I'm trying to get rid of my coaster brake and move to caliper brakes. Read a few posts, watched a few YOUTube videos on "converting" a coaster brake to a freewheeler. Missing something?? Any help??
Trying to ditch coaster brake
- Thread starter NewOrleansFlyer
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Well, what're you trying to do, exactly? Here are the critical parameters and challenges you gotta keep in mind:
-you gotta make sure that your frame has a provision for mounting a caliper, and if it does, you gotta make sure you get calipers that will work with the mount (recess vs traditional nutted, etc.) If it doesn't, you might have to drill some, or braze on some canti posts, or buy some bolt-on posts, or....
-you gotta make sure your rims were designed for caliper brakes, ie, you gotta make sure there's a braking surface. Alot of wheels built with coasters in kind won't work properly with rim brakes. If your rims don't have a vertical surface big enough to match the calipers' pads, you're gonna need new rims.
-If you're trying to "convert" your coaster hub, there's a few ways to do this, and some are better than others. Most youtube "tutorials" will pretty much instruct you to remove the shoes from your coaster hub. This will disable the brake, it will allow you to roll back without the pedals turning (but it'll feel notchy compared to a real freecoaster hub), and you will be able to backpedal while moving forward, although that's likely to feel a bit crunchy, too, at times. It will also cause premature failure of your hub. In the longrun, the "upgrade" to rim brakes will be minimal with this method, as your rear hub will still be heavy and still have low-tech engagement; it just will also no longer have a brake and it's gonna get it's guts toasted a lot quicker.
-Another method would be to find a threaded driver for your hub. These are all going to be used or old-stock from quite a while back, when a lot of bmx bikes had coaster brakes and kids wanted to upgrade to freecoasters. Typically, you'll find'm for old Shimano hubs, Suntour hubs, and Bendix. They pop up on eBay from time to time, but none are currently listed. This set-up would still be heavy, but it would be reliable.
-Here's a link to an article from an '82 article of BMX Plus! magazine. http://www.lixbmx.com/coaster-conversion
This still has you removing some parts, but you replace'm with washers, which apparently will address the smoothness and long-term reliability factor. I've never tried this method, so i can't vouch for it, but there ya go.
OF course, the other option would be to lace-in a cheap freewheel hub, which would be lighter, easier, and look cleaner--- but you'd have to get a hub, possibly new spokes, and then you'd have to take the existing wheel apart and re-lace it.
HTH
Rob
-you gotta make sure that your frame has a provision for mounting a caliper, and if it does, you gotta make sure you get calipers that will work with the mount (recess vs traditional nutted, etc.) If it doesn't, you might have to drill some, or braze on some canti posts, or buy some bolt-on posts, or....
-you gotta make sure your rims were designed for caliper brakes, ie, you gotta make sure there's a braking surface. Alot of wheels built with coasters in kind won't work properly with rim brakes. If your rims don't have a vertical surface big enough to match the calipers' pads, you're gonna need new rims.
-If you're trying to "convert" your coaster hub, there's a few ways to do this, and some are better than others. Most youtube "tutorials" will pretty much instruct you to remove the shoes from your coaster hub. This will disable the brake, it will allow you to roll back without the pedals turning (but it'll feel notchy compared to a real freecoaster hub), and you will be able to backpedal while moving forward, although that's likely to feel a bit crunchy, too, at times. It will also cause premature failure of your hub. In the longrun, the "upgrade" to rim brakes will be minimal with this method, as your rear hub will still be heavy and still have low-tech engagement; it just will also no longer have a brake and it's gonna get it's guts toasted a lot quicker.
-Another method would be to find a threaded driver for your hub. These are all going to be used or old-stock from quite a while back, when a lot of bmx bikes had coaster brakes and kids wanted to upgrade to freecoasters. Typically, you'll find'm for old Shimano hubs, Suntour hubs, and Bendix. They pop up on eBay from time to time, but none are currently listed. This set-up would still be heavy, but it would be reliable.
-Here's a link to an article from an '82 article of BMX Plus! magazine. http://www.lixbmx.com/coaster-conversion
This still has you removing some parts, but you replace'm with washers, which apparently will address the smoothness and long-term reliability factor. I've never tried this method, so i can't vouch for it, but there ya go.
OF course, the other option would be to lace-in a cheap freewheel hub, which would be lighter, easier, and look cleaner--- but you'd have to get a hub, possibly new spokes, and then you'd have to take the existing wheel apart and re-lace it.
HTH
Rob
Thanks Bicycle 808! Lots of info, but I couldn't get the link to work. No problem though, I'll give it a try later.
