I’ve thought for awhile now that there probably is a better brake design for unicycles. Buttons, different lever shape, maybe even a wireless brake you could hold in your off hand. I’m not sure what it would be, but bicycle levers just seem to be both common and adequate, but not really ideally suited to the job.
My own untested thoughts on the matter are that I think a brake that’s really close to the handle would be best. I suspect that I would have the best control on technical terrain if I had a solid grip on the handle and one finger was working a button or lever within an inch of it, something more resembling a trigger than a bicycle brake lever. Of course the problem with that would be that it would likely not be ambidextrous and the potential for simultaneously grabbing the handle and squeezing the brake would be huge.
I’ve been riding with a handle saddle for a while now and I think the ideal brake for that might be different than for a traditional saddle.
I agree that bike brake levers are not ideal for the basic mounting under the seat, although the KH spooner really improved this back in the time of old Magura HS rim brakes. I’ve also modified quite a few spooners to fit disk brake levers.
With bars I think normal levers are just fine if you install in them in a manner that’s more similar to how they would be used on a bike.
That’s a cool setup! What’s this part you added?
I made my lever longer and larger to be ambidextrous and useful with short grab or long grab hand position
I agree! I think its a bar end from a bicycle.
I think i have an old set of bar ends. Definitely Going to try this!
It is indeed a cheap handlebar end with the curved bit cut off.
Such as:
Your local community bike place will likely have a whole bin of them for cheap like mine did.
Thanks! I already do have some on my G36 so I know where to find them
Made this handle out parts I had lying around in the garage. The handle was from an old electric kick scooter that was broken, and I used a bike stem and a piece of scrap steel plate, to mount it on the saddle.
I didn’t like it in such a low position so I turned the stem around after I took the pictures to make a steeper angle and now the tube sits tight against the plastic handle.
Ideally I would want it to be somewhere in between so it’s still a work in progress.
Was thinking of maybe replacing the stem with one of those adjustable ones.
Welcome to the forum Daniel
You’d have to be careful, I’m imagining you’ll have a lot of force at the joints at the seat, it may come loose or fail when you don’t expect. Check it each time you ride. If you manage to secure it well and it doesn’t fall apart, you’ve done a great job. Re: the angle, yes, that’s difficult. Maybe you need to just get a suitable t-bar/handle section to have it at the correct angle for you rather than doing anything else with the stem.
Thanks, I have been reading here for a while and figured it was time to post something
I was also a bit worried about the forces, but it seems to be strong. Anyway, its always a good idea to check it every time.
I might buy a better handle for it sometime, but right now this unicycle is at my parents house and only used when I’m home in the summer. I already have a KH T-bar on my unicycle in the city I am studying in.
If you bought the KH T-bar new, it came with 2 T-bars, one straight and one bent. Put the bent one on this uni pointing up!
That depends on when it was purchased, They used to only come with a straight bar.
The T-bar came with the KH 36" unicycle that I purchased second hand, and I believe it is one of the earlier ones that only came with the straight bar.
It wouldn’t really fit anyway because the T-bar from the kick scooter have a larger diameter. It is hard to see it on the pictures, but it is actually one of those handlebars that you could split from the T-section and fold it. I just removed one of the side tubes and a used some screws to secure the other one in the middle of the T-section.
Thanks for sharing that, @finnspin. I am not familiar with trials bike technique, but it looked like the brake was being locked-up in every one of the tricks in the above video. Twist brakes might be useful for unicycles only if they could be feathered with the same or more control as a regular uni brake. Maybe an internal spring could be placed inside the twisting part, in order to provide some resistance and make the effective response of the brake more linear, rather than sudden (followed by a UPD).
I think what I’d like to see is an Ursli style loop handle bar or handle saddle with a brake mounted upside down and protruding through the middle of the loop handle on the top. That way you could wrap the handle with all four fingers while engaging the brake with your thumb and it would be ambidextrous. I suspect it would require a very long brake lever, but that wouldn’t necessarily be a bad thing as it would help with modulation.
I like that idea. But, the thought of a UPD where I catch the handle and continue stepping forward (awkwardly) makes me cringe, when I think of where that brake handle might end up. But, I am way less adept than you are. I’m getting better, but still learning. The bruises on the inside of each thigh, caused by my downward-facing brake handle, attest to this. Those bruises would be somewhere else, if the handle were facing up. BUT!, I can definitely see the benefit once I get better and stop have weird bruises caused by stepping off the uni at weird angles.