Hoofddorp Barn, BSA folding Bicycle

[Alex van de Wetering]

BRAKES!!!

Last night I found an hour or so to work on the brakes. I picked up the laser-cut pieces earlier yesterday and I was happy the fellows included a few spare parts, so I have some more material for testing etc.

The first picture shows the repro parts I was able to buy from fellow Dutchman Jim. It is basically a bunch of parts he used to test the bending and forging etc,. when he did his run of repro brakes a few years ago.

The second picture shows the laser-cut parts I picked up; I traced the contours of the brake parts from an original BSA folding bike with a pen on a piece of paper, scanned the paper and than used it as bakeground in a CAD program, so I was able to trace the contour with proper arcs and lines. This way I created 3D models of all the brake parts, enabling 2d Drawings for the laser-cutter afterwards.

One picture shows three "handles". The bottom one is a brass casting I was able to buy from Jim. Sadly it was only one, so I had to make up another. I printed out a 2D drawing of the CAD model I made and cut the shape by hand from a 6mm steel strip. I welded extra material to both sides and than sanded it to to the basic shape....still a lot to do, but you get the idea.

Yesterday, I started with one of the brake handle-assemblies; I used a piece of pipe, the same diameter as the steering wheel to test-fit the parts. (steering wheel is allready painted) You can see in the pictures that it needed some hammering, bending and pusuasion of the vice to get it ligned up.

I will focus on getting the rear brake done first, because I rather have one working brake in Normandy, in stead of two incomplete brakes!

Alex