I want to ride my Coker in the Moscow Mountain Madness bike race next year. It’s 12 miles: 10 uphill, 2 downhill. When I did it last year, I could barely control my 20" on the 2 mile downhill. So I think I should get a brake for my Coker.
The problem is, it’s the standard Coker frame from unicycledotcom. I don’t have any experience at all with brakes on unicycles, but I know that you need something like brake mounts connected to the frame, right? and generally they’re welded on I believe… Is there any way I can get the brakes on it without brake mounts? or are there brake mounts I can connect to the frame without welding?
thanks
oh, I might as well use this thread to ask another question too. How do you connect a KH seat cover back on after you’d taken it off? I did the Miyata air-saddle conversion for my Torker LX the other day, and it worked. So I was just wondering how you’d do it with the KH because they have actual staples connecting the seat cover, not little… things, metal teeth, like the Miyata has. I know you could get a KH Fusion, but I expect there must be a way to do it with a normal seat cover.
You can get a brake boss and attach it with pipe clamps, then the brakes atach to it. There are actually quite a few threads on this. Search for A Brakes. These are the type I installed and they work ok. Some even set their brakes up with a gear shifter so they have a hands free drag brake for the long down hills.
Oooookay then, I think I’m gonna buy the V-Brake Mount and the Odyssey A-Brake from unicycledotcom. But the V-Brake mount is currently out of stock… is it an often-bought item? if it is they might get it back in stock soon… Or mebbe I can get it from Bedford. grrr, my computer isn’t running Adobe for some reason so I can’t see the price list. Can someone tell me what brake options Bedford has, especially the V-Brake mount? Or I could e-mail Darren. Or use my other computer…
anyway, thanks for your input!!
oh and also, how exactly do you use the V-Brake mount?
Another option is to use 170 mm or 175 mm cranks on the Coker and go brakeless. Long cranks give you good control for downhills on a Coker. At least for the normal paved road grades you get. If it’s crazy crazy steep downhill then a brake would be needed, but at that point the downhill grade is even dangerous for cars.
Give the long cranks a try. It’s cheaper than trying to fit a brake and you may find that you don’t even need the brake.
hmmm, I might try that too John. I was actually considering getting longer cranks for the 10 miles uphill. I have 150’s on it right now, which is okay for uphill. But I might get the 170’s for downhill…
Get the KH Fusion seat cover. It has a draw-string to cinch it up. No staples or glue.
Or you could try to work something out by sewing on some lacing loops like the style these Duffs use (see attached picture). That type of lacing is less likely to rip out. Poking holes in the vinyl and using grommets would probably rip.
I believe you just mount the V-brake onto it by fitting the two brake arms (calipers?) onto the posts of the V-brake Mount. Then I think you can just attach the V-brake Mount to the frame by using wire ties (anyone know if this is right?). I’ve never done this before so don’t listen to me.
Just buy a caliper brake + lever from a shop that does touring / road bike parts. It mounts on a hole drilled through the crown of the frame. If you’re not confident on the drilling part, find someone with a pillar drill to do it for you (eg. at a school) to guarantee it’s straight.
Gary here just bought one and I think he said the cost for brake + cable was something like 10 or 15 quid, so maybe $20 - $30. According to Roger from unicycle.com uk, it’s the best type of brake for a coker anyway, especially if you have the stock coker.
I have and it’s a Raleigh calliper, Shimano lever and 3 times as much cable as I need for £10. All I’m waiting for now is the Koxx brake lever mount I ordered from UDC which should be back in stock this week (so Miark said).
I’m the guy that did the Coker brake pictures in this link and I can tell you the mounting is easy. Be aware that mounting brakes on a stock frame is the easy part; if you don’t have an Airfoil rim you probably will have a major bump at the weld and this will cause some amount of excitement each revolution.
On a side note, Maggies can be got off of eBay for as low as $30 - that’s where I got mine - look for pairs the have one of them damaged.
