Bc brake?

Hello everyone,

In my experience with BC wheels, trying out different riding styles, and different techniques of slowing and stopping, So far a hefty leg wrap has worked the best. However, wraps have become an insufficient way of slowing/stoping.

When riding trails or even just a steep paved hill, a wrap will only slow you to a certain extent. Meaning you have to pick hills that have a flat section, or an uphill at the end. Who wants that? I think its time BC’s have a good way of stopping. A lot of people have said things like “BC’s were meant to coast,” or “static stuff is stupid on things that were meant to coast.”
And I agree, but when you are riding something that has the potential to go as fast as a bike on a downhill, I think a good way to stop would be a nice addition to the BC.

Jeff groves had an idea to mount plastic strip, possibly lexan piece to the bolt/plate, and have it go up to the height of the tire. Being flexible, you could push this piece into the tire with the same leg motion as you would slow with a leg wrap, Yet with a plastic strip, you wouldn’t get that annoying vibration that travels through your leg with a wrap. Or the daily trips to your nearest drug store for a new pair of ace wraps because your old pair vaporized when you tried to ride down a trail.

I had the idea to mount a disc brake setup to a wheel, and have the brake caliper mounted onto the plate. Though now I am questioning how well this will work, due to the fact that the plate will have a tremendous want to flip over while your standing on them. Also other problems such as how to actuate the brake, Brake housing getting cought in the tire and the over all price of the setup have made me have second thoughts about the plan.

Spencer had the idea to make a wrap with a very durrable, thick material, maybe with a rough/abrasive side to slow the wheel more than the normal smooth surface of an ace wrap or neoprene wrap.

All in all, these ideas seem like they could work, but then again maybe not.

The purpose of this thread is just to brainstorm ideas about a ffunctional brake on a bc. A lot of the time people have crazy ideas about bcs, some just werid, some possible, and some just flat out impossible.
But sometimes people strike gold with an idea, and thats what im hoping for. So let the ideas fly people.
Post drawings or pics, or even just a disctription of a idea into a brake design. I need a way to stop my bc!

Later yal,

-E

“Everybody this is Tina. What happened to you? Hey how about a little less questions and a little more shut hte hell up!”

i don’t know if this is still a bc wheel. I set out to solve this problem a while ago, and came up with welding dropped pegs into a bmx fork. this allowed me to use the stock bmx brake mounts, i mounted a handle to the steer tube. The extra leverage from the handle allowed for as much braking power as i can controll, which was never very much because i never figured out how to use it effectively.

having the handle also allowed me to give a good strong skate push without the wheel hitting my leg. i could also drag one foot on the ground to slow down.

Here’s a pic of brian holding it
http://unicyclejester.com/gallery/trips/wa_trip/album_001/IMG_1189.JPG.html

P.S. It’s harder to ride than it looks.

I’ve got this retarded idea but this is brainstorming, right?

How about you get a good pair of gloves, put some rubber(or whatever) material on the inside and stop the wheel with your hand.

I’ve never even touched a B.C. wheel(I want to though), so I don’t know if this will work.

With the idea of having a piece of something to touch the tyre, maybe you could mount rim brake pads on it somehow, so that it would push against the rim instead, might give you more brake power and control.

How about an off centre axle and a disc brake. ie. instead of the plates hanging straight down from the axle, the attachment point on the plates is further towards the front of the plate.

It’d mean that the plates would hang pointing straight down when you weren’t on them which might make it harder to mount and jump off, but would give you more leverage for braking and make flipping less likely right?

If you had pretty long plates, you could try and learn to move your feet backwards a little bit when braking to counteract the flipping force?

Or alternatively, have an arch just over the wheel, which you could mount any old brake on, and then have the brake lever attached to a piece of strong wire (as well as the normal brake cable) made just the right length so that when you were braking you’d hold the wire taut, so your whole weight would be against it flipping.

You could maybe even simplify this by not having a lever, just having a bit of thick wire, attached through a cable guide on the arch to a v or cantilever brake, with a handle on the other end, and to brake you’d pull hard on this, stabilising the plates with your body weight in the process. The problem with that might be that the tendency to flip would mean that braking would lead to harder braking and it wouldn’t be controllable.

Joe

i have came up with two ideas in the past. One is just the front of a bike like brian had. The second one was a nicer way. It is hart to explain but the mount it wlded to the be and you hold the brake like you would on a mountian board

You can make it that if you push the plates inwards really hard with your ankles it sets a brake going.

have a metal pole with you, and then just jam it in the spokes and it will catch on the back of your legs, and i promise you will stop real fast…
jk jk.
i like the idea of a piece of a brake activated by your let, so that you use the same motion you would normally use for the ace bandage to stop. what about an elongated brake lever that you push in to the rim. be sure to angle the brake pad or else you won’t have as much control over stopping power.

edit:maybe on the brake lever thing you could have a little pad that your leg pushes against to stop the bc.

take a frame with vbrake or magura mounts and weld it to your plates and find a piece of bar to fit the brake lever on andjust hold it in your hand thats what works for my mountain board

Interesting ideas…Something to point out to people who dont BC, the ability to move your arms freely and in the full range of motion is something you want on a BC. So a fixed lever on a section of tubing wouldn’t be desirable.

When it comes to fighting the plates want to flip over, I thought maybe a piece of tubing attached to the axle/plate, coming up to your mid calf, and having a padded, curved piece of plastic, metal, carbon ect on the back of your calf. When the braking force is applied, this will put pressure on your calf, and the rider can lean back into that, to fight the torque of the brake.

I never really though about a v brake, it would be a good idea, because the fork or “Arch” could also be the peice of tubing i described with the calf pad on it. Also you wouldn’t need a specail disc hub with mounts.

Keep the ides going people, I already wish i had made this thread before i ordered a disc bc.

> How about you get a good pair of gloves, put some rubber(or
> whatever) material on the inside and stop the wheel with your
> hand.

Some time trials bikes used to (do any still?) have no brakes (designed for lightness, and nothing else, I guess), so riders would use an armoured glove to slow down the front wheel (guess they didn’t need to stop quickly on a track!).

> I’ve never even touched a B.C. wheel(I want to though), so I don’t
> know if this will work.

Not sure it’d be that easy to use on a BC, but the general concept certainly makes some sense to me.

since you don’t want to restrict arm movement, you could have the v brake be pressed to the rim by your legs, like when you like clench your legs or something.

haha evan

did our idea not come to fruition?
or have u not even gotten the wheel yet

a v-brake w/ calf-pads sounds like a good idea

hafta be a maggie to clear the DH tire though

or make each side of the brake seperate so that each side is pressed individually on the brake, cause you dont need that thing on the top if your not using a cable, right?

No maggies, since im going to have 6ft of slack cable, no maggies, The cables wil pull out and il get tons of fluid all over me.

Well i was thinking about a hand brake, having the housing/cable run up into a grip with a lever.

what about a bc plate system, if you lean too far back on the plates it automatically pulls the brake a little?

The brake isnt just to save you from a fall, but to just do hills slower.

but on a hill you would have to lean back a little to maintain balance because of the slope, but it would be a problem to attach it.

True, But remember your ankle isnt always locked, you can tilt the plate back with your feet, and still stay in the same position with your body.

what about toe operated brakes? would that work, i haven’t had much experience with bcing.