A friend told me he read about some v-brakes with extra long arms that can fit 3" tyres. Has anyone heard of these? I did a little search but couldn’t find anything. If it’s possible to rig up good quality v-brakes with my 3" Gazz I think I’ll do it. If I need to I can always upgrade to Maguras. If I just get the single set of brake bosses attached to the frame that I’ll eventually get made up, will I be able to upgrade to Maguras later on (assuming I had an exta-wide Magura-style brake booster made up)?
I’d really like v-brakes for my muni. I like the idea of having something that’s cheaper than hyrdo rim brakes and that’s also simpler. I know that I can play around with v-brakes without having to learn more. I don’t know anything about the Maguras and how to adjust them.
If I do end up with suitable v-brakes I will get the same BBB brake pads that I have on my bike. They’re really powerful and work reasonably well in the rain.
Having now ridden down something steep on a muni with brakes (Tony M’s), I think this v-brake setup will give me more than enough braking power and sensitivity.
I found a picture of a Gazz with v-brakes around it on the German forum. I’d like something with much more clearance…I just thought I’d attach it though.
I have another question or two to ask before I go to bed.
Are there many reasonably good quality v-brakes with a shape that’s simple enough to allow me to have it extended by somebody who can weld? I was thinking it might be okay to just cut somewhere down the middle of the arm and add a little bit to it then weld it back together, maybe angled in towards the wheel slightly so you can add a spacer (to the place where the pads meet the brake arms) to give more side clearance but at the same time bring the top back in so it deosn’t catch on things and generally get in the way. I’ll attach a horribly crude diagram. My excuse is that I’m left handed but the mouse is on the right hand side.
Are most v-brakes made of a welding-friendly type of metal?
I made my own V brakes for my 24x3". I don’t have my MUni here so I can’t post a detailed picture but it was pretty simple. Here is a pic from Snowdon that shows it a bit:
I put a bend in the arm just as you describe to increase the clearance around the tyre but make them miss my legs.
Most V brakes are cast aluminium which is pretty hard to weld to. I made mine from some old, very cheap, steel cantilever brakes. The cheap pressed steel brakes are easy to weld to.
There probably are some available in the shops somewhere for the knarley downhiller bikers using 3" tyres but I expect they will just as pricey as Maguras.
Andrew, those v-brakes look like some of the early Dia-compe’s.
I have a couple pair of them in my bke stuff bin somewhere. If I can locate them, I’ll post a pic of the brakes and see if the model # is still on them. With that info, you might be able to order some from your local bke shop
I have built five munis with v-brakes with three inch tires and what I use are the odysse a-brakes and then use a cantilever brake center pull, with a cross-over cable between the two sides, you need to have a hanger for the cable on the muni frame that can be mounted from your seatpost clamp if or you can put another seatpost clamp under the seatpost clamp to mount the hanger, If you make the cross-over cable short and only about an inch and a half above the tire the brakes work very well.
They’re not really that hard to work with and you get a nice sense of satisfaction… I recommend buying a set and a service kit (through your bike/uni shop) and playing around. It’s a valuable skill to have for your unicycle business. Don’t get the full service kit because it has tons of disk brake stuff in it that you don’t need.
I think a guy named Scott Wallis had found a pair of V brakes that would fit over a Gazz. Try emailing him, I have seen him post here. I think it was he who posted about these on the now defunct Muniac.com message board.
Here is a picture of four of the unicycles that I have built three of them have the v-brake setup the red one is my muni and it has a magura on it and it is the last one I have built. The silver and the green muni have a brazed on adjustable cable mount and the orange muni has a hanger on the seat post clamp like I described above. This setup works great I like the odyssey a-brakes because both sides are the same, you can look at them at unicycle.com. I use a short section of brake cable for the crossover cable with a short piece of tubing over the cable end, and the cable barrel that comes wirh the brake on the other end, and then I use a diacomp cable puller in the center to basically turn a v-brake into a cantilever brake. I like this setup a lot it works well and is light weight and easy to adjust and a lot cheaper than a magura, and the braking action is smooth and powerfull. I have put all of them on the front of the muni and I think this also works well and you can switch it to the back by simply turning the frame around, but on the front it makes the cable routing much cleaner and I haven’t been able to notice any differance in feel or braking power. I hope that the picture appears on this post it’s not that great for showing the brake setup, but it’s the only one that I could find right now I will try to find another picture that is better. Dan
I mounted the magura on the front the same as the rest but it sticks out from the frame and I was rubing on it a lot and so I turned the frame around and I seem to rub less with them on the back as your knees are bent forward, since the v-brakes dont stick out it’s not been an issue with them.
You must be the guy Tom Miller was telling me about in an e-mail last year. We were discussing using v-brakes with 3 inch tires and he described your setup. I haven’t tried it yet because I was worried about loss of braking power with such a brake. I used to ride with Tom when he lived in Rochester, Mn.
I’d be a little concerned about that too. I think I’ll keep searching for a long-armed v-brake or one that can be easily extended, and if I can’t find anything I’ll give your cantilever system a shot. Wouldn’t having the brakes at the back of the frame have long-term benefits? I mean the force of the wheel rotating would push the brakes into the bosses rather than pulling them away and putting a strain on the equipment, wouldn’t it? I guess also there may be more flex in the brakes if they’re in front…just a few thoughts, I’m not talking from experience.
Andrew, I couldn’t find the v-brakes that I was telling you about. Obviously, I must have let them “get away” sometime in the past. I do know that they were some of the early production Diacompe’s though
[QUOTE] Originally posted by andrew_carter
[B] Wouldn’t having the brakes at the back of the frame have long-term benefits? I mean the force of the wheel rotating would push the brakes into the bosses rather than pulling them away and putting a strain on the equipment, wouldn’t it? The brakes are designed to be used on the front or the back, on a bike the front brake is mounted forward and it is the brake that gives you the most stopping power, because of your forward momentum not because it is mounted forward, but it needs to be strong enough to take the force, and it also needs to be smooth to keep you from locking up your front wheel. I have tried the brake on the front and on the back and I couldn’t tell any differance, but like I said before it’s easy to switch it by turning your frame around. And as far as stopping power with the cantilever set if the cross over cable isn’t to long the brakes are very powerful, I had this set up on my first unicycle and I thought they had more stopping power than the magura, this could have to do with brake pads and other things but they work very well. The orange muni belongs to Jon Sapp and he had It set up with a 2.5 tire at first and a regular v-brake and this put the cable very close to the tire, when he put a 3" tire on it he switched to the canteliver set up and he thought it worked just as well. I think if you can find a v-brake with long enough arms to clear your tire the cable will still be very close to your tire and will give you trouble with mud and rocks. I hope this answers your questions. Dan
And I am the person that Tom Miller was talking about, or Jon Sapp.
[QUOTE] Originally posted by andrew_carter
[B] Wouldn’t having the brakes at the back of the frame have long-term benefits? I mean the force of the wheel rotating would push the brakes into the bosses rather than pulling them away and putting a strain on the equipment, wouldn’t it? The brakes are designed to be used on the front or the back, on a bike the front brake is mounted forward and it is the brake that gives you the most stopping power, because of your forward momentum not because it is mounted forward, but it needs to be strong enough to take the force, and it also needs to be smooth to keep you from locking up your front wheel. I have tried the brake on the front and on the back and I couldn’t tell any differance, but like I said before it’s easy to switch it by turning your frame around. And as far as stopping power with the cantilever set if the cross over cable isn’t to long the brakes are very powerful, I had this set up on my first unicycle and I thought they had more stopping power than the magura, this could have to do with brake pads and other things but they work very well. The orange muni belongs to Jon Sapp and he had It set up with a 2.5 tire at first and a regular v-brake and this put the cable very close to the tire, when he put a 3" tire on it he switched to the canteliver set up and he thought it worked just as well. I think if you can find a v-brake with long enough arms to clear your tire the cable will still be very close to your tire and will give you trouble with mud and rocks. I hope this answers your questions. Dan
And I am the person that Tom Miller was talking about, or Jon Sapp.
Are there any ways of mounting brakes with out having to modify a frame without bosses? I’d use the RAD mount on uni.com, but they don’t have it in stock. I emailed them about it and they said they aren’t being made anymore.
