disc brake on a old school

[roro4000]

i just adopted an old school hardrock. cantilever brakes suck. almost died. the bike is a second bike i want to build for my brother, a non cyclist. but he's heavier and has less handles than me so i might just let him use my bike when i ride with him and use this bike myself, either way i just want really good and reliable braking. i;m probly spoiled though since i run shimano deore m555 hydros with goodridge lines.

problem: are there rigid forks that have a 1" theaded steerer that have disc brake mounts?

i'm really just concenred with putting the disc in the front. frame won't allow one in the rear, but i could live with a v brake back there.

thanks.

[Scoundrel]

I'd look into Marzocchi and Rock Shox. If I remember correctly these two companies were making a lot of forks with 1 inch steerer tubes, and a while ago they had swap kits to put a 1" steerer tube/ crown on a fork that was meant for a 1 1/8. Of course your next best bet is to check mtbr.com or any classifieds page and try to find an older fork that has hopefully been taken well care of. In that case I'd go for a Marzocchi due to their hydraulic open bath system being relatively easy to service and find parts for as opposed to the old elastomer systems found on Rock Shox and manitou that would be very difficult to find and lack the ride quality that a hydraulic system has. Just remember that when you swap a disc on the front, keep it a 6 inch rotor, an 8 incher might be too much for the fork to handle and you could put a lot of torque on the leg with the brake on it and end up doing some custom bending to your fork. Hope that helps.


-Ian

[Nemesis Gnat]

brake therapy makes rear disc conversions, look um up...

[Ben]

Mudanoman's old school Rocky Mountain had a disc brake adapter that fit around the rear triangle (it looked ghetto rigged from the factory, but it worked), so you may not be out of luck! Welcome Aboard. ^^

~B

[roro4000]

thanks for the welcome. that rear disc brake adapter sounds nice. if it were my own bike i'd get that rear adapter though, but this is a bike i'm building for my brother, and he doesn't care about it enough to help fund the project and my dumbas* got stuck signing a contract that got me giving up a lot of money every month for the next 5 years for a used car that only takes premium (but it's a sexy car).

oh yeah new question
seems i'll probly be getting a suspension fork as my only option, how much effect will this have on the steering with the geometry and all that? the bike is pretty twitchy as it is (maybe cause of the flat bar. not the geometry?) so an 80mm fork could calm her as down?

[motomack86]

Save your money and just throw some v-brakes on it,there plenty powerfull enough for a novice rider.

[roro4000]

true. that's actually what i ended up doing. it's just that i have a set of bb5s i don't know what to do with. but i was thinking about later on, to take the bike further, but i still haven't decided if it would be worth it.

the bike is so much better with the v-brakes then the cantilevers, but i take the bike out to some steep and sometimes wet stuff and feel like i want braking power so i could carry more speed instead of having to go slower throughout. but then again, it's not even my bike. it really was just a project and i worked hard on it, took the time to fully take it apart and paint it, install new brakes, tires, cables and housing, cut up a used cassette and my hand to use the spacers and throw the 7sp on a used but but better set of wheels that i built awhile ago, cut the brake levers off of the shifters, and probly am just feeling this way because i finished it.

it's almost my own bike