I think it depends highly on the situation, you (unfortunately) can’t have a plan for everything.
Turn and go for the softest bush you can see might be an option, or it might not be because there is no space around.
You might find some strength you didn’t know you had before and manage to brake (or at least control the speed) with your feet.
It’s probably likely that you would fall because the brake didn’t work when you expected it too, before you even have a chance to react. (A secondary brake wouldn’t help there either.)
In my experience, sudden complete parts failures happen rarely enough that it’s super unlikely that it will also happen in an unfortunate circumstance. Don’t take that as a reasoning to not check and maintain parts routinely, that is something everyone should do. But a well maintained unicycle suddenly failing isn’t what I’d worry about too much.
To somewhat keep this on topic:
Brakes of any kind, hydraulic or cable, disk or rim, generally don’t suddenly fail competely if you maintain them right. If they do fail completely, it’s likely the result of a crash, or absolute neglect (brake hoses rubbing through or bolts not tightened).
The normal issues like: overheating, worn out pads, rubbing can happen on all types of brakes, but those usually come up slowly.
Rubbing can happen on both rim and disk brakes. If you carry some basic tools, you can pretty much always get your unicycle into rideable condition by either straightening the disk/rim, or taking the brake off. In my opinion, it’s not a criterium for or against any braking system, to get (serious) brake rub, you have to have an unlucky crash. To fix light brake rub is equally easy (or hard) on both disk or rim brakes, although disk brakes tend to have it slightly more often.
I don’t think most of us are riding so close to the edge that you can’t usually regain control with your legs if you have to.
I had my Magura rim brakes fail during Ride the Lobster. One of the seals sprung a leak and It gradually lost power. It kind of sucked having to do the rest of the race without brakes, but it was in no way dangerous.
I’ve had brakes break during other rides as well, but always associated with an impact or damage during transportation, not while actually riding.
Anyone really worried about it should practice falling which can be done much safer off a unicycle than a bike.
I wouldn’t want to do it, but I think it would be relatively easy to run two brakes. A rim brake could be set up in addition to a disc, or run both an inboard and an outboard disc. Or with some machining and tinkering I would think you could run discs on both sides and have them controlled by a single lever or even two levers joined together for total redundancy.
The M41 actually have brake mounts on both sides of the frame, so all you’d need is a wheel with 2 disc mounts or one on the wheel and the other on the crank side like KH and it should work fine.
You could even get something like this:
Although that would of course remove the redundancy in the fluid circuit… But you would be able to brake extremely hard with 2 brakes at once
I’m thinking that a good downhill brake can probably brake harder than any of us can handle considering that they’re meant to stop bicycles bombing down steep hills at 50+ kph. Maybe for a heavy rider on a long descent dual brakes would be less affected by heat however. A unicycle with dual Saints and 220mm discs is a project I’d like to watch a YouTube video about.
Well, the advantage of a double brake is that your frame has less stress to handle when braking. This would allow you to do bigger drops on downlope landings with the brake locked.
Similar to what was mentioned here as the cause for breaking QX frames:
In my experience hydraulic rim brakes are perfectly fine on a 36".
If a spoke breaks the wheel becomes a bit untrue but brakes still work and you want to replace that spoke anyway.
Disks can be bent as well. Most of my disk brakes started squeaking at some point which always annoys me.
On the 36" a rim brake has a big leverage, and bites well enough. You need a large® disk to achieve that power on a disk brake. I have the stock (180 mm ?) disk on mine and would upgrade if I rode it more. Probably a better caliper would be stronger with the same disk, though.
I have ridden 36er with rim brakes a lot and never had any visible wear on the rim. Obviously there is going to be some but I don’t think you will have to change a rim in your lifetime because of that.
To me the main difference in performance is that you have to change brake pads more often on the disk brake.
I can’t really say about wet conditions as I have never really ridden a disk break when it was wet. With a rim brake you have to adjust speed and brake handling but that is a good idea anyway ;-).
I toured with Magura rim brakes on a 36" and all my brake problems were hose related → would have been the same with a hydraulic disk brake. Mechanical brakes would probably be more forgiving and quicker to repair, but I’d say less responsive than hydraulic ones (no experience on uni with mechanical brakes).
The only time a disk brake would have made things easier was when I broke so many spokes that I had to swapp to a 26" wheel for a few days and my brake pads were way above the tire. Then again on the small wheel I didn’t need them so badly .
(Edit: mostly disc → disk)
I’ve had this once or twice, but only after leaving my unicycle for a while and not riding it, curiously never due to disks being bent or contamination. After a ride or two this has always gone away.
You and I have been riding together on a 36" and I had no brakes and we did encounter hills… so? Or are you thinking of something a lot steeper? Because unless it is really steep, wouldn’t you just do it the old fashioned way and use your legs/knees to slow down?
I recall Ed Pratt having brake failure going down a seemingly steep, long hill on a fully loaded touring 36" and yes he fell because the brake died and its always going to be hard to account for that out of the blue. However, after he dusted himself off he was able to cycle to the bottom without brakes. In fact I think it might have been an episode or two until he got his brake fixed up again and that was a heavy-ass uni. So… it is possible
It makes a weird noise while the brake is engaged. This is what you can solve with cleaning disk/pads.
The disk rubs the pads at a certain point each revolution. This is what I talked about and I guess it always has to do with an uneven disk. And this is the kind that annoys me .
I have no choice but to praise your riding and compliment your casual/reckless uni dressing. I could have asked you directly, but I much prefer to get your answer in public.
I am still thinking about building up a M4O 36 when the frames arrive in the spring and I will be putting a brake on that. Mainly so I can be try and copy @rogeratunicycledotcom and @Maxence
I mean I am likely to hopelessly fail and be back to 125mm (because they are good and I am not) but at least I will have a brake.
I’m a rim brake fan and ride both systems.
A prerequisite for rim brakes is a stiff fork and wheel, because if the wheel and frame move sideways, it can happen that the rim touches the brake pads when you start off quickly and you fall over. This also applies when it goes steeply uphill.
The larger the wheel / fork, the stronger this effect, according to my observation. I would therefore run rim brakes up to a maximum of 29" in size, but not 36" unless the setup is extremely stiff.
That about wetness and dirt is of course true to a certain extent, but I ride the blue pads from BBB, for example, which have an arrow-shaped water-repellent groove in the middle. As a rule, the brake pulls well again after a few wheel revolutions and since you also brake with leg power, it was never a problem for me to bridge this.
What I like about the disc brakes: the finer response and the fact that you can use several wheel sizes with one fork. What I don’t like is the precise adjustment and that cheap systems overheat too quickly
What I like about the rim brakes: Once adjusted, they are simply unproblematic and can be used for years without any problems. The brake pads can be replaced with a flick of the wrist and you can use a normal hub. If you have a wide double-walled rim, continuous braking is absolutely no problem: the rim can get pretty hot, but I never had a breakdown because of it. There is also no fading as is known from disc brakes.
What I don’t like about rim brakes is that there is often a little jerk when the brake pads first make contact with the rim. New Rims sometimes have to be driven for a while
the brake is fully effective and does not jerk because non welded Rims are sometimes not entirely smooth. Over time, however, the problem resolves and uneven areas are “planed off”
Personally, I love rim brakes, if you find the right combination of rim and brake pads (there are big differences), then the braking performance easily matches that of a cheap disc brake and surpasses it in endurance braking.
It’s going to come down to what you are expecting out of your unicycle and the terrain you are riding. Most road and bike trail riding will only require you to feather your brakes to slow you down and assist on desents. If you look at historical posts on the same topic I’m sure you will see top riders extolling the tremendous benefits of magura brakes. Sure time marches and things get better and discs have taken over in the cycling world. but that doesn’t mean you can’t operate effectively with a rim brake. I use cable pull brakes on my bike and they work just fine and have never let me down. I also have pull bmx brakes on 2 of my udc unicycles I have dialed in perfectly and have put many service free miles on them. That being said I have come across magura brakes and parts on ebay and they are quite expensive used and I’m not so sure if new stuff is even available where as disc brakes will range in price from quite reasonable under ( $100) to quite expensive depending on your expectations. I put a used Shimano Dior disc on my 29 nimbus road for $50 (ebay) and only had to shorten the line swap out pads and bleed it. Works just fine.
If you are serious about long tours with lots of gear I would do nothing less than buy the best that you can afford of everything. That will save you in the long run and have a plan to get parts as needed. Most bike shops will easily be able to accommodate disc brake parts and service.
I recently discovered a big advantage with rim brakes. A few weeks ago on a trail in the middle of nowhere, a spoke snapped. I had a spare, and could replace the spoke without taking anything apart. Yesterday a spoke broke on a uni with a disc brake. Crank and disc had to come off (well, only the crank actually thanks to KH). I had to walk home to get it fixed.
.
.