Typical donated bikes in Germany

[plancashire]

I thought you might like to see a typical selection of the bikes we receive as donations in our volunteer workshop in Düsseldorf. At this time of year it is still a bit cramped, so you can see a workstand and some wheels hanging on the wall too. These bikes are waiting to be checked and repaired. The plastic bag on the handlebars contains the record and checklist that accompanies each bike until it is sold or donated. I estimate over half have hub gears, lights, mudguards, stands and luggage racks or baskets: typical "city" bikes.

Back-pedal brakes are common in Germany. I always explain the limitations of this system to anyone who takes a bike like this (very poor braking). Someone came in last week with a rusted steel Bianchi frame wanting to remove the cranks and bottom bracket. He had the rear wheel with its derailleur gears. He wanted to convert it to single-speed and back-pedal brake! I tried to dissuade him.

[Nearholmer]

Interesting contrast. Our local one has a preponderance of entry-level MTB and hybrids, plus high-end, but five years out of fashion, road bikes. People use basic MTB as utility bikes round here. There are other things, but they constitute rarities.

[Brucey]

the big problem in Germany is arguably that it still considered acceptable to ride around with just one brake, and that brake can be on the rear wheel, where it is about as much use as a chocolate fireplace if you want to stop quickly.

Coaster brakes are deeply unsatisfactory for two main reasons; the first being that they overheat very easily on big hills. The second reason is that whatever hub lubricant is used, it becomes contaminated with wear debris from the brake. This debris is necessarily somewhat abrasive; hardly a good lubricant additive. It is usually possible to repurpose a coaster brake as a cable-operated front brake, eg. by fabricating (via welding of an old sprocket) a brake actuating arm. Such brakes retain all the usual shortcomings, but lack of braking power isn't amongst them.

[Nearholmer]

So, is Germany plagued by huge numbers of bike crashes as a result?

I rather doubt it, and suspect that these brakes are “good enough” for the uses that the bikes are put to.

[Mike Sales]

the big problem in Germany is arguably that it still considered acceptable to ride around with just one brake, and that brake can be on the rear wheel, where it is about as much use as a chocolate fireplace if you want to stop quickly.

Coaster brakes are deeply unsatisfactory for two main reasons; the first being that they overheat very easily on big hills. The second reason is that whatever hub lubricant is used, it becomes contaminated with wear debris from the brake. This debris is necessarily somewhat abrasive; hardly a good lubricant additive. It is usually possible to repurpose a coaster brake as a cable-operated front brake, eg. by fabricating (via welding of an old sprocket) a brake actuating arm. Such brakes retain all the usual shortcomings, but lack of braking power isn't amongst them.

Seventy years ago my first bike had only a coaster brake. I enjoyed skidding the back wheel.

[geomannie]

So, is Germany plagued by huge numbers of bike crashes as a result?

I rather doubt it, and suspect that these brakes are “good enough” for the uses that the bikes are put to.

I lived as a kid in the USA, where coaster brakes were ubiquitous on kids bikes. To this day, 60 years on, I still have the scars from my rear wheel locking on a gravely road.

No, they are really not great.

[Brucey]

.... only a rear, coaster brake. I enjoyed skidding the back wheel.

arguably that is about all any rear brake is good for. If you really want to stop quickly, it has to be a front brake.

[Nearholmer]

I don’t like “back pedal” brakes either, had one on a Dutch bike that I had for a while*, and it was only really trustworthy going up hill!

My thought was not so much about that though, as about the likelihood that Germans find them good enough for utility use, despite their disadvantages.

* The only bike I’ve ever deliberately abandoned. It may still be locked to a stand in a particular station car park, forty years on, but I rather doubt it.

[mig]

so why are back pedal brakes so prevalent in Germany?

only ever rode one as a child on a little track at the seaside. the guy running it said nowt to anyone about them and left us mystified as to why we were having trouble coasting over the ramps and around the corners. left me feeling i'd wasted my 10p !

[cycle tramp]

So, is Germany plagued by huge numbers of bike crashes as a result?

I rather doubt it, and suspect that these brakes are “good enough” for the uses that the bikes are put to.

My first ever hub gear conversion featured sturmey archer 3 speed and coaster brake (it also had a front rim brake) and it was surprisingly good..
here was a mechanical braking mechanism, which didn't wear out your rear wheel rim, used your leg muscles to stop the bike (rather than the strength in your hands), was completely weather tight and transmitted that strength through the chain which is stronger than cables....
..People talk about the lack of modulation that coaster brakes have, but they are still better modulated than alot of v-brakes I've tried..
People say they don't work in very hilly areas, which is fair enough.... but on the premise that you keep them for flat or moderately undulating terrain, they're fine...
If you were building a bike to take you from one end of town, or village and back again... then why wouldn't you at least consider a coaster rear hub - if only for the fit-&forget-about-it factor?
Just reading this thread makes me think my next wheel should have a coaster brake... then I could upset everyone.

[sukuinage]

the big problem in Germany is arguably that it still considered acceptable to ride around with just one brake, and that brake can be on the rear wheel, where it is about as much use as a chocolate fireplace if you want to stop quickly.

Coaster brakes are deeply unsatisfactory for two main reasons; the first being that they overheat very easily on big hills. The second reason is that whatever hub lubricant is used, it becomes contaminated with wear debris from the brake. This debris is necessarily somewhat abrasive; hardly a good lubricant additive. It is usually possible to repurpose a coaster brake as a cable-operated front brake, eg. by fabricating (via welding of an old sprocket) a brake actuating arm. Such brakes retain all the usual shortcomings, but lack of braking power isn't amongst them.

From my experience there are very few bikes around this part of Germany which only have single, coaster brakes - most have a front caliper brake fitted as well; they're also in a small minority compared to the rim-braked, or increasingly disc-braked bikes I see. I live in a reasonably affluent area though so not so many really old bikes being used.

[dutchbike]

The wife won't ride anything but a single speed back pedal brake. I got a three speed one, initially to use on rides with her but it's been brilliant for local trips and we even did a 50 mile BHF ride a few years ago. Bought second hand 15 years ago and haven't had to do anything to the back brake since.

The front brake is a different story, a basic caliper rim brake which is virtually useless in the wet. I think most dutch bikes have a drum or roller front brake.

It does take some getting used to but once your brain adjusts they are brilliant city bikes.

[pjclinch]

I have space for both "they're not really that great" and also "they seem to be fine for a great many people" viewpoints.

If that's what you have then you'll ride it to its limitations. If you really want to be a bit whizzier you'll be constrained by those limitations. Riding round NL on a hire bike with just a back pedal brake I dial in to how it is and don't ride in such a way that I'll be in the soup, just as if I'm taking an outsize load to the dump on my drum-brake equipped cargo bike I will very much ride to the limitations of the machine rather than my body.
If I'm going to be touring for a week I'll take my own bike because while those limitations are fine for a pootle of a few km they're not something I'd want longer term. Horses for courses.

Having never used a coaster brake before, and having always had a front brake before, my first ride in NL was on a hire bike with just a back pedal brake at rush hour in midwinter (so pretty dark) from Amsterdam CS. That was... "interesting"...

Pete.

[rogerzilla]

I like coaster brakes. They are weatherproof and need no adjustment. The cheap ones with serrated cones that grab the hub shell are a bit crude, but better ones have separate brake shoes expanded by the cones, and often a steel mantle inside an alloy shell to save weight.

A coaster, even a steel one, is lighter than a singlespeed hub plus a caliper brake, lever and cable.

They are poor at heat dissipation but this isn't an issue unless you ride down lots of long steep hills and/or don't have a front brake. With suitable greases you can drag one down most UK hills and not turn the grease into magic smoke, although the hub becomes far too hot to touch.

[Bmblbzzz]

My first bike, aged about five, had a back-pedal brake, so I should theoretically like them. But I hate them. It's not just the lack of stopping power, for me it's also that the pedals always seem to end up the wrong way round for either braking power or starting off, and you can't rotate them while stationary.

In other respects, the bikes in plancashire's photo would not look hugely out of place in a local bike recycling scheme. The dynamos would be welcomed as would the guards and racks, but I would expect to see road bikes and mtbs too.