Maybe the 'I am not familiar with them' from all people 'in the know' is the reason people do not trust them. No Rollerbrake is suitable for use as a drag brake on a cargo bike or tandem. Dutch town bikes are the norm in Japan (I live in Japan BTW). A Rollerbrake should be relubricated periodically, using special Nexus brake grease -- there's a small rubber access plug on the side of the brake unit. Drum brakes are a little more difficult to describe. Also, if we consider this scenario, this may cause the changing of the full wheel. An easy mistake to make is to forget to tighten this nut, and only tighten the axle end nut (the one at the outside of the dropout) against this nut. After some months, the grease is washed away by rain [if the bike is left out in the rain]. Definitely. The latter, especially, closely mimics the design of disc brakes on a car, though the brake disc is nearly as large in diameter as the vehicles wheel and is where the design gets its name. More braking power is needed there, making it a job for disc brakes. Nevertheless, they have started to lose popularity to disc brakes.