fooferdoggie 

yes I should bleed the brakes to make sure. they don't really feel mushy but you never know. its hard for me to tell my wife to use her brake when doing the downhill bike trails. it works ok when going down long hills. this bike was setup more as a cruiser bike then anything else. the levers are too short for good back wheel braking and I have trouble with enough leverage on the back when going down those slopes since it we cant use the front brakes much to keep the front wheel from sliding.
so what we are planning if we can get the work done is to have 203 on back 180 on front so it does not rub with cooling fin type discs and some 4 piston calipers with 3 or 4 finger levers. that should be plenty for us.
I like the idea of a drag brake but my wife does ok when it is not a emergency. I might be a bit spoiled with the brakes on my other bike they are so responsive compared to this bike. but they have larger pistons then the shimano brakes have. my wife would like that you can message me.

fooferdoggie 

well after our crash I have to get the brake lever replaced and the bike shop has already ordered the parts. but I was going to bleed them this weekend till we crashed. but I found out they are not deore brakes but a step down when I went to bleed them.

fooferdoggie 

after using the ACF-50 Anti-Corrosion Lubricant Compound on the battery contacts on out bosch powered tandem we have not had any problems with the battery not connecting. so I tested it on a garage door remote sprayed it will let it dry for a couple days then ran water over it it worked great. Now I can stick it to my bike and not worry about the rain.

fooferdoggie 

got the bike repaired and upgraded. with Shimano Deore 4 piston with cooling fins and cooling rotors. the mechanic got the front disc rub free. went for a test ride down a 20% grade 5 blocks from the shop and I could stop completely with one or two fingers. this is great such a huge improvement. We had taken the bike in for a quote and then picked it up later in the day and it did not look like they got a quote so when we took it in after the crash I found out they had already ordered the parts. the= guy who's dog caused the crash said he would gladly pay for the repair so that was 150 off the 550 bill.

fietsbob

a 4 piston brake caliper.. will have a longer brake pad to have more friction surface area..

stewclark

when braking in front it seems like rotor starts rubbing and then with a few light pulls on levers goes away... does this sound like the pistons are just not retracting quickly? how can I trouble shoot this shimano road hydrawlic brake and adjust this without. no mechanic is available to me.

fooferdoggie 

or thew rotor warps a bit from heat. then it straightens out. if it is not rubbing all the time I don't sweat it.

Leisesturm

Are these new brakes? My just built disc brake cargo bike was doing that and I was fussing with it to no avail but I had to go to the store and this was the perfect bike to do it with. A mile of urban riding and I'm not hearing a peep out of the front brake. Maybe your pads just need bedding in?

IPassGas

This couple would never have experienced a problem if the bike had a drum brake. Instead they have had to dig deep into their pockets to buy the latest/greatest disc stuff.

fooferdoggie 

don't think they make e tandems with a drum brake.

DangerousDanR

Errr, ehe, ahem... yeah, right. Like the Sturmey Archer 5 speed IG hub? With a 90 mm drum? The days of the tandem drum drag brake are gone. The problem the OP had was that the brakes were not sized correctly for the terrain they ride in.

My initial choice of Hope E4 brakes was a mistake on my part. They were fine on relatively flat roads we ride on here in North Dakota and Minnesota. They were not up to steep hills and high speeds. The Hope V4 brakes with the Hope vented rotor have never had any issues. Even as a drag brake on a touring tandem that can be carrying as much as a 500 pound load maintaining 30 MPH on long steep hills.

By the way, a Hope V4 brake set with a vented rotor runs about $300.00, which is less than you will pay for an Arai drum work alike today, and it is superior to the Arai in every possible way; lighter, stronger, fade resistance, absolute stopping power. Boiling fluid? Use Castrol SRF brake fluid. Yeah, it is expensive. Very high boiling point. Cheaper than surgery.

IPassGas

Wow, the full buy in on the marketing biz for you too. The Hope is simply a new age costly catch up to the robustness, durability, and heat capacity of the Arai. Far less superior given the simplicity of the Arai. We have toured many times through the Rockies and much steeper Appalachians (camping gear and we are heavy) with never a concern with our braking. Yes, Blance/Thorn finally found a disk capable of braking a loaded tandem on a hill, good for Thorn (much respect), but it was a long search for a solution to a marketing problem and partially Rohloff specific, long ago solved by the Arai for cassette hubs.

DangerousDanR

The original question asked on this thread was along the lines of "How do I improve the brake performance on my e-tandem that is fitted with Shimano single piston disk brakes. The answers given by several people were along the lines of "get yourself some big honkin 4 piston Downhill brakes", which seems to have solved the original question nicely.

And finally, someone had to come along and wax nostalgic for the "good old days" and Arai drum drag brakes. In their day they may have been the best thing available. A lot of things have been the best until something better came along. For a touring tandem, disk brakes are better. They are lighter, they are cheaper, they have more absolute stopping power, and they are more reliable. They just need to be of an appropriate size for the mass they are asked to stop. Does anyone here still drive a cable actuated drum brake automobile?

Hope started making disk brakes for bicycles in 1989.and by 1995 they had gone over to hydraulic actuation. Not exactly brand new technology.

The only possible issue with a disk brake on a touring tandem is heat buildup. Are you going to tell me that an Ari drum wouldn't overheat? The solutions are to increase mass, improve cooling, improve brake performance at elevated temperatures, or some combination of the above. Shimano's aluminum core rotors are fairly good and I have one on the front of our tandem.

The rear brake is for speed control on long hills or for gentle stops. It is only in the role of speed control that any issue arises with disk brakes. The thermal load is enough to drive some brake sets beyond their working limit. There are solutions to that issue: improve cooling, increase mass, or improve thermal performance. The Hope solution worked well for me. The larger mass V4 caliper with multiple ceramic pistons and a vented rotor have shown themselves to be adequate for a 500 pound load. Additionally, the rear brake alone is capable of stopping the tandem, all be it at a lower rate than when it is used with the front brake. This is not marketing biz. It is my experience and the wisdom of the market agrees with me.

An Arai drum is a completely unworkable solution for the OP, and I doubt that even if it was possible it would solve the issue of single stop performance.

fooferdoggie 

I am not complaining about all of the help. the mechanic Kina made the choice null. but the brakes work fine and my wife has her rim brake if we need more. I don't think a drum brake would be great in traffic. Who knows if we would ever tour? that would be a long way off. now if my leg will heal from our crash and we can really test the brakes out.