I’m looking to upgrade the disk brake on my mad4one, to my surprise the existing single piston set really is not powerful enough. That will be caliper and lever. Checking bike part suppliers some are described as rear or front brakes, which is best for a unicycle?
With shimano all levers are compatible with all calipers.
You could change only the caliper to a 4 pistons.
But also the lever system could improve power and modulation.
The difference front and back is the position on the handlebar front on left back on right.
Other difference is the hose length 1mt front 2mt back.
On unicycle we use the front version.
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M41 is right, Shimano used a mineral oil in their brake systems allowing you to combine calipers and levers. You sometimes also see Shigura solutions, where the Magura (also mineral oil, but a bit different) is combined with a Shimano caliper.
But as he also stated, the lever itself isn’t that good either.
Depending on your rotor size it could already be an upgrade to go from 160mm to 180mm.
Next to that it becomes personal preference I guess. I have Shimano Zee (4 pistons) with icetech pads and 180mm rotor on my muni. For me this works very well, but it is sensitive and can completely block the wheel with one finger…
If you consider replacing both the caliper and the lever, there is no need to stay with Shimano and you could also consider Hope or Magura (even SRAM, but I don’t have much experience with that brand).
Magura MT Trail sport is a set (for a MTB, so you only need one) consisting of a 2 piston and a 4 piston caliper.
Both should work fine, although my personal preference would be the 4 piston. The whole set is sold for around 175 euros (~ $210), so if you can find a store which sells only one of them, you can have a good brake for a decent price.
Alternatively the Shimano SLX M7120 could be a good solution. Also 4 piston and very reliable.
Hope is awesome stuff, but expensive and hard to order now since most is in back order, therefore I would recommend either Magura or Shimano.
On the other hand, I don’t know your current setup, but if it needs a bleeding that can also be the reason why it’s not powerful enough… Even other brake pads could already make a difference…
Way over my head.
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Thanks everyone, all very helpful. There is a good price for a shimano 4 piston model I may buy. I guess if I was a better rider the existing brake may be ok, but I find I need more than 2 fingers to get adequate braking force, or get distracted when applying the brake so hard. Also on the really steep hills I run out of brake, or at least confidence. Both my KH unicycles have different shimano systems, no problems with their brakes. On my next mad4one I won’t be so cheap and will order better brakes.
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