Add a Disc Brake to ANY wheel.....

HI All,

I posted this as a reply to another post but I thought it may be good to post as a separate topic onto itself since we are always looking for potential ways to better our bikes and tinker as well.....Here is a copy of it in case you did not see the reply elsewhere....
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HI All,

I had a fella call me the other day and inquire about adding a disc brake to his non disc brake bicycle using (of all things) the Top Hat Sprocket Adapter.

Wow, I had no idea what he was even talking about since I always stressed the need to START WITH a disc brake hub when using a Top Hat Sprocket Adapter.

I had never thought about INTENTIONALLY starting with a NON disc brake hub and working "backwards" since the Top Hat was specifically designed to use a disc brake hub to better mount a sprocket while still retaining the use of a disc brake NOT the other way around.....I guess I was not thinking "out of the box " enough! ;-0

Anyways, his concept was to take a Top Hat Sprocket adapter (Probably have to use the 1/4" offset version to be able to have clearance for the mounting hardware to be able to nut and bolt a rotor the Top Hat itself) , mount a disc rotor to it, and the use a factory "rag joint" to mount the Top Hat assembly to the wheel.....Instant home made disc brake hub!?!

I though "wow that could work" BUT the reason for NOT using the factory rag joint in the first place was because of potential misalignment issues and run out. However, in thinking more about it, I have used plenty of rim brakes on less than perfectly trued wheels throughout the years without problems / issues.....

Another concern I had was that braking could put more stress on the spokes than an engine accelerating the bike??....I mean in theory, good brakes (disc, rim, or coaster brakes for that matter) can usually lock a tire at will BUT a good Chinese engine or even Morini cannot break a tire loose on dry smooth gravel free pavement.

I tried to convince him to use a disc brake hub for a proper disc brake conversion BUT on the other hand I was intrigued at the possibility of converting ANY wheel to disc brake use....What do you think?

In the case here (where the small front wheel may not allow you the ability to simply re-lace a wheel this may be a possible solution but please read on for more potential concerns / issues).

I tried to point out that another possible issue was cost....A person would have to buy a Disc brake assembly (caliper, rotor, and possibly even a new brake lever and brake cables unless the old parts from a previous caliper brake can be reused), as well as buying the Top Hat itself....(His reply was that he lived in CA and that he knew many sources of cheap used bike parts so that was not an issue).

Then too, a way would have be found to mount the disc brake caliper to the fork or frame of the bike itself......

I suppose almost anything is doable.....what do you think?

Hope this help you in your quest for your front wheel disc brake.

Andrew
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So What's your opinion?....disc brakes for all?....

Thanks!

Andrew

Hi Mag Rider,

Thanks for the reply...

I had thought of a similar setup awhile back for making a non disc brake wheel into a disc brake wheel using one of the "clam shell' type adapters in combination with a Top Hat style adapter of some sort (However, in looking at the pic you supplied, I suppose the adapter plate doesn't necessarily have to have a raised 6 hole portion (like a Top Hat) since the rotor itself is probably a somewhat larger than the 3 mounting points to the hub adapter (only thing to potentially watch for is that the mounting bolts to the hub adapter don't interfere w/ the rotor mounting, but then again, disc rotors have so little metal in them the likelihood of one having the rotors having metal where the bolt head would be is probably slim).

The "clam shell" adapter can be moved along the hub so that the mounting "prongs" stick out far enough to properly mount and space the disc rotor within the caliper.

I did not pursue this idea originally since hub adapters used to be only made for certain sized hubs and it wasn't until more recently that custom machined hub adapters became more readily available.

On the flip side, I guess the sheer simplicity of reusing kit parts (i.e. rag joint / mounting bolts) and not having to accurately measure hub diameters etc...intrigued me when a customer thought about using a Top Hat Sprocket Adapter for a non standard use.

As an aside, I recently had different customer call me that was supposedly making a really high powered bike...

He wanted to mount a custom sprocket using BOTH a Top Hat Sprocket Adapter AND one of the Clam Shell hub type adapters....May be a little overkill BUT that would really be a super HD mount for a sprocket huh? ;-)

Thanks for sharing the drawing...A lot of good thinking going on here and I think that's something we can all have fun with!

Andrew