Why don't people use disc brakes on unicycles?all i ever see is hydraulic rim.I know one reason is no manufacturer is making hubs that have the mountaing tabs and frames that have them too. I have hayes 8" hydros on my DH mountainbike and they are more powerful than any hydro rim brake...
Disk brake rotors are vulnerable to damage, especially if you like riding skinnies. It is not unusual to slide off the side of a skinny in a way that would bend or damage a disk brake rotor.
I'd presonally like to see a disc brake unicycle hub, but I would imagine anything but custom versions will be a wee bit of a way off. You could try mounting a disc brake to a crank spider on a regular bike crank perhaps.
In my opinion, you don't need that extra braking power from disks and you get pretty damn nice modulation from a good set of Maguras anyway.
I have ridden a uni with a disk brake though, unfortunately the brake wasn't attached at the time. I'm talking about hte muni owned by Gabe Holmic who I did a 12hr MTB race with in a two man uni team.
Andrew
-- andrew_carter - Unicycling because it's really fun!
I have mounted a disk brake to my 04 KH. I have yet to post pics because I am waiting for it to be painted. It was alot of work and involved amongst other things making and welding on new stronger bearing caps. As soon as I get it painted or maybe before as I am getting impatient, I will post all the details. Oh, and by the way dinging my disc when falling off of skinnies is the least of my worries. That is of course assuming that I will ever be able to ride skinnies.
The advantages of fitting cable disc brakes would be
1) Maintainable while on a ride (a spare cable is easy to carry, whereas few people carry a bleed kit and spare magura fluid). 2) No brake bleeding. 3) More durable levers + more choice of different levers available than for maguras. 4) Switch different wheels in one frame without moving brakes. 5) No knee knocking problems (as with cable V-brakes). 6) No rim wear (is this an issue on unicycles though?)
I'd like to run Avid Mechs on a mUni.............but for a unicycle I would want a smaller rotor size/mount size then they currently make for bicycles. A 6" rotor is overkill on a uni, it would be cool though if they made a mUni specific (yea.....keep dreaming) 3 inch rotor/mount. Nice and small, out of the way, harder to bend, large enough to have plenty of stopping power on one wheel, etc. etc.
Zod, I agree with you (3" rotor). But those things have to be made by a unicyclist first. No one is going to mass produce one for us. Don't laugh, but I am actually running an 8" rotor on my KH24. The reason is spoke clearance. The closer you get to the hub the further out the spokes get. I had to go 8" inch in order to get suffecient clearance for the caliper ( Shimano Deore, dual piston full hydraulic ). I did not want to dish the wheel and lose strength. I do have some ideas on how to make a custom hub with a built in disc but they are just crazy ideas in my head right now and don't fully make sense yet. I just sand blasted the frame so I might assemble it and post some pics soon as the powder coaters seem to be closing for the hollidays.
