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The brake which crashed me big time at Phillip Island in about 1970 had a home-made backing plate which created too much self-servo. The first thing I knew about it was when the brake dragged and self-steered the bike taking me off into the trees during a race. On the next corner it worked perfectly even though it was after a very long high speed bend. On the next corner - I was approaching at about 90 MPH and I lightly touched the brake and it locked immediately throwing me down the road on the non-skid surface. What happens is the leading edge of the lining can heat up and become sticky. Some of us used to taper the leading edges right back to get better heat distribution. Some people even used a section of harder lining at the leading edge of the brake shoes. One of the worst drum brakes for locking was the single sided manx Norton Brake. I had a photo of a mate of mine on a 1961 Manx with the wheel locked and turned with the front tyre smoking. He broke his collar bone into several small splinters and never raced bikes again. They are really a bastard of an idea, and the combination of pudding basin helmets and drum brakes was deadly in the old days - think about why so many guys got killed in road racing in the old days. These days I use two Lockheed calipers and two Suzuki discs on the front - it is unbeatable. These days there is no good reason to use a drum front brake on any bike - they should be banned along pudding basin helmets. Motorcycles are for enjoying not getting killed on. Why would anyone want to race a bike and have anxiety about using the front brake ?

<blockquote data-quote="acotrel" data-source="post: 282271" data-attributes="member: 4295"><p>The brake which crashed me big time at Phillip Island in about 1970 had a home-made backing plate which created too much self-servo.&nbsp; &nbsp; The first thing I knew about it was when the brake dragged and self-steered the bike taking me off into the trees during a race.&nbsp; On the next corner it worked perfectly even though it was after a very long high speed bend.&nbsp; On the next corner - I was approaching at about 90 MPH and I lightly touched the brake and it locked immediately throwing me down the road on the non-skid surface.&nbsp; What happens is the leading edge of the lining can heat up and become sticky.&nbsp; Some of us used to taper the leading edges right back to get better heat distribution.&nbsp; Some people even used a section of harder lining at the leading edge of the brake shoes.&nbsp; One of the worst drum brakes for locking was the single sided manx Norton Brake.&nbsp; I had a photo of a mate of mine on a 1961 Manx with the wheel locked and turned with the front tyre smoking.&nbsp; He broke his collar bone into several small splinters and never raced bikes again.&nbsp; They are really a bastard of an idea, and the combination of pudding basin helmets and drum brakes was deadly in the old days - think about why so many guys got killed in road racing in the old days.&nbsp; These days I use two Lockheed calipers and two Suzuki discs on the front - it is unbeatable. These days there is no good reason to use a drum front brake on any bike - they should be banned along pudding basin helmets. Motorcycles are for enjoying not getting killed on. Why would anyone want to race a bike and have anxiety about using the front brake ?</p></blockquote><p></p>

[QUOTE="acotrel, post: 282271, member: 4295"] The brake which crashed me big time at Phillip Island in about 1970 had a home-made backing plate which created too much self-servo. The first thing I knew about it was when the brake dragged and self-steered the bike taking me off into the trees during a race. On the next corner it worked perfectly even though it was after a very long high speed bend. On the next corner - I was approaching at about 90 MPH and I lightly touched the brake and it locked immediately throwing me down the road on the non-skid surface. What happens is the leading edge of the lining can heat up and become sticky. Some of us used to taper the leading edges right back to get better heat distribution. Some people even used a section of harder lining at the leading edge of the brake shoes. One of the worst drum brakes for locking was the single sided manx Norton Brake. I had a photo of a mate of mine on a 1961 Manx with the wheel locked and turned with the front tyre smoking. He broke his collar bone into several small splinters and never raced bikes again. They are really a bastard of an idea, and the combination of pudding basin helmets and drum brakes was deadly in the old days - think about why so many guys got killed in road racing in the old days. These days I use two Lockheed calipers and two Suzuki discs on the front - it is unbeatable. These days there is no good reason to use a drum front brake on any bike - they should be banned along pudding basin helmets. Motorcycles are for enjoying not getting killed on. Why would anyone want to race a bike and have anxiety about using the front brake ? [/QUOTE]