Breaks on a coker??Yes???No??

total uni said:

*P.S. how strong is the remanufactured coker from uni.com? as in, what
can i and cant i do with it? can it withstand curbs and minor drops? *

http://www.unicycle.com/shopping/shopexd.asp?id=660 Remanufactured
Coker is no longer available.

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"Only 3 available."

this came after the "(no longer availvble)" came up

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I was thinking about saying "use the search button", but that doesnt
really lead to any constructive replies. There have been many threads
on this, but here is the breakdown:

If you are going to be riding a lot of descents, get a brake. If you
are mainly just going to be riding on mainly flat roads, with little
hills here and there that arent too steep or long, a brake is not
necessary. Also, get an airseat with it.

Edit:

since i do not own a coker myself, I am not sure what the difference in
the types of brakes are. The coker comes with a V brake, i dont know
how much different this is from a magura hydraulic (sp?) brake.

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total uni said:

*i have been thinking of getting a coker for a long time now and
finaly i think i am going to get one. how much do breaks help on a
coker? should i get them? in what cases would i use them?

Evan

P.S. how strong is the remanufactured coker from uni.com? as in, what
can i and cant i do with it? can it withstand curbs and minor drops? *

andbody got a responce to that?

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it will withstand going over curbs, but best not smash into any curbs.
Don't try to hop with it where you might land on an angle.

You can take it through some pretty technical singletrack, if you take
time to really learn how to ride gracefully, I know that learning to
push the stock coker rim to the limits I really got better being able to
manouvre it.

'Here' (http://tinyurl.com/2xrat) is a video of me doing Muni, this is
a stock rim, I am 180lbs with gear on, and you can see in a relatively
small drop down, how my wheel taco's, luckily it sprang back to spape
before I hit the ground, I was able to ride away fine. (I even did a
24hr race on it after) That's now on my UW36 though, the Airfoil is
very strong, and a worthy upgrade.

And brakes aren't worth it, until you get down to 110's, or short
cranks, I wouldn't pay extra for a brake, I just happened to have an
extra one lying around so I thought it on. The lever has since broken,
and I'm not going to bother to pay $70 to get it replaced

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In my most humble opinion, a brake on a Coker is only truly functional
unless you use an Airfoil rim, a wide hub, and a good wheel build. With
anything less the brake is less useful.

The stock steel rim doesn't work well with a brake. It is not smooth
enough. The braking surface is lumpy and bulgy which will cause the
brake to grab more on one section of the wheel than others. You will
not have smooth braking. The stock rim is also too flexy so you'll end
up with the brake pads rubbing the rim when you pedal hard, for example
when climbing up a hill. That all adds up to making the brake more of a
pain than it is worth.

You don't need a brake on a Coker even if you're going up and down
hills. You can get along without it. If you ride steeper hills
regularly and you have difficulty controlling the Coker on the downhills
then get longer cranks.

A brake is nice if you have it, and have a good Airfoil wheel. It lets
you relax a bit on the downhills and saves some wear and tear on the
legs. If you have bad knees you'll appreciate the brake even more.

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Even if the remanufactured Coker is no longer available, you could still
buy a regular Coker and an extra-wide Unicycle.com hub. Then have
someone rebuild the wheel using the extra-wide hub. You'll end up with
a stronger wheel than a pure stock Coker.

If you can splurge, the Airfoil rim along with the extra-wide hub is a
worthy upgrade. Especially if you're thinking about riding a little bit
on the aggressive side with it (which includes riding off curbs).

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well, when gb4 did the ride across iowa he had a brake. didn't use it
much despite numerous hills where it would've helped. Unless you have
and awesomely strong rim and good wheelbulild you're really asking for
your run to come out of true. Coker wheels and a pain to true back up
and if the brake is more than just for show you'll pull a cheap rim
waaay out of true right away.

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Anyone know the answer to my question. Is there much of a difference
between the V brake and the hydraulic? If one were to get a brake,
would the optional V-brake that comes with the coker be sufficient for
riding with ease down long steep hills?

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stopping power is not an issue, as you need little of it to slow your
unicycle.

V-brakes would be cheaper and stop you just as good.

Hydraulic brakes look cleaner, don't have to worry about pointy frayed
cable ends sticking into your legs, and you can adjust the pads by
turning a knob on the lever to set the brakes pad in to constantly rub
the wheel slightly (sy, to take some bite of a long down hill, if you
had the brakes slightly on, you wouldn't have to worry about using your
muscles as much for slowing power)

Either brake will pretty much work fine and run smoothly for a long
time. People say hydro's are hassle free, which is true to an extent,
but I have broken 3 $70 hyrdraulic levers on unicycles, buy that lever
hitting the ground. I have gone through my supply of brake levers and
will not be getting more.

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One nice thing about the Magura hydraulic brake is that the pads will
not move if/when your legs rub against the brake cylinders on the fork.
The brake cylinders are also smooth so they don't scratch you if/when
your legs rub them.

The arms on a V-brake will activate if/when your legs rub against them.
The brake arm movement will cause the pad to rub the rim. That is not
desirable and could lead to a UPD. The brake arms on a V-brake also
have angular edges and pointy bits that will scratch your legs if/when
you rub your legs against them. A V-brake also sticks out more than the
hydraulic brake which causes more brake rubbing on your leg.

Some people have more of a problem with rubbing the brake with their
legs than other people. It depends on a bunch of factors like how long
your legs are (people with longer legs may not have as much of a
problem), how large your thighs are, whether you ride bow legged, the
size of the unicycle, etc. Some people may never rub their leg on a
brake while others will be constantly rubbing their legs against it.

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Brian MacKenzie said:

*
Either brake will pretty much work fine and run smoothly for a long
time. People say hydro's are hassle free, which is true to an extent,
but I have broken 3 $70 hyrdraulic levers on unicycles, buy that lever
hitting the ground. I have gone through my supply of brake levers and
will not be getting more. *

I have a short little stubby boom that I can install in place of my long
touring JC Coker Handle. It's basically the boom that I used here in
'JC Coker Handle revision Beta 1' (http://tinyurl.com/2jowz) but without
the red stem and barend handles. Its main purpose is to protect the
brake handle that I have mounted under the seat on my Coker.

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So, it would probably be worth the 34 dollar difference between the V
brake and the hydraulic. Im not planning on getting a coker until maybe
the summer, if i have enough money, so i will have time to try out
someone elses coker and see if my legs rub near the wheel. I think the
coker i tried at a uni meet in DC had V brakes on it and i didnt seem to
have any problems with it. Thanks for your replies.

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The Magura brake is worth the price difference. It just works better
than the mechanical V-brake. But the hydraulic brakes also have their
own issues. If you get a leak in the brake hose or the fittings you
will have to bleed the brake and new fluid (the fluid is mineral oil
based). That process is messy and a real pain to do. It also requires
some special tools to do. You can order a bleeding kit from Magura that
contains the necessary equipment (a large syringe, some special
fittings, an extra tube, and some brake oil fluid).

If you're saving up for a Coker I would consider a brake to be the last
thing to upgrade to. You'll do much better to put money into an
upgraded wheel and then a better frame before splurging on a brake.
Spend the money on the wheel first, heck even consider getting a U-Turn
strongest Coker wheel in the world. A brake can be added later in a
year or two if you decide you really need it or can justify the money
for it.

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Yes.
I like having a brake on my coker. I had one on there with the stock
rim and now with the airofofil too. I found it usefull even with the
stock rim. I used it to give my knees some help on long/steep desents.
I have a drag brake, with a friction shifter for a lever so I set it on
a bit and let go and the presure remains. my brake was fitted by a bike
shop useing second hand bits and pieces.

Sarah

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