I am having a 24" Muni custom made for me and I’d like to have it
equipped with brakes. My thoughts were to use a modified Magura
hydraulic brake setup to fit around the tyre. However the bike
builder suggested trying a different design of brake - one similar to
those on kids’ scooters. The idea is to have a rubber covered arm
that pivots just under the fork crown. The rubber covered arm will
drag on the tyre when the brake lever is squeezed. This should slow
the wheel down. It may also result in increased tyre wear! Has anyone
tried anything like this before?
While on the subject of brakes on Municycles:
How useful are brakes on Muni anyway? How easy is it to regulate your
speed when riding down steep, rocky terrain?
From a purist’s point of view can you do everything on a brakeless
Muni that you can do on a Muni with brakes? Or could you if you had
the right skills or technique?
Any thoughts or comments much appreciated!
Tony Melton
For what it’s worth (nothing)- I’d table the brake option untill you know you’ll value it. I’d appreciate a brake on long deliberate decents- like a steady down grade on a Coker- or for very brief applications on steep ascents. Weather the extra weight and expence is warrented FOR YOU AND YOUR TASTE- well, you’ll just have to get to that point and find out; people can explain why they find them usefull at their skill level- but not if YOU will find them worthwild.
Inovation is great! However, this hole ‘wheel stoping technology’ thang has been well addressed. The type of brake option/inovation your builder proferred would lack the sophistication required to make the device usefull in this application. Might make me worry about what other ‘inovations’ the builder has in mind… Humm… a custom frame has a very high cool factor. I recommend tabling the custom frame option untill questions like ’ How easy is it to regulate your speed when riding down steep, rocky terrain?’ can be easly answered by yourself; you’ll know what you want out of the frame and be able to make the most of it. Custom should meen increased performance/value instead of just unique- unless you just want a show piece. And that’s cool, too.
I’d rather take that money and roll it into a solid wheel set- or several wheel set’s. It would be great to have a 24 and 26, and both 3 and 2.6" 24" tires. Why? Yes, exactly.
So far, I would find a brake handy off road when taking decents that either I can’t or don’t want to travers. Depending on the soil, I imagin using the brake would require very delicate controll to avoid unintended skidding. There is a little 9’ J slot I’v taken about a dozzen times now, and controlling my speed usualy decides weather or not I stick it. To avoid being pitched or having to controll heavy wheel wobble at the bottom, I have to actively pull speed out of the drop on the way down; holding back too much often meens an unintended skid. I’m not sure how much the break would help ME on the neer verticle portion, but untill I developed the skill to exploit it at that point I’m sure I could use it at the bottom! I supposed when married to skill, a break could extend what is safely rideable…
We first tried Magura rim brakes back in ‘99 as an experiment and I liked
them but they seemed problematic and required a custom booster to fit over a
3" tire. Now the Magura HS33 seems to solve those problems. I’ve been riding
it now for 6 weeks and love it. It does feel like cheating sometimes, and
yes you could probably ride just about everything without, but it is truly
great when doing big descents. A year ago, I rode most of a 6000’ descent in
Mexico without brakes and it killed my legs. Sore for 3 days. I could barely
walk the next morning - many of you know the feeling. Kris used his brake
that descent and was fine (except his ears were ringing for a while :-).
Training for that trip I had done a 4600’ up & down ride and the downhill
was really a pain for the legs and knees. Very sore afterwards. A couple of
weeks ago I did the same ride with the brake and didn’t feel a thing during
or after!! And my time went from 4:50 to 4:20. That is a huge difference and
is very worth carrying 0.76 extra pounds.
Offhand, I don’t really think your idea of a drag brake will work well, but
I’ve never tried it. I think that once you feel the fine modulation control
that the Magura hydraulics give you, you won’t want anything else. It takes
a little practice to use the brake on steep bumpy terrain, but it isn’t all
that hard (not that I’m an expert at it yet). I have been experimenting a
little with riding 1-footed down much steeper slopes than otherwise possible
by using the brake. Maybe it could help with gliding too - save your soles?
I have to thank Geoff Faraghan for a ton of work experimenting several years
ago and Bronson Silva for becoming an expert at the HS33 setup and finding
all the parts. Also Kris for discovering that the HS33 can be used on a
unicycle, at least I think it was Kris who pioneered that.
—Nathan
“Tony Melton” <ant24ant@yahoo.com> wrote in message news:b20b2ff1.0203301744.4c98d93e@posting.google.com…
> I am having a 24" Muni custom made for me and I’d like to have it
> equipped with brakes. My thoughts were to use a modified Magura
> hydraulic brake setup to fit around the tyre. However the bike
> builder suggested trying a different design of brake - one similar to
> those on kids’ scooters. The idea is to have a rubber covered arm
> that pivots just under the fork crown. The rubber covered arm will
> drag on the tyre when the brake lever is squeezed. This should slow
> the wheel down. It may also result in increased tyre wear! Has anyone
> tried anything like this before?
>
> While on the subject of brakes on Municycles:
> How useful are brakes on Muni anyway? How easy is it to regulate your
> speed when riding down steep, rocky terrain?
>
> From a purist’s point of view can you do everything on a brakeless
> Muni that you can do on a Muni with brakes? Or could you if you had
> the right skills or technique?
>
>
> Any thoughts or comments much appreciated!
> Tony Melton
>
> …coastin’ on
People have said you can control your speed better. What does this mean? You can go down really crazy stuff, and modulating your brake makes it feel like your riding on flat ashphalt. (To an extent. Rough asphalt if trail is too technical)
All your energy is saved by not having to ‘back-pedal’ something too steep. You just use gravity as your momentum, when your legs are spinning too fast, slow the wheel. I haven’t put the brake on my new frame, so for now, my ride is either 2.5" w/no brake, or 1.85 w/brake.
Maybe Darren Bedford will have a brake bosses model forthcoming? Maybe with not the added price of a Magura, but with the option for it later, like disc tabs on a bike fork
Sounds like an interesting project. I’m looking at building a new frame with a brake also; it’ll probably be a rim or disc though. Which framebuilder are you using? I’d be interested in how much it cost etc; and if you’re down in Wellington anytime, how well it works!
