Im looking for shimano br-mt-100 ,180 mm disc brake set up. I bought my last one from Unicycle.com. I can’t seem to find one anywhere. Any suggestions for an alternative brand? I see a lot of off brands, to cheap to be any good i imagine.
Have you looked at actual (online) bikestores in your area?
There are 3 major brands (Shimano, Magura and SRAM) selling sets from entry level up to pro level brakes. I’m sure you could find a set in your area ;
For example:
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You can also find them in the second-hand market. Lot’s bicyclists upgrade and sell them
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I went to the link you posted almost everything is out of stock. I also have been on eBay . What I would really like is a complete set, lever caliper, line and disc. What I see available is the disc by itself or the caliper, lever and line with no disc. I do not know much about bicycle discs an thier compatibility with different brands of calipers.
Seeing that I may have to purchase components seperately, maybe I should rephrase my question. What are the compatibility of disc brake components? How do you match up a disc to a caliper if being purchased seperately? And lastly what should I be looking for that will mount on my Nimbus 29 Road? Thank you
Maybe that site was a bad example, but there are plenty of online shops where you can buy a regular mtb brake (preferably hydraulic) and mount it on the uni. It should all fit since they are made for the international standard mount points. Does your uni currently have a brake installed that you’re trying to replace?
Otherwise you’d also need a brake adapter.
In terms of brakes vs rotor compatibility, it should fit in most cases. I’m using shimano rotors with Magura brakes.
If you have a specific combo you’d like to buy it’'ll be easier to confirm if it would fit. 
The cycle industry supply chain has been seriously messed up by the pandemic (along with a host of other industries, eg. semiconductors…). This has been compounded by a surge in demand for all things ‘cycling’.
I have just finished a custom build gravel bike and it was bit of a nightmare sourcing the parts I wanted for it – I ended up getting parts from all over the world (eg GRX derailleurs came from Japan). As I said to someone recently, I didn’t pick the best time for doing a custom build! However, since you are not being so specific on actual parts it hopefully won’t be so bad, but nevertheless, availability globally is a problem.
I would suggest that you buy your brake lever, hose, and caliper as a single unit. Mixing brands is possible (eg Shimano and Magura to give what people sometimes call ‘Shagura’), but some require mineral oil whereas other require DOT hydraulic fluid (same as cars etc) so you need to be sure what you are doing. Buying a preassembled unit also means you don’t have to mess around with olives/inserts assembling the hose, bleed-kits, and subsequent bleeding etc.
As for discs, as far as I am aware you should be fine mixing and matching between brands. You will probably need to get an appropriate sized adapter for mounting the brake caliper to your frame. This will be dependent on the size of the disc rotor and the mounting style of the caliper – ie if it is ‘post’ or ‘IS’ mount. As far as I am aware, most uni frames with disc tabs are ‘front-IS’, and most MTB disc brakes seem to be post mount nowadays. So, for example, if you got a post-mount capiler and a 180mm rotor for a frame with an IS front disc mount, you would need to get an appropriate adapter sized for that combination. Note that the front and rear IS mounts are different, hence the distinction I am making (edit: to be clear, the mounts themselves aren’t different, it is just the positioning that is different, so you’d need a different adapter for a 180mm rotor on the rear of a bike versus a 180mm rotor on the front, and given these things are sold for bikes, you need to know that from the ‘bike’ perspective so you buy the right thing).
I recently fitted a second-hand Hope brake and disc to my KH26, that came from eBay. Hope is premium brand and even second-hand stuff is quite expensive just now, but it is available, but lots of people are after it.
I hope this helps rather than confuses.
The unicycle has a mounting bracket welded on from the factory so mount should not be a problem.Qàk,
If you’d rather just get something as a bundle UDC in the UK have a Shimano brake in stock with adapter and disc for what seems a reasonable price. You’d just have to check what shipping is like on their website.
https://www.unicycle.co.uk/unicycle-parts/brakes/shimano-hydraulic-disc-brake.html
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Yes that answers a bunch of my questions, thank you. When I ordered the Shimano kit from udc to put on my muni a few years ago it was so easy, install shorten the line, bleed and ride, done. Same with the BMX pull brakes on my other 2 unis’. I’m surprised udc doesn’t even list the kit on thier website anymore even with the out of stock tag attached. Hopefully our suppliers can survive this mess or we are all going to be in a world of hurt.
Well, you are looking in the very cheap end of shimano, so to be honest, almost every hydraulic disk brake you can find will do an equally good job. Shimano very much does value engineering, their quality is exactly designed to meet with the alternatives at the same pricepoint.
You can pretty much freely mix and match brakes and rotors from different brands, as long as you have the bracket for the rotor size you are using. Most brands will deny that, but I’ve never seen a combination that didn’t work in real life. Unicycle frames (except for old QX) all have IS2000 brake mounts, modern brakes are usually post mount, so you need an adapter bracket inbetween those, they come in different sizes for whatever rotor size you want. (like this)
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Thank you for the info it is very helpful. I did not realize the shimano brake kit I referred to was a low end brake. It was the the only thing that UDC USA offered and it bolted right up to my nimbus .muni with the D brake adapter. I just assumed it was a preferred set up for unicycle and since it was the only option available on UDC and it appears to be the brake offered on the oracles I figure there are lot of unicycles out there running that set up. At any rate it has been working fine for me and the type of riding I do.
Literally the cheapest brake shimano sells. Sometimes I find it a bit weird that even “high end” unicycles like KH come with those brakes, but on the other hand, they are okay for most riders.
If you look closely though, you will find that most “advanced” muni riders use a bit more high end brakes - more power, better modulation, more adjustability, longer pad life. The reason UDC doesn’t offer many models is more that it isn’t worth it for them to keep stock of stuff that very few people buy, not that other models wouldn’t be good on a unicycle. (Similar concept with tires for example, I find it worth it to look outside the unicycle stores for those things.)
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Wow. Ok now I feel like a real cheapskate. Just kidding. I’m definitely not an advanced muni rider, I’m more of a cross country trail and road rider, pretty tame stuff other than navigating the hills of western Pennsylvania, and sometimes roots and rough gravel. The brake is used to level out my desents. Better modulation would be nice, I have 2 unicycle with bmx pull brakes that I have adjusted perfectly for down hill, definitely not state of the art but have found them more than adequate. Thanks i definitely learned something here today.
I’ve used cheapish Shimano brakes, deores. They were about $80 each, not including the rotor, and I can’t say anything bad about them. IMO, they are better than the best mechanical disc brakes or rim brakes and since I was raised on the junk brakes of yesteryear, they seem like perfection.
Anyway, I have a bike with a terrible rear brake on it, and since I had a deore rear brake on my 36er, I decided to upgrade that and move the deore to my bike. I ordered a Saint brake and a 203mm rotor for my 36er and for my level of riding its total overkill.
One thing to consider is the thickness of the disk. E.g. you’ll have a hard time using any brake other than a hope with a hope disk. Sometimes it just almost fits but you can’t seem to adjust the brake such that it doesn’t touch the disk. It’s worth checking this first.
Had the same problem to fit a Magura disk into a Formula brake, because the disk was to thick. No other 180 mm disk was available. The only solution was to wear down the brake pads.
On my MTB I switched SRAM brakes for Shimano but kept the SRAM discs because I am a cheapskater as well. That just works fine, although SRAM discs measure 0.2 mm wider than Shimanos. It was a bit more difficult to align the calipers than I am used to, though.
I guess best practice for Bug72 would be to buy everything from the same manufacturer. If you upgrade an existing brake it is a good idea to try (and maybe error).
Well, I guess I’ve been lucky not having hit the combinations of disk and brake brands that don’t work well together. I had light rubbing after getting new pads with one, but by the time I needed on the brakes they worked fine.
But true, if you don’t want to risk bad luck on that, check the thickness.
I originally posted on not being able to get a Shimano Mt 100 disc brake form UDC. I got a lot of good advise from forum members. I went about compiling the components to put a disc brake on my 29er.
I have just finished assembling, centering and testing my used shimano front disc brake. I bought the caliper line and hand set as one piece used, a cast off front brake from a mountain bike and the rotor new on eBay. I had to get new pads. All in around $60…
It works great, the best part is I did not have to shorten the line or bleed the brake. The only issue I had was with the new rotor it was slightly warped and I to gently bend it to keep it from rubbing. Thanks to all who advised me.
Edit: it is a Shimano bl-m535
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Great to hear you got it all sorted sorted.
New rotors do seem to arrive slightly bent more often than is ideal, but as you’ve discovered, it’s generally pretty easy to give it a light bend back into place.