Here is a 250mm Maggnesium 4 leading shoe Brake designed by Italian race bike engineer Angelo Menani.
It's ideal for the heavier 500cc 4 stroke machines for those who choose racing drum brakes over disc brakes. Two leading shoe drum brakes are very common set ups on older bikes and makes the front end look very retro. To me the front disc brake looks out of place on the 500T It's almost like the front end including the duel over head cams are in the future, and the back end is in the past.
How do Drum brakes function?
When you squeeze the brake lever, break shoes press against the hub of the wheel and slow the rotation of the wheel thus slowing the bike. Brake shoes can get very hot due to this friction. When the shoes are very hot, it's harder to stop. When you need to jam on the brakes for the first time, it will deliver decent stopping power. But if you need to jam on the brakes shortly after the first time, you will notice that it's not as efficient.
So With 4 shoes, I'm guessing each pad's friction load is divided amongst the other 3. Regardless, there is nothing like the incomparable power of a disc brake.
The funny thing about this Drum brake is that it cost about 2,700.
That's almost twice the purchase price of my 500T.
