Brakes on Unicycle

trialspads said:

Before I begin, if this post is not appropriate or should belong to
somewhere else please feel free to delete/move.

I'm doing some research as I didn't know some unicycle riders used
Magura HS33. Do people with a brake grind their rims like bike trials
riders would do? Also what type of pads do you use?

I'm interested as I'd like to provide brake pads and products to the
unicycle community as well as sponsoring good riders.

Your input is greatly appreciated!

Aki @ TrialsPads.com

Brakes are typically used for mountain unicycling and distance, not for
trials, as they don't help much on a trials unicycle.

Because of this, the important thing is modulation, rather than locking
the wheel. People tend to use magura black, or magura grey (preferred
by some people for less grippyness), and don't grind/tar rims like
bikers do, the ideal is for a really smooth & true rim, and quite hard
brake pads.

I think there's definately scope for unicycle specific pads, but I'm
not sure what they'd be like, probably just very very hard, like magura
grey pads but more so. Existing trials specific pads aren't much use to
unicyclists, as they're all about grippyness.

Joe

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Interesting! It makes a lot of sense. I never thought of carrying the
Magura-brand pads as they are not really for a rider looking for
instant stopping power but with modulation I guess they would be in
demand.

Anyone else?

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Keep in mind that they are generally used as a drag brake as well, not
for stopping or staying stopped. We don't brake to slow down as much
as we brake to stay slow - if that makes sense. I know some people have
theirs set to pulling the lever all the way only drags the wheel
instead of locking it.

If you are looking to vend to unicyclers you might also want to carry
maggie to v-brake post adaptors. Those are in high demand and
currently they cost way too much.

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I have found that even when pulled on full, my maggies cannot hold my
weight on a slope. I ground the sidewalls of my halo rim for better
stopping power, which helped a little, but not a lot.
It seems that no matter what I do, with my weight on the unicycle, the
brake is pretty much useless. 😠
Not sure which pads mine has, but it would be good to find some better
ones. I have never been able to throw myself off by pulling on the
brake, thats the sort of stopping power I want!

Edd

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Seager said:

If you are looking to vend to unicyclers you might also want to carry
maggie to v-brake post adaptors. Those are in high demand and
currently they cost way too much.

We carried Heatsink (UK) V-Brake adaptors and they are producing the
3rd generation which we're waiting for. They are indeed pricey. And
if you go cheaper with brands, I've ready in other forums where break
in matter of months.

Eddbmxdude said:

I have found that even when pulled on full, my maggies cannot hold my
weight on a slope. I ground the sidewalls of my halo rim for better
stopping power, which helped a little, but not a lot.
It seems that no matter what I do, with my weight on the unicycle, the
brake is pretty much useless. 😠
Not sure which pads mine has, but it would be good to find some better
ones. I have never been able to throw myself off by pulling on the
brake, thats the sort of stopping power I want!

Edd

I'm not sure how much modulation the pads we carry can give you as they
are pretty much designed to stop instantly. I weigh about 200 lbs and
the brakes would lock (on my bike) and hold on almost vertical walls
and rocks. If that's the type of stopping power you want though then
definitely check out the site. I can go on and on about brake pads but
generally they are either for smooth or ground rims.

Aside from brake products what other unicycle products are hard to find
in the US (and North America)? Are there many web-based stores that
support the sport specifically?

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Eddbmxdude said:

I have found that even when pulled on full, my maggies cannot hold my
weight on a slope. I ground the sidewalls of my halo rim for better
stopping power, which helped a little, but not a lot.
It seems that no matter what I do, with my weight on the unicycle, the
brake is pretty much useless. 😠
Not sure which pads mine has, but it would be good to find some better
ones. I have never been able to throw myself off by pulling on the
brake, thats the sort of stopping power I want!

Edd

I have red magura pads on my 29er, and on a steep muni descent I went
down recently, I had to pedal forward--against the brake--to keep from
stalling out. This is on a KH rim with no treatment. And I weigh 14
stone, so mine seem able to do the trick.

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I noticed in your magura parts section that you didn't carry the steal
braded tubing kit. I think this is probably the most popular add on
that unicyclists use for their stock Mags. We don't need to worry too
much about the brake pads so much as the cables.

Also if you wanna sponsor people, I could use a mag brake before I head
out to China. :p

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ntappin said:

I noticed in your magura parts section that you didn't carry the steal
braded tubing kit. I think this is probably the most popular add on
that unicyclists use for their stock Mags.

Agreed. It took me quite some time to find *anyplace* that carried the
braided kit (just got it in the mail today, from Universal Cycles;
$68).

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Eddbmxdude said:

I have found that even when pulled on full, my maggies cannot hold my
weight on a slope. I ground the sidewalls of my halo rim for better
stopping power, which helped a little, but not a lot.
It seems that no matter what I do, with my weight on the unicycle, the
brake is pretty much useless. 😠
Not sure which pads mine has, but it would be good to find some better
ones. I have never been able to throw myself off by pulling on the
brake, thats the sort of stopping power I want!

Ed - have you bled the brake, cos that sounds dodgy, the ones on my
muni I more often take myself off the front than find myself unable to
brake hard enough.

Is it an HS33, or an HS11? If it's an HS11, does it have the bendy
plastic lever, as that can reduce stopping power a fair bit?

What mounts do you have it on, magura ones or v-brake? The v-brake
mount is very fiddly to get set up so it works well.

Joe

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ntappin said:

I noticed in your magura parts section that you didn't carry the steal
braded tubing kit. I think this is probably the most popular add on
that unicyclists use for their stock Mags. We don't need to worry too
much about the brake pads so much as the cables.

pkittle said:

Agreed. It took me quite some time to find *anyplace* that carried the
braided kit (just got it in the mail today, from Universal Cycles;
$68).

I didn't know they were in demand. At least not for bike trials, maybe
a rider would ask about the stainless steel crossover cable once in a
blue moon. Good to know though 🙂 Thanks!

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trialspads said:

I didn't know they were in demand. At least not for bike trials, maybe
a rider would ask about the stainless steel crossover cable once in a
blue moon. Good to know though 🙂 Thanks!

yeah it is amazingly easy to destroy the standard cross pipe on a uni
if you ride on broken rock. Seen it happen twice and heard of many more
incidences.

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Dave

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A problem with the standard braided crossover is the length. Mountain
unicycles typically use a 3" wide tire and the standard length
crossover just isn't quite long enough for enough clearance over the
top of the tire. So you have a problem where a stick or rock stuck in
the lugs of the tire or buildup of mud on the tire can get hung up on
the crossover possibly breaking the crossover cable.

29ers and Cokers (36 inch wheels) have smaller tires and don't have the
same clearance problems with the standard length crossover cable.

For my muni with a 3" wide tire I had a custom braided crossover made
by a local DH bike shop.

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One trick that some have done with brake pads is to cut away some of the
pad so that less of the pad makes contact with the rim. That gives
more modulation and makes it less likely that you will accidentally
eject yourself by putting the brake on too hard.

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pkittle said:

And I weigh 14 stone, so mine seem able to do the trick.

14 stone? I didn't know you were British!

For road unis, our RTL team has had problems getting the Coker stock
v-brake to modulate at all, they are either on or off(read "thrown off
the front of the uni"😉 I went to a different brake and pad and now
they are fine. Part of the problem is no machined surface on the
wheel, just paint. So for v-brakes, we would like less sticky pads.

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Munivision said:

14 stone? I didn't know you were British!

For road unis, our RTL team has had problems getting the Coker stock
v-brake to modulate at all, they are either on or off(read "thrown off
the front of the uni"😉 I went to a different brake and pad and now
they are fine. Part of the problem is no machined surface on the
wheel, just paint. So for v-brakes, we would like less sticky pads.

Have you toed in the pad at all, toeing in is supposed to help a lot
with modulation (meaning that the front is slightly closer to the wheel
than the back). You can toe it in by putting in the brake pad with a
couple of bits of paper under the back end, pull the lever hard, and
then tighten up the brake pad.

Joe

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Munivision said:

14 stone? I didn't know you were British!

For road unis, our RTL team has had problems getting the Coker stock
v-brake to modulate at all, they are either on or off(read "thrown off
the front of the uni"😉 I went to a different brake and pad and now
they are fine. Part of the problem is no machined surface on the
wheel, just paint. So for v-brakes, we would like less sticky pads.

I sanded and polished my airfoil rim to a nice shinny brake surface,
MUCH better modulation and consistancy of brakeing than the powder
coated surface that it came with.

I use HS33s with the black pads, thinking of cutting off half the
surface to further reduce grabbyness but polishing the rim really
helped.

The standard crossover line is a bit tight on my 36er. Some day I will
replace my lines with Stainless Steel ones, I have ripped the line to
my brake handle before.

One product I would like to see is a break mount that could be mounted
to a regular 25.4mm seatpost similar to a mountain bike bar end, and
after market break leavers that you could work with your thumb when
holding a KH handle. (Sort of L shaped sticking out sideways, someone
made one and posted it on these forums somewhere but I can't remember
who)

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saskatchewanian said:

I sanded and polished my airfoil rim to a nice shinny brake surface,
MUCH better modulation and consistancy of brakeing than the powder
coated surface that it came with.

One product I would like to see is a break mount that could be mounted
to a regular 25.4mm seatpost similar to a mountain bike bar end, and
after market break leavers that you could work with your thumb when
holding a KH handle. (Sort of L shaped sticking out sideways, someone
made one and posted it on these forums somewhere but I can't remember
who)

Airfoils are powdercoated now? thats too bad mine came black anodized
and ready for brakes.

I don't know if one of these http://tinyurl.com/4kz28s would work for
you or not because I use my fingers not my thumb. but I am going to
cast some more soon. If you or anybody else wants one send me a PM.

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Tellurider said:

I don't know if one of these http://tinyurl.com/4kz28s would work for
you or not because I use my fingers not my thumb. but I am going to
cast some more soon. If you or anybody else wants one send me a PM.

Those look cool but are not what I had in mind. The guy who had the L
shaped leaver had his brake lever assembley mounted sideways under the
seat with the leaver sticking up through the KH handle and the brake
was activated by pushing it sideways with his thumb. I don't have a
break on my MUni (yet) but if I did that is how I would want it set up

The picture was posted around a year ago if anybody else remembers it.

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Tellurider said:

Airfoils are powdercoated now? thats too bad mine came black anodized
and ready for brakes.

I don't know if one of these http://tinyurl.com/4kz28s would work for
you or not because I use my fingers not my thumb. but I am going to
cast some more soon. If you or anybody else wants one send me a PM.

Wow that looks really awesome 😄

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