Front Disc Brake Mounting Question- Schwinn Cruiser

Chain gang is in Canada shipping is a killer. Give Norm a shout at VMB he is the guy who can help you get your front brakes set up.

The second one is for a freewheel thread, use a rear wheel for front. Or just get a front drum brake wheel. Need one pm me

These guys sell a complete set up there is a video how it works.

http://www.bicycledesigner.com/bike-parts/bicycle-brake/front-wheel-disc-brake-kit.html

HI,

The two kits in the links you listed look as though the wheel hub itself needs to have the 6 disc brake mounting holes for the rotor to attach to...beyond that the caliper mounting is fairly straight forward through the parts provided in the respective kits.

Assuming your cruiser bike has a standard Shimano rear coaster brake, it IS possible to mount a rear disc brake system to it AND mount a rear engine driven sprocket to it ALL while retaining the factory coaster brake!.....

The rear engine drive sprocket and disc brake set up (in addition to keeping the coaster brake as a back up and bonus!) would require you to purchase a Manic Mechanic or Pirate Cyles type clamp on sprocket adapter...

To that you would add a Sombrero adapter (like a Top Hat only bigger to bolt onto the aforementioned adapters)....

To that you would then add a "Sombrero Sprocket".....This not only provides the sprocket for the engine to drive off of but ALSO a disc brake mount for you to mount your disc brake rotor to...

The balance of the aforementioned kits you linked to would then be used to mount the caliper to your bike....Mount may require "tweaking" depending on sprocket / rotor clearances on your particular bike set up.

Hope this helps you.

Andrew

PS - I have seen a person convert a front non disc brake hub to accept a disc brake rotor by using a Top Hat Sprocket Adapter and mounting the rotor to it (using +Gasp+ the factory rag joint ! ) .....I would not recommend mounting a rotor to a non disc brake hub in this manner since adding the rubber mounting would add all the problems that the Top Hat was designed to solve ! (i.e. precision hard mounting and evenly distributing loads to all the spokes)...Anyways, it was an interesting non traditional use of a product.

Good luck on your build

I've got this wheel sitting, it has about 100 miles on it, it is a husky anodized black with 12 ga from Holmes hobbies and a Sturmey 70 mm, you can see the brake arm has been cut for mounting to a stud on forks, this is a replaceable part, also have a matching rear with a Shimano ( not knockoff) coaster hub.

Hi,

While I don't necessarily recommend using a Top Hat to "make" a disc drake hub up front here is how it would be done....

First, take a Top Hat Sprocket Adapter and mount the disc rotor to the top of the Top Hat....Without a disc brake hub to screw into you will need to use the appropriate sized nuts and bolts to secure the disc rotor to the "top" of the Top Hat Sprocket Adapter.

Second, using an extra set of sprocket mounting hardware from the typical 2 stroke engine kit....i.e. the notorious "rag mount" kit (they can be bought separately for about $6 or $7 plus shipping), take the Top Hat assembly and place one set of rubber "cushions" under the "brim" pf the Top Hat.

Now, Place the entire assembly on the left side of the front wheel hub (assuming you are standing behind the wheel) and allow the rubber to touch the spokes on the "outside" of the wheel.

Next , take the other set of rubber cushions and place them on the "inside" of the spokes on the left side....the spokes should now be "sandwiched" by rubber cushions.

Finally, take the circular metal pieces, place them on the right side of the inside rubber cushion and nut and bolt everything together....tweaking and doing everything possible to make for a semi wobble free install...

In summary (from left to right assuming the wheel is in front of you) this is what you should have :

disc rotor, Top Hat Sprocket Adapter, rubber cushion, spokes, rubber cushion, metal moon.....line up all the 9 holes and bolt the assembly together.

This can make a disc brake wheel out of most any front wheel BUT the fact that a "rag joint" (rubber mount) means that the install will almost always have some run out to it and 1/2 the spokes will stressed more than others....This would be an unconventional use of a Top Hat but I have seen it done.

Hope this is more clear for you.

Andrew

PS - Another way of thinking of this install would be to pretend that the Top Hat was a sprocket and you were mounting it as one would normally mount a sprocket on a motorized bike kit....just don't forget to bolt the rotor on FIRST to the Top Hat before mounting the Top Hat ASSEMBLY.

stinky said:

Well, how long do you think the spokes will survive for? I do street riding, but there are a lot of stupid storm drain bumps. Like lil speed bumps. Two rain gutters at street ends, and lil hump in middle. I'm not going to jump curbs and beat on the bike. Tho I ran the stop sign and hit that storm drain intersection and i did catch some air!!

Crap lightning!! gotta go!

Click to expand...

HI,

I would guess that the spokes should last as long as they do on the rear of a driven sprocket ? ..... I don't have a good guess as to how much stress the spokes gets from a hard acceleration using engine (or electric motor for that matter) VS braking force.

The customer that mentioned they had done the Top Hat Disc Brake conversion did not follow up with pics or long term test results....I would write them to see how things were going and if he was still using the system but unfortunately I forgot who it was that did it....BUT it sounds like We may have a new test subject? ;-)

Andrew

this isn't mine but I saw this a couple weeks ago.