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Replacing axle-mounted front wheels on electric box bike (aggregatet.org)

submitted 4 months ago by amanda@aggregatet.org to c/diy@slrpnk.net

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We have an electric cargo bike that’s served us really well. We bought it second hand at a pretty affordable price because the battery was shot. Fortunately we found a great local repair shop that could replace it, and we now have a pretty great bike.

Unfortunately the drum breaks on the front wheels are getting really bad after about 12 years or so, and our local bike repair shop is at a loss for finding new parts. The front wheels are mounted on an axle that’s controlled by hyudralics (which gives the bike a great turning radius), so they’re a bit special. The original hubs are Sturmey Archer XL-SD’s, but they don’t seem to be available anywhere.

Does anyone have suggestions for what I can use instead? Has anyone hacked their way to one-side-mounted front wheels for a three-wheeled bike, eg by using a through axle?

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[–] JacobCoffinWrites@slrpnk.net 2 points 4 months ago (1 children)

This may be a dumb question but are these wheel hubs like car hubs where you can open them up to get at the brakes? If the hubs themselves are hard to replace maybe the brake pads themselves would be easier? Something you could replace with a generic pad cut to size or something?

[–] amanda@aggregatet.org 1 points 4 months ago

Not a dumb question at all! Drum brakes on bikes seem to be almost universally single use, and I assume getting the spare parts for these would be even more difficult than getting new hubs if they existed.