Typical donated bikes in Germany

[Brucey]

....so why are back pedal brakes so prevalent in Germany?.....

I think it must be because some people really like them. They suit upright bikes and flat landscapes rather well; it should come as no great surprise that they are popular in the Netherlands too. There is a school of thought whereby any cable-operated brake is considered too
fragile for bicycle use, and in some cases that is probably right.

I have seen a bike designed for sale in Germany which had no fewer than three brakes; two 'normal' (ie. cable/hand operated) brakes plus a coaster brake. When such bikes were sold in the UK, it wasn't uncommon for (at the behest of the customer) the coaster brake to be disabled, eg. by simply removing the brake shoes from the hub.

Most coaster brakes must have a slight drag to them, else the brake won't ever come 'on' (or sometimes go 'off') when you want it to. Commonly this drag force is furnished by a dedicated drag spring inside the hub. Very often they err on the side of caution when setting this drag spring up, thus it may well drag too much. Fortunately it is usually not difficult to lower the force exerted by simply reshaping the drag spring, thereby greatly reducing one source of parasitic drag.

[Keezx]

....so why are back pedal brakes so prevalent in Germany?.....

I think it must be because some people really like them. They suit upright bikes and flat landscapes rather well; it should come as no great surprise that they are popular in the Netherlands too.
CUT

This was certainly true during the first 80 years of the 20th century, (together with SA drum brakes) but in the last 30-35 years caliper rim brakes and rollerbrakes took over the lead in bikeland.
When you spot a bike with coaster brake is most likely old or very old, when absolutely zero mantenance is done , they keep working (sort of) so in Amsterdam you still can spot a lot of pieces of bike shaped junk which likely have been stolen multiple times...
New bikes with caster brakes are very rare, mostly kid's bikes...

[Brucey]

the traditional 'Oomafiets' and 'Oopafiets' bicycle designs (which are still made and sold I believe) both feature a coaster brake. For many years NL was SA's biggest export market; it may even have been SA's biggest market full stop. It is fairly certain that without the actions of SA (Europe) (based in NL) SA production would not have restarted in Taiwan. For many years SA dared not to design anything that couldn't have a coaster brake in it, largely because of the NL market.

[pete75]

New bikes with caster brakes are very rare, mostly kid's bikes...

Aaaah - that sounds really sweet.

[plancashire]

Thanks for all your comments. I thought the contrast would be interesting.

Bikes in Germany must have two independent brakes according to Straßenverkehrs-Zulassungs-Ordnung (StVZO) § 65 Bremsen: "Fahrräder müssen zwei voneinander unabhängige Bremsen haben". That is commonly a back-pedal hub brake at the rear and a rim brake at the front. Occasionally we have bikes with roller brakes at the front, often they come from the Netherlands.

Why do people like them? Why in Germany and the Netherlands? It is partly tradition and that they are common on kids bikes: people grow up using them, they're familiar. Much of north Germany is fairly flat and the traditional upright bike works OK. The rider sits far back so plenty of weight is on the rear wheel and the sedate speeds you can reach on these heavy bikes means the rear wheel is unlikely to lift.

Brake levers can be hard to use for people with weaker or smaller hands and the cables introduce friction - yes even the shorter front ones. Riders probably rarely make emergency stops.

The rules of the road mean that you often know when you have right of way, and I see lots of people on these old bikes just riding along assuming that when they have right of way it will be honoured, which it mostly is. This riding style in Britain would be squashed out of existence pretty quickly. We do have a few collisions where a lorry turns right into a bike rider who has right of way.

[mattheus]

....so why are back pedal brakes so prevalent in Germany?.....

I think it must be because some people really like them. They suit upright bikes and flat landscapes rather well; it should come as no great surprise that they are popular in the Netherlands too. There is a school of thought whereby any cable-operated brake is considered too
fragile for bicycle use, and in some cases that is probably right.

Back in the day, all of us really rad dudes preferred them:


in case the tags above don't work:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxNVfuSoJ4I

[Brucey]

some years ago, I was asked to help repair a German-made bicycle. IIRC it may have been a Miele, a name more associated with high quality washing machines these days. Well, it turns out they were not so shabby BITD as a bike maker, either. This machine (which must have hailed from the late 1950's or early 1960's) was made in a fashion seldom seen, which I can only describe as 'beautifully', right down to it's then-fashionable 'billiard cue' paint job. The problem was that some Charlie had installed the Fichtel und Sachs 3s plus coaster brake without any NTWs, and then some other Charlie had pushed on the pedals as hard as they possibly could whilst in high gear. The result was that the axle had spun forwards; this must (at first) have just made the bearing adjustment unfeasably tight. However, the force must have been truly prodigious, because it was enough to split the steel hubshell wide open. Why am I telling you this? Well, the bike, being (presumably) a luxury model, had come with two brakes originally. The front brake (which looked like a bit of an afterthought in a way) must have been an antique even when the bike was new, because it was of 'plunger' design, and therefore it should only be used in emergencies.

[Biospace]

some years ago, I was asked to help repair a German-made bicycle. IIRC it may have been a Miele, a name more associated with high quality washing machines these days. Well, it turns out they were not so shabby BITD as a bike maker, either. This machine (which must have hailed from the late 1950's or early 1960's) was made in a fashion seldom seen, which I can only describe as 'beautifully', right down to it's then-fashionable 'billiard cue' paint job.
...
The front brake (which looked like a bit of an afterthought in a way) must have been an antique even when the bike was new, because it was of 'plunger' design, and therefore it should only be used in emergencies.

This reminds me of the NSU my Dad bought out of curiosity many years ago, iirc it had been made in the early 60s with the same braking as you describe and we couldn't believe the plunger front brake - I remember rocking it with the brake fully applied to see how the forces were dealt with by the rod passing through the front mudguard.

Stopping was reasonably effective but not urgent, paintwork was very tough and had painted rims complete with coach lines in red and white, laced with stainless spokes. The ride was uninspiring but very smooth, it did feel like it would last centuries. The close-up pic is from http://www.fahrrad.nsu24.de/html/meiner ... atsrad.pdf, the other found in the depths of an old hard drive.

[Bmblbzzz]

The pedals have clearly been replaced at some point. I suspect the plunger, if applied in an emergency, would bring to you a rapid stop by puncturing the tyre!

[Biospace]

I remember rocking the bicycle with the front brake fully applied to see how the actuating rod behaved, as well as some testing on the road. At speed the front brake was ineffective, at slow speed it was better, but not as effective as a rod brake pulling blocks onto the rim.

[plancashire]

We have seen a bike with this plunger front brake. It belongs to a woman who collects old bikes and sometimes comes to us for help.

[Brucey]

..... the NSU my Dad bought out of curiosity many years ago, iirc it had been made in the early 60s.....

at one time (in the 1930's) NSU were probably the World's biggest bike maker, before selling up, having decided to concentrate on things with internal combustion engines instead. I have no idea who would have made NSU branded bikes in the 1960's; it is probably rather complicated....

[Nearholmer]

Picking through the things at the Online Bicycle Museum, it looks as if they ceased bicycle production in 1962, full stop, brand-name no longer applied to bicycles. There is no mention of outsourcing production, or of the brand-name living on on bicycles with a new brand owner.

Looking at German sites, it seems that the firm was restructured as specifically an internal combustion engined vehicle maker in 1960, so I’m guessing that they shut down pushbike making thereafter, but all the info is so motorbike and car focused that pushbikes get barely a mention. German wikidepia says that pushbike production ended “in the 1960s”, so I’d accept the 1962 date, or thereabouts.

[Brucey]

IIRC Neckarsulm (the 'N' in NSU) was part of the GDR, but prior to WWII NSU had factories all over Germany. I think most of those that wound up in W.Germany eventually became part of AUDI. For a while I think you could buy an NSU-branded car built in the west, but if you bought an NSU-branded motorcycle, it would have come from the GDR. All rather complicated.

[Nearholmer]

Neckarsulm is in B-W, so part of the “west”.

My father had one of the dreaded NSU “Quickly” (which it didn’t go) mopeds for a while, when he was teaching at a school out on a village where the bus didn’t go, and used to spend a lot of time cursing it in German, because he thought it might take the hint better in its native language.