I am buying a coker and was wondering if you guys suggest brakes or not. Also, I was wondering if you suggest 125 or 150 mm crank arms?
I do only street/road with my Coker, with typical road hills, and tho I have brakes mounted, I NEVER used them.
If you’re riding the Alps or other steep downhills, you’ll need the brakes.
The mention of street riding gave me images of crankflips and unispins on a Coker. That would be so cool I’d marry you.
They can be useful in principle - for mounting, and to save your knees on long downhills. But equally well, I haven’t wished I had brakes on my Coker yet.
Roger at Unicycle.com reckons that a caliper brake is a good match for a Coker - and they can be fitted by drilling a single hole in the crown. They are also supposed to be quite amenable to use as a drag brake, which again suits Cokering rather well. The neat thing about this is that you wouldn’t need braze-on mounts, so you could buy and then decide about the brakes later.
I’d quite like to try a brake on my Coker, but I doubt I’d use it very much.
yay! you’re getting a coker!
around here it’s pretty hilly, so 150’s might be nice. I’ve never ridden a coker though (hopefully I can ride your’s 
).
I’d also say the brakes would probably be most helpful only if you got 125’s, as 150’s probably already have enough leverage to slow down with.
No need for brakes, a single brake is all you need on a unicycle. 
A brake can be nice, but really increases the cost of the unicycle because in addition to the cost of the brake itself there is the additional cost of getting an Airfoil rim, a stiff wheel build, a stiff frame that won’t flex, something to attach the brake lever to the unicycle, and other miscellaneous expenses to make it all work well together. Just putting a brake on a stock Coker will not work smoothly or as well as you will like.
Is a brake useful? Depends on where and how you ride. Is a brake needed? Depends on the person.
I have a Magura brake on my JC Coker. I use it regularly. But it also depends on where I’m riding. There are some local XC (off-road) trails I ride that I have to use the brake or else I’d have to dismount and walk the short downhill section. There are some steep paved downhill sections that I use the brake on just to make it easier on my legs, and using the brake actually allows me to go faster down the hill and in much more control. But I could get down that hill just fine without the brake, so technically it’s not needed.
It all depends.
For cranks, I’d suggest starting with the 150’s and ride them regularly for at least several months. At least until you get very smooth on them and can smoothly ride them up to about 14 mph. Get to the point where you can ride without having any oops! moments where you have a little oops and have to quickly recover to keep from falling.
Then once used to the 150’s you can figure if your riding style and location needs shorter cranks. If everything is flat then go for the 125’s. Cranks aren’t all that expensive so you can try several sizes till you find what works well for you.
i did a race nick named the hilly hundred of evansville, and i did it with 125’s just a little practice and i think the 125’s are better hands down.
Chase