Has anybody mounted cantilever brakes or V-brakes on their muni? Can you tell me (and show photos) how you did it? (would rather not spend the $ on the more expensive hydraulic brakes).
Thanks,
Scott
There have been a number of informative threads done on this topic. If you try a “search” under the topic of brakes something is sure to turn up for you.
I had V-brakes on a 36er once using the Oddyssey “Big Cheese” V-brake adaptor plate. They worked just ok, but I wouldn’t advise it. They needed a lot of lever pressure to get them to work and the V- arms stick out a lot and want to scrape at your legs more than the low-profile Maguras do.
I put v’s on my nightrider, and I can’t be happier. I think the reason MUni’s went with maggies in the first place was to clear the 3" tires. My understanding is that there aren’t many V’s that will work. Well, at least not many.
You can see how I put th v’s on here: one way to put V-Brakes on Mag mounts
I never had a problem with the maggies on my MUni, but I like the v’s much better on the 36. I suspect that I would like them as well on the MUni if they would work. I think I might use the DNA adaptor that Brycer was refering to if I put them on my MUni. The trails around here are pretty steep and rocky, and it would be a bit more secure.
I made an adapter for free:
corbin
While adapters like these are indeed clever and inexpensive the bigger question for me is how to mount non-Magura brakes on a frame that doesn’t even have Magura mounting brackets. Some people have drilled holes in different places but I’ve yet to see a really good example that I can follow, or if it’s worth it. Please enlighten me!
I used a DNA “big cheese” v adaptor to put them onto my Nimbus 29’er: My 29er
I later drilled a hole in the crown and ditched the hose clamps, but it worked very well either way.
There are several ways to do this – but it depends on your skillset, tools available, and what unicycle you have. On Jason (maestro’s) muni, we brazed Magura mounts to his frame. On my Nimbus 36, I welded a bracket to the back and drilled a hole through it. On my KH36, for a while I ran a regular kids brake on it with a hole through the seat post tube.
What unicycle do you have? What brake do you want to run on it? I can offer advice, but I need to know what you have.
corbin
It depends on the brand of v-brake. I was putting v’s on my coker big 1, it already has the mounts. I had a few sets of xtr v-brakes sitting around and thought it would be cool to put those on… The arms stuck out way too much, I was bummed. Then I tried a cheapo pair of avid brakes, they don’t stick out at all past the frame, even with 1/4 inch of space between the pads and rim.
If the arms on your V-brake are sticking out too much there is usually some spacers between the brake arm and the pads that you can remove to get the arms a bit closer in.
Corbin,
When you say “brazed” do you mean it rather than welding? Brazing is much easier and the cost for the torch is < $20. If I could get by with brazing rather than welding, I would modify my old frame.
I was thinking of getting braze on mounts for a 29" Nimbus frame.
Scott
Hey Scott – yes, it is brazing, and it is easier than welding, but I do use an oxy-acet torch setup to do it (they cost a few hundred, or cheaper on craigslist if you can find a used one). I’m not sure if a small torch puts out enough heat. Magura (and UDC) sells “braze on” brake mounts. They are fairly easy to braze on to a frame. I use a brass/bronze filler metal and the torch. However, if you haven’t ever brazed before you should practice doing some butt-braze “welds” first. Also get some brazing flux (the paste kind is the best).
corbin
I’ve done brazing with MAPP gas. As long as you aren’t at too high an altitude you should be fine with it. At the bike shop we used to use an oxy-mapp rig to do braze ons. The jig we had looked a lot like the homemade one on Sheldon Brown’s page.
I’ve used hard silver filler with success, but you have to have very tight miter’s for it to work as it doesn’t fill gaps very well.
Another non-brazing option would be to find a pair of Moots Mounts. I don’t think they’ve been made for a few years, but they got popular in the mid-school bmx crowd when u-brakes started showing up on bmx’s. And I’ve seen them pop up occasionally on Ebay, and even craigslist.
They work great on my KH29 - I used some adapters that I found online (Echo brand).
I loved it.
Thanks for sharing.
Keep up the good work.
v-brake on 29er
This is how I did it. I bought the little aluminum spacers and put them over the magura mount threads.
Carey
Since you’re asking about MUni and not 36er, you should note that most V-brakes won’t fit over most MUni tires. Cantilevers could, theoretically, but they also stick out to the sides and would seem to cause problems for your legs. You’d also have to find a way to suspend the pull cable.
I got a friend with welding equipment to add some cantilever brake posts to my steel Nimbus Muni frame:
Like tholub points out most V-brakes will not clear the larger Muni-tires. This was the case with my 3" Duro and therefore I went with cantilevers. The fact that they stick slightly out beyond the frame has not been a problem so far even though I was a bit skeptical at first.
The wire goes up to the saddle, makes a U-turn at the back of the saddle (lightly held in place by a small piece of zip-tie) and ends up at the handle. The relatively tight bend does slow the cable movement somewhat, but when braking I pull extra hard on the handle anyway…
slick cable routing! do the canti’s clip your heels?
V Brakes on Muni
They work fine if you have the correct adaptor from Magura to v-brake.
See my linked post bellow. I have also posted somewhere homemade adaptors that worked better for muni. If you search for Unicorn and brakes you should be able to find more posts and picture by me.
Unicorn