Hi Kiwi and All,
In the fist photo of the brake, the arm is at a very inefficient angle to the cable
, are the linings worn?
The arm and cable angle should be less than 90 degrees,
This makes a massive difference to the braking effort
The brake arm can be reversed on the cam to get finer angular adjustment as the "splines are not cut square to the arm
You may find that the steel "shoes" between the cam and shoe are missing ? or that semi worn shoes need packing out ??
I have cut 1.5mm thick steel strips and folded them around the cam end of the shoes, in the absence of the original parts
Once
set up properly the 8 inch single sided BSA brake is regarded as the best performing BSA front brake
without resorting to modifications
John