Twin leading shoe brake

I know Frank has disparaged the early TLS before. But I have to say, when I got my '69 'S' it had horrible braking, especially on the front. You could almost drag your feet as good. But once you sort them out, get the shoes arced to the drums so you've got at least 90% contact, get good linings, center the shoes, and even replace the sponge of a brake lamp switch, the brakes can work decently for a street bike, not to race. I've been impressed with what I've been able to do with them, without a machine shop too.

I'm impressed, DogT. I guess the brakes weren't a big issue during prototype testing, as the road traffic in 1966/67 was a lot lighter than nowadays and we did a fair bit of it on test tracks. We bitched about them frequently, but there were bigger problems to solve.

It could easily be that the ones we had had not been properly fitted or may even have been mis-matched, but the structural deficieneies in the backplate were real enough. I did take some photos of the brittle lacquer tests but they're long gone by now, I expect.

I can remember driving around the DC beltway and up I270 going to work from Greenbelt to Rockville in the mid to late 70's and it was always a 'thrill', at least when I was that age. I was always planning at least 3 miles ahead where I was going to stop going 60-70 mph. It was better to gear down than brake. I have to say it doesn't feel like that now by any stretch, I wish I knew then what I know now, but then there probably weren't good pads then either. And that's not to mention the craters in the road. So, Frank, you're right with what you remember, braking wasn't a big issue in the late 60's.

I use 2 old Lockheed AP calipers with 70's asbestos pads and a master cylinder designed for one caliper. It is one finger operation and you can stop the front wheel at any speed with that one finger. I use the other three and the thumb to twist the throttle. Disc brakes are infinitely safer than drum brakes. My 7R drum brake was also one finger operation - if you grabbed a handful of that you were dead. I don't like racing bikes which take a lot of effort to operate. With my bike all you have do is virtually think what you want and it happens. The bike is light and self steers a lot coming through corners, and the controls are light.

Is that on your Seeley?