woody

I'd say most of the 80s bikes had decent drum brakes. Yams, T/S or mono are good, ditto Hondas and most of the European bikes had Grimeca I think, which also work well. They had better feel to them and generally worked when wet, unlike 70s bikes. I guess a lot can also depend on the material used for the lining, of which there is probably a lot more choice nowadays. I've fitted a TY T/S front wheel to my Ossa and it went straight in with just a new spacer made to fit. It works much better than the Ossa brake, although the bike itself isn't really suited to clutch / brake style riding.

Does this mean a return to the Classic series on the 340 is on the cards for 04? Having ridden the Phil King last year and used virtually every body part against very hard and oh so solid trees as some form of braking device for the Ossa down some of those big slippery drops, I'd suggest you look to finding a mono front wheel for it as well....... Good trial though. Looks like they have some good events scheduled next year to hopefully get the series back on its feet.