I'M 73 AND I RODE A BIKE MANY MILES IN MY YOUTH. I NEVER KNEW UNTIL NOW HOW THE BRAKES WORKED. THANKS MR. PETE.

I loved hearing your memory of using the brake as a bottle opener. Thank you.

My parents were VERY poor when I was growing up. So much so that they could only afford one bicycle for my brother and I to share. Talk about a struggle of who got the bike "this time". And of course it had a "New Departure" brake on it 80 years ago. The more wealthy kids always had "Bendix" on their bikes. They shamed me and my parents with statements like, "YOUR bike is NO good because of those stupid brakes". I obviously felt very bad and was ashamed to ride unless they were not around to ridicule me. So when you said Bendix and New Departure it brought back some sad nostalgic memories of my early childhood. But as Jesus is my witness, NOTHING could stop my love for my parents. For they did the best they could. May the Lord rest their dear souls.

I always wondered how that worked when I was kid, but (surprisingly) resisted the temptation to take it apart for a look. Thanks!

That was very interesting. I guess at some level I always wondered what was in there. Here I am 70 years old and never took one of those apart. I just did not want to take the time to put it back together if a lot of parts fell out. Anyway you did a good enough job to make up for all of us and now we will always know what is inside a coaster brake. Thanks for sharing.

LOL, you sure have a way of bringing back old memories. For some reason, when I was a kid early 50's, we found it necessary to work on our bikes. Tip them over on the seat and take that back wheel off and take the hub apart and change the grease. We would take the cone out and wash them off, in a can of gas, and put them back together again. Then we would go after the crank. We even took the pedals off and oiled them up. I forgot all about doing that and can't think why we did it other than being mechanics. At first I didn't have a bike but my sister did. Great video and subject. I doubt its been done before. Cheers

Every time I watch your videos you take me back in time when we had to learn to fix/repair everything, AND it was a lot of fun, I feel sorry/sad for today's young and the "throw-away" society. : (

Bravo Tubalcain! You've done it again.... You've made video viewing so interesting, enlightening and very enjoyable. Thanks very much for all the time you take to make things so easily understandable. Hooray for cut-aways! If every classroom in America had a teacher as practical and straight-forward as you, it would be 1958 all over again. And I mean that in the best possible way. Long live Mr. Wizard.

Thanks again. another childhood mystery solved. I have always had one of those minds that wants to know how it works. You answer many questions for me, all be it 40 years late! Very grateful. Just one more thing, a big thanks to the designers of these mechanical marvels that you show. Our lives are so much richer because of them.

Mr Pete what a wonderful explanation! I'm 54 and never knew how a coaster brake worked. The cutaway was a critical part of the explanation! Thank you for taking so much time to make this video. A big thumbs up to you sir! eric

thanks for being a grandfather to all us strangers, the kind with long stories and explanations that bore us as kids but wish we could have back as adults. great vid.

As a child of the 1950's I can't tell you the joy I had in tearing my rear hub apart to "fix" it. In reality there was nothing wrong with it but I figured out how to get it apart and successfully put it back together. No one but me seemed to care but it was a big deal to me. My brother had a two speed coaster brake wheel. I never got a chance to tear it apart. But just like the coaster brake you shifted gears by kicking the pedal back but not far enough to hit the brakes. I know, I am talking too much, my failing. But I also remember our bike races with heart stopping skids to a stop and we'd jump to test our hubs to see if they were scaling hot. They weren't but we imagined we could start a fire from hot brakes. It was easy to entertain us... No reply needed or expected. I loved this video...

That was Cool to see the cut -away !!!

Wow, I remember those. Me and my brother used to collect every junk bike we could find and strip them for parts. we had a garage full of bike parts. If a bunch of friends showed up to go ride and one didn't have a bike we would just build him one on the spot. Only things we ever spent any allowance money on was the occasional can of spray paint and some matching hand grips to make one of our creations a little bit pretty.

Very nice to see how my old bicycle used to work. I actually came here because of a sudden obsession to know how these brakes worked. All I could remember was the metal tongue thing sticking out and to the side of the hub. I remember wearing out my tires trying to see who could skid the most down hill or make a large sweeping action with the back tire while breaking. What fun we had as children.

Thanks, This brings back memories as this was the first mechanism I took apart. Having a paper route in grade school you needed a bike to shorten delivery time. I remember taking the back hub apart in 7th or 8th grade because the brake would not work. Ultimately the brake shoes were worn. It took me a number of trials to take it apart and diagnose what was the root cause of failure. It was a dirty job and the first thing you did was fill an old coffee can with some gas and wash all the dirty grease from the parts. It was a small yet significant accomplishment fixing your own bike. Perhaps the reason I chose engineering as a profession. Keep the vids coming! Great Work.

Love the cutaway, great to see how it works.

Excelente video. Saludos desde Colombia!!!

This is Exactly what Most video needs to be like. You show precisely everything in detail! Outstanding!!

I had a two-speed hub with a coaster brake in a bike. The gear change was by back peddling slightly but not enough to apply the brake - there was no separate cable control. I also had a three speed hub, but that didn't have a brake. I never took one apart so it was interesting to see your video. One problem with coaster brakes was when you stopped on a hill with the pedals straight up and down and then there was no easy way to get them to the desired 'quarter to three' position ready for the hill start. I remember I used to apply the front brake and push forward on the handlebars so as to lift the rear wheel of the ground so the pedals could be easily repositioned.

Wow, what a walk down memory lane! Running my paper route twice a day, I went through these things faster than I did front tires! I became a whiz at replacing both. (Small town Missouri. 1952). Thanks!

This is a GREAT video! I always wondered how these worked but of course never dared as a kid to try to take one apart. I always thought they used a cam actuator or some kind of Sprague clutch but this is much more sophisticated than I suspected. A real testament to engineering, with the hardened drum, critical angles, metal on metal braking, multiple thread actuators, etc. And what great memories you shared! It really is amazing how robust these are as we beat them mercilessly. I remember getting a 3 speed and thinking I was king of the road. I'm sure you clipped playing cards to your frame to buzz against the spokes as well. You should paint the sides of the cutaway red to look like all the great commercial engine and transmission cutaways. Maybe start a collection of cutaways. Then you could open your own branch of the Museum of Science and Industry where we haunted the halls looking at all the cool mechanisms in the stairwells and the engine cutaways. They used to have a whole display of vintage aircraft engines in the balcony that are now all long gone.

I always wondered about the inner-workings of the Coaster Brake system. Thank you so much Mr. Pete for another excellent visual display and demonstration.

Your comment about America these days reminded me of an article I read once. I figure you might like this story. A woman in her late 90s was being interviewed about her and her husbands soon to be wedding anniversary. They were high school sweethearts and married young. The reporter asked what the secret to their marriage was. Her reply was, "Back in my day we didn't have much. We worked hard for what money we did have and when something was broken you didn't throw it away, you fixed it. That's just how our generation was". I wish I could have met her. We would've had good conversation.

What a guy! Thank you sir, and I enjoyed your stories and speaking voice.

Excellent cutaway and explanation! Happy New Year and thanks for all the great videos, hope you keep it up.

I love the nostalgic references and the st. louis motor aside. It's like being in grandpa's shop and listening to his tall tales and reflections on life in general."It will end up on the curb, because we throw everything out here in America." I came looking for coaster brake video, but stayed for the folksy charm.

Thank you. Your cut-aways are incredibly helpful.

I always wondered. Great cutaway, worth the hours work if you ask me.

Well I'll be... when I was a boy I actually refurbished a rusted bicycle that had been discarded, I took it apart, cleaned, painted and greased everything EXCEPT the coaster brake, because that was just a mystery... In any case after owning that bike for a while the coaster brake quit working. All these years I had no idea what had happened, NOW I know that the drive cone had rusted to the female cone! The pedals became direct drive at that point and the coast and brakes were inoperable. I still rode that bike, and in fact I used to love riding down the hill in front of my house, with the pedals locked I could put all my weight on one foot, stand up, lift my leg over the seat and coast down the hill pogo-ing while standing on one side of the bike holding the handlebars with one hand and the seat in the other! That was pretty grand... until after doing that hundreds of times, at mid hill, the rust broke free, my direct drive went back to being a coaster brake and with me on one side of the bike the pedal SLAMMED into the brakes and I went down in a heap... fast! I'll never forget that and now I know how it happened.

One of the best explanation on KZfaq of how coaster brakes work!

This was really cool. The cutaway really shows how clever the design is.

Well done sir! I've been wondering about that for about fifty years. Thank you! (One point though... Perhaps kids should be given mechanical devices like these to pull apart and reassemble so they can learn what used to be taught in school...)

Very interesting. I'm surprised this works so well, given the leverage of the wheel diameter and that it is just steel on steel.

cheers for the help mate. Teaching us in as much detail as you can good job 😊

I'm 62 years old and my childhood had a 20" sears spider bike my dad got me for my 12th birthday. It had coaster brakes. (I think Bendix) and I rode the wheels right off that thing. God, did I ever put the miles on that thing. And my buddies and I would go over to one or another's house and clean and shine out bikes up. They took a beating, but they were our pride and joy.We rode all summer long. Man O man, those really were the days. Thanks for bringing back the memories Tubalcain.

Very nice video! If you come across one of the shifting hub gears, it would be nice to see how those work as well. The older ones are usually 3-speed (at least here in Germany), but you can get them up to 14-speed (Rohloff 500/14) now.

nice cut away. would it be possible to request a similar video on the sterniarch bike hub centre gears?

When I was 7 or 8, I guess, I could overhaul Bendix and sometimes New Departure coaster brakes. I did it for all my friends to re-lubricate the bearings so our bikes would coast efficiently and to tighten up loose wobbling rear wheels. The New Departure was more complicated and sometimes I couldn't get them back together properly. I did not understand how either one worked until now. Thank you Mr. Pete. This brake you demonstrate looks like the New Departure design if memory serves however it was over 50 years ago!

It's all about the cutaway -- that's what makes it click. Thanks so much for taking the time and energy to actually do that, it helped me immensely in my current project.

If you don't like the video, you should see a doctor, because there is something wrong with you.

You, Sir, are a true educator. A rare breed indeed. Thank you so much for your thorough explanation and patience in knowing repeating yourself is everything to those of us who may not have picked up what you put down the first time. you have earned a fan for life.

awesome! thanks for taking the time to do this!

So informative!! I love the cutaway, it truly makes it more comprehensible, especially for someone who is not a mechanic.

That was a quite a ride along memory lane.....Thanks again Mr. Pete.

This takes me back too. We used to tear into these also; we'd often munch up some bearing and have to replace them. Sometimes bend or strip an axle as well. We were hard on our bikes. I don't recall New Departure, but Bendix was definitely the big dog and in later years, IIRC, Shimano. We hated taking the Shimanos apart because instead of two large brake shoes like the Bendix, it had four small ones. That made it difficult for one person to get everything lined up and assembled whilst holding it all together. Then back pedaling free-wheelers with hand brakes became in vogue and gone was the coaster brake, you weren't cool if you had one. :o/ Another excellent Tubalcain cutaway! Mr. Pete has the best teaching aids ever!

I loved when you got distracted with the motor. That's just like me!!!

Excellent video with clear understanding of how brakes work. Thanks.

We didn't have much growing up and my first bicycle was one I put together from parts of other bicycles. I did all my mechanical work on my bikes myself. Watching your video brought back many good memories. I remember taking a coaster brake apart just to how it worked and I was successful in putting it back together. Great video.

i am 67 years old retired airforce aircraft mechanic and i wanted to know what made the brakes work . thank you for taking the time and effort to educate every inquiring mind .

fascinating. thanks for taking the time to share.

Thanks for cutting into this coaster break. Great job explaining.

This is the first of your video's I've watched but I learned something today I've always wondered about but had never researched. Your disassembly of the drum and explanation and especially the cut-out visual of the drum, make the mechanics of riding/braking easy to understand. Needless to say, I can now identify how a crankshaft on a coaster-brake bike propels the bike forward, or alternatively slows it down by pushing the brake shoes to expand against the walls of the drum, depending on which way you pedal (and the so-called "cone" either screwing toward the sprocket or toward the brake shoes). Thanks to the internet and video's such as yours, people can easily become "smarter" about whatever it is they're interested in. I found your video because I was trying to figure out how to force a stopping skid using coaster brakes. THANKS !!!

Awesome video!!! I always wondered how coaster brakes worked growing up, and why they sometimes slipped out under heavy pedaling. Such a simple design. Loved the cut-away as well. Always something to learn from your videos. Thank you good sir.

I had wondered as a kid how it worked. Then as I got older forgot all about it until now. Thank you for making this video. I really enjoyed watching!

Fantastic illustration! Thank you for taking the time. I really appreciate it.

Great video MrPete222. A picture is worth a thousand words. Now ive seen the cutaway i know what i'm adjusting on my daughter's bike. Thanks!

Fantastic video! Answered all my questions, and then some.

Thank you so much for showing . You never to old to learn.

Thankyou Sir, for passing along your Hands On, DIY Smarts. Well done. (I like the flashbacks.)

What a memory you have brought back. Bendix and shimano where the two types I was always taking apart and greasing. Some had two brake shoes and a few had 4. Always tie down the brake arm or would kick back on ya. The joys of being 10 years old and learning about mechanical things. There’s slot that youth today are missing out by not working on a bike. I’m thinking of bribing in one for my new young students to learn on.

Thank you very much mr.pete very very very informative!

I'm 40 with a 3-year-old, and I attempted to change my daughter's coaster bike into a freewheel bike without understanding the interworkings of the hub. You are AWESOME, thanks.

The 3-speed was a Sturmey-Archer gear shift with a chain that went into the hub. A lever on the handle bars moved the gearing through 1st, 2nd, and 3rd gears. On the coaster brake, another variant was an internal "split-cylinder" between the two cones. The split was in the shape of a vee. When the brakes were applied, brake shoes pressed against the split-cylinder which pressed against the drum much in the same way that brake shoes are applied on automobiles. Whenever I took the gearing apart, you always had to watch out for those ball-bearings as you could easily lose them, especially if you were doing your repair work on the grass. I quickly learned that, after cleaning off all the black grease, to grease the bearing race before inserting the ball bearings so that they would stay in place. This video brought back lotsa memories, fer shur, fer shur!

Thank you Sir for that nice video. It was a lot of work for you to do that cutaway and show us the working mechanism. Much appreciated. As a kid I did everything I could on my own to my bikes. Took apart the head sets, cranks and bottom brackets, but never the wheel hubs except to grease the bearings. I always wondered what was inside my rear hub and thanks to you I now know. I still love bicycles and your video again substantiates for me the marvelous engineering advances that has gone into that mode of transportation over the centuries.

Cutting the hub to show us the cross section view was critical for me. It made the understanding about it so instantaneous!!!

Thank you very much for making this video!

This video needs more views ... Great work tubalcain !!

Awesome video! The tubalcain cutaway really helped me visualize the operation of the internal mechanism. This satisfies my 60+ years of curiosity of how it works. We need more videos like this!

Great job. Nothing like a good video to make it all very clear

Thanks, I grew up riding coaster brake bikes in the early 70s and never knew how the things worked. I don't recall ever having a problem with them so I never needed to take one apart - good thing as I probably wouldn't have gotten it back together!

Excellent sir, and I have been watching your channel for many years on and off. Thanks!

Another great video........ Thanks for taking the time to film, edit ,and post (up-load) these interesting, educational gems ! Cheers, Paul.

That's freaking genius! I'm approaching 50 years old and cannibalized tons of bikes in the 70s & 80s and never knew how that worked. Thanks Mr. Pete! I always feel a bit smarter after watching your videos. I'd say I wish you were my shop teacher in high school, but I was pretty difficult to handle back then. Much respect for you from New Jersey!

Very well explained! Thank you so much!

Great video! I always wondered how coaster breaks worked. Brought back a lot of fond memories. Thanks for posting this.

Awesome video. I remember as a kid having a braking problem with my bike. So as many kids would do, i pulled the hub apart. Only to find I was unable to reassemble it. I then had to save my pocket money to send the whole thing to the bike shop to repair. I was never game enough to pull it apart again to study the inner workings. Now I know. Thank You.

Thank you for explaining another mystery of engineering with an excellent cutaway! Much appreciated.

Thank you for demonstrating so well how a coaster brake works!

Thanks for the history lesson and the cut-away on the coaster brake. Always wondered how that worked. Makes perfect sense once you see it.

I loved the video AND the unexpected throwbacks. Tons of personality!

Excellent demonstration.

Outstanding ! Thank you !

One of the best videos yet! thank you so much

Nicely done as always. I always wondered how the coaster brake worked. Simplicity at its finest.

I think it's great when you talk about childhood memories when it comes to these videos, like the coaster brake bottle opener. I thought that was neat.

This brings back memories! I was a bicycle mechanic back in the '80s. I rebuilt many (probably thousands) of coaster brake hubs. Thanks for all the videos you do!

I had this question of How Coaster brakes work for a long time. You made it very clear, it's quite fascinating that you took so much of effort to show this to us

This was very helpful in understanding how the mechanism works. Thank you

Entertaining and extremely informative. Thank you very much.

Thank you so much, I’ve been needing this video. This is the ONLY info I could find on the internet on how these worked and the cutaway was super helpful.

There are so many things around us with moving parts in them, but only few of us know how they work. And you sir of course know a lot about those moving parts. I thank you for these videos and thanks you for taking your valuable time to share with us.

This was the clearest video. Thank you for sharing

How awesome! I have a collectors bike that I took apart as a child and could never fix! You have equipped me the knowledge to fix and repair my bike! Great instructor Sir!

THANK YOU, Mr. Pete: I really enjoy watching ALL your videos. HAPPY NEW YEAR..

THANK YOU SO MUCH!!! The cutaway REALLY helps explain it!!!

I've been a little shy about taking my coaster brake hub apart until now. Thank you for an excellent demonstration.

thank you for the intricate show; a treat learning, so many angles to a hub, the cutaway a great bonus,

Thanks. Very interesting. I'm amazed those serations hold for power and braking in all the grease. Nice job.

Your content is amazing as always. Thank you for sharing.