Has anyone added Braze-on’s to one of their frames? Specifically eyelets (or similar) for racks/fenders and bottle mounts.
There doesn’t seem to be a good way to attatch a rack to a unicycle. Seatpost racks are flimsy, and we don’t have any eyelets. I also wouldn’t mind the abilty to attatch water to my frame, but your space is also limited.
I feel like I’d be more inclined to try some longer distance riding if I could strap some stuff to my rig rather than carry it in a pack on my back.
Steel frame of course.
One other option would be to use P-clamps if anyone has tried that…
A guy I met on a SkyRide had a decent rack setup on his 36er - he used the Magura mount holes to screw the rack’s ‘legs’ into, and bodged a clamp to the top bit for his seatpost. The clamp came off a bottle cage like this one:
There’s also Thule racks.
But onto the actual question… Presumably if these braze-ons work for bikes they’ll work for us P-Clamps sound like the easier solution though.
You can easily zip tie a water bottle cage to your frame/seatpost and there is plenty of clamp on hardware that you can use to affix a rack, then you can always take it off if you want.
That being said, I don’t think it would be a problem at all to braze-on some eyelets.
I have some braze-on hydraulic brake mounts I’ve been thinking about putting on my 29er frame (steel) to make it a dual size uni so I could run a 26 inch wheel also.
So far I’ve watched about an hour of youtube videos on brazing and have been browsing craigslits for an oxy-acetalyne rig. Welding has always been in the back of my mind as a hobby to pursue, the only thing keeping me from it is needing another hobby like a fricken hole in the head.
I hate packing all my crap on my back too, but it’s nice to have the tools and parts if the need ever arises (so far it never has). Lately I’ve just been filling up my water bladder with a little water instead of filling it all the way up, it makes it waaaaay lighter.
Oxy-Acetylene is expensive to have due to the cost of cylinder rentals unless you are seriously into welding. Brazing can be done with oxy-propane but the oxygen cyclinder is still a major cost.
Silver brazing is easy and can be done with air-propylene because it requires a lower temperature. Less likely to damage the steel when being done by amateurs too.
The propylene comes as a disposable cylinder that fits into a hand held unit.
It is an expensive fuel but a zero rental solution for infrequent use. I have seen plumbers use them because the portability is worth it especially when working in ceiling spaces for installations like solar hot water.
Thanks for the info, I did some digging on the web and found a thread on a ‘do it yourself’ site where a guy brazed a 3/4 inch nut onto a bolt using only the propylene (mapp) cylinder. He had to use insulation around it to get it hot enough. My mount and frame are much thinner than his job so I imagine it should work, and without the risk of burning a big hole in my frame
I have access to an Oxy-Acetelyne torch at work and have brazed before. It’s really pretty easy to do (though I’ll never make it look pretty ).
However, I’ve found a way to do what I’m wanting without brazing. Problem Solvers makes a bracket that’ll clamp to handlebars and hold bottle cages. So for around town rides, I can clamp two bottles to the rear bar of my Shadow handle and be set.
Salsa also makes a cage called the ‘Anything’ cage that’ll fit a compression sack (or sleeping bag/pad) that mounts to bottle mounts. That’ll get a lot of junk out of pack and onto my unicycle. Problem solved.
I’d still like to find a reason to braze a frame though…
since it is stuff for kid’s seats it is really strong. We have used bobike child seats to mount toddlers on a bicycle in front and on the back. The site has some options to mount a rack. I haven’t tried it myself though….
This was my braze-less configuration for my trip.
I used a front bike rack that mounted to brake mounts on the fork, so it fit my magura mounts. On the top it was attached to the screw that keeps lamps and fenders in bikes. I was considering to drill my frame, but finally I used a pipe to wall mount.
You can see photos here: unicycle luggage rack?
P-Clamps sound like the easier solution though.
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