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My friend had one where a rod operated on a pad that pushed down directly on the front tyre from above!
That was from a time before people start trusting brakes, they're called Spoon brakes, and there's a lots of variation before the invention of pneumatic tyres.
They were common on Ordinary, like this one;
edscoble
Like on old German bikes. They used to have coaster brakes only, then in the late 90s (I think) a law was passed stating that they all had to have a proper hand-operated brakes. So you'd see loads of old clunkers with completely functionless brakes retrofitted on.
My friend had one where a rod operated on a pad that pushed down directly on the front tyre from above! The bloke she bought it off said "never, ever use this brake - it's just so the police don't stop you."