Cleaning the rotor with isopropyl alcohol and giving the pads a light sand usually cures the squeaking.
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 
Either you worry too much (I have seen how you dress for unicycling) or I don’t worry enough (you have seen how I dress). 
I guess there are two types of squeaking:
- 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
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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.
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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.
So you will still have one more brake than me.
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Yes, but I don’t think you should squander your money on brakes at all. You’ll be fine on a 36 and 89 cranks without the brake.
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I’m starting to think we are got as good friends as I hoped! 
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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.
(translated by Google Translator)
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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.
Interesting.
I would never carry spare spokes with me or the tool to replace them during a ride.
I think it’s ok to ride a uni missing a spoke (just ride gently and don’t do it excessively?)
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I agree on this. I’ve got a broken spoke on a bike of mine that I intend on replacing. I’ve been intending on doing it for probably more that a year now and have probably put 200-300 miles on it in that time without any issues that I can detect. It does have a slight wobble to it, less than 1/4", but it uses disc brakes so that’s not a big problem.
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I may be lucky but I have never had a broken spoke even as a kid riding my skinny tire ten speed like a single track mountain bike. I went on a 4 day bike trip last year and was advised by a seasoned rider of the same trail to take extra spokes with my tool kit but did not. I have never done it so I don’t really know the process . I hope my lucky strike continues.
I have had one uni (nimbus trials) where all the spokes bar 5 broke over the course of a very short time. No idea why they broke on that uni.
Can’t recall ever breaking spokes on any other uni or bike.
Insufficient tension makes spokes break.
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And uneven tension makes spoke break. Typically it’s the ones that are less tight that snap first.
My 36" used to break a spoke almost every ride (I bought it well used, and a bunch of spokes must have been close to failing) but it never made the wheel unrideable. And I’ve broken lots of bike spokes over the years, same result - no problem finishing the ride.
You can get kevlar replacement spokes that can be used on the trail without removing the brake disc (or bike cassette) - I used to carry one - but I never used it.
Interesting. I found this: Emergency Replacement to Fix a Broken Spoke
Edit: Somehow i missed the picture.
I’ve broken several spokes. If aborting the ride is an option, I’ll do that so I don’t risk breaking more spokes. If not I continue the ride. If you’re a happy careless person, I’m sure you can go on and on for miles and miles before destroying the wheel 
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I watched a YouTube video on the fiberfix spoke repair kit. It looks like a really good emergency plan to have. It is compact and the repair looks easy to perform.
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