Problem with drum brakes(Trice S)

[forlorn hope]

Just wondering if anybody else has had problems with Sturmey Archer drum brakes and freezing weather.
Jumped on the trike for my freezing morning commute this morning,at the first set of traffic lights i encountered i dabbed the brakes which resulted in them locking on and not releasing, i have a feeling due to the wet weather earlier this week i might have got some water in the drums which could have caused this.
anyone any ideas?

[hercule]

It's probably not your drums, but the cables. Unfortunately the run from lever to brake is a perfect U and water can collect at the bottom of the loop. The proximity of the brake lever to the tyre (on my QNT, at least) probably doesn't help.

Solutions are either regular zaps with lubricant (it's fairly easy to do so at the brake end) or fancy sealed cables (no experience of these).

[BlackPanther]

I agree with Hercule. The drum brakes are pretty much bulletproof and (supposedly) good for 20-30,000 maintenance free miles. I had a similar brake problem on my Trice 'S' (very notchy and the brake was dragging.)

As the brake cable is attached with a barrel type connecter, it's a 2 second job to release it (should this happen to you again). This left me with no left brake until I could clean/lube the cable, but as we Trice owners know, there's no brake steer with an Ice, and they brake surprisingly well on just the one wheel!

[Tigerbiten]

Last year mine one of my front wheel disk brakes froze in the off position.
To make it even more fun, both brakes are worked from a single lever.
I went to pull them on and nothing ..........

That left me with the rear parking brake as the only means of stopping.
I rode home very slowly ...........

[hercule]

I can also add from experience that disk brakes at a different matter. I went for some forest riding on my Kett last winter, in modestly deep snow, and found the brake callipers regularly seizing up with compacted snow. One reason that I don't think disk brakes are an "upgrade" from drums.

[[XAP]Bob]

I'd have stuck with drums if I hadn't wanted the dynamo hub on my trike.
cables are a likely suspect, drink brakes are sufficiently simple that maintenance is done with, well actually you just don't need any.

[forlorn hope]

cheers for advice guys,
will lube them up on sunday,
I am thinking of going over to a single brake lever so might consider going over to the sealed cables.
Still liking the drums compared to the faffy and not very good bb5s i had on my adventure.

[byegad]

I use White grease at the end of the cable adjusters. Seems to work OK.

[alant82]

A little bit of heat shrink tubing on the end of the cable adjuster to effectively seal the gap between it and the inner cable. This was a tip from David at Laid Back Bikes in Edinburgh when I picked up my Sprint - he even provided the heat shrink tubing

[dkmwt]

I've had the same problem many times and suspect that I'm going to get it again very soon if I don't change my cables. Due to the "puddles" that I've had to ride through.

Another thing that I do after talking to Neil at ICE is to put Milburn cable oilers in at the bottom of the loop. Then you can attach a can of lube to it and spray into the middle of the cable and the lube comes out the end with any water and muck that might be in there. This isn't a total fix but it helps pre-long the time between cable changes.

It also happens with gear cables. I've had to ride 6.5 miles across Plymouth at 10pm up hill and down dale with only one gear. That is after releasing cables and adjusting stop screws to get it into a usable position.