take it down to Kingsmead to get the rear frame rewelded: I'm told that their newer design uses a plain axle instead of the complicated piece of machinery in ours, and they can fit mountings for Magura brakes at the same time."