Need a Pelican that is owner, operator or has a bicycle connection?

[patz]

I want to upgrade a 26 inch front wheel from clincher style brake to a disc. Need the wheel, disc and conversion parts.

I can post pics if needed. PM me if you can help. This is for a motorized bike.

[patz]

Or if someone has a suitable wheel for sale with disc, caliper, hand brake for a 26x1.50 tire. 1 inch rim.

I can do the welding/conversion.

[rwest]

Would it be easier to buy a new front fork with the mount already on it?

[Otter74]

Whatever that fork is, on what the crimped ends alone tell me, I wouldn't trust it with a disc brake. Disc forks are easy to get, but they're all 1.125" threadless, and that fork is almost certainly 1" threaded. I think if you try to fab caliper brackets to that you will end up with a fork failure, which will be seriously un-fun, especially at whatever speeds the motor will get you up to.

[nzporsche944s2]

Originally Posted by rwest

Would it be easier to buy a new front fork with the mount already on it?

+1

That way you know all the offsets and spacings are correct. You also need to decide what size of rotor you want based on application. I'm guessing that because it is currently a rigid fork and 1.5'' tires that it is just for city commuting in which case a 6'' rotor would be fine

There are different types of caliper mounts ("post mount" and "IS"). One mounts axially and one mounts radially relative to the fork. Caliper selection for either is easy so you may want to do it in reverse and locate a fork and then choose the caliper based on the fork type.

Disc brake hubs again come in different varieties. Shimano spline type or 6 bolt are the two most common. I would go for 6 bolt because replacement rotors are much cheaper and more widely available.

[jyl]

You can still get a 1" fork with disc mounts. Either steel or carbon. Given the e-bike application, I'd go steel.

[patz]

Bought this today.


Fork mount adapter is in the mail.

[patz]

[patz]

The rim is horrible, trust me.

[Jim Bremner]

this will not end well. That fork will fail.

[aigel]

You are going to clamp that to your fork? Haha! Pretty sad to see on a technical forum.

Listen to Jim B. - he is a long term bike store owner / operator.

[SilberUrS6]

I also agree with Jim. I see the advantages of disk brakes when I ride in the wet. I also like the simplicity and durability of mechanical disk brakes in both road and off-road applications. I have converted several bikes to front disk/rear rim set-ups, and in every case, I have changed out the fork to one designed for disk brake mounting. Building a wheel with a disk brake hub is simple and relatively cheap. But the proper mounting for the caliper and skewer both make changing out the fork necessary. If you want disk brakes that work and are safe to use, change out your fork, relace your wheel to a disk hub, and get a good mechanical disk brake.

[LEAKYSEALS951]

Oooooh ooooooh ooooooh let me guess!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[patz]

If it fails, it fails. I'll replace the fork and weld the mount. The thing doesn't stop worth a damnas-is. All the parts, wheel,hub,disc and brake lever new and can be re-purposed. Only thing that is cheesey is the fork and the clamp on mount, oh and the owner.

Back pedal coaster brake on the rear with a 50cc Moto Morini 2 stroke. It will be a pit bike.

[nota]

I would try a good soft new pad on the rim brake first
and a good new cable also

older hard/hardened pads do suck
as do rustie old cables

but he has a S-deore front hub unlikely to be found on a cheap bike like a huffie
the coaster brake rear is a puzzler tho with a good front hub

and a new fork is the way to go with a disk

[Jim Bremner]

My youngest son went riding with a bud that his dad who built off road v8 buggies. Dad re-welded the front fork. 20 year old son went down HARD face first into the ground due to the fork failing at dads weld. Broken jaw, lost a few teeth, 4 days in the hospital

There's a ton of stress on a front fork. 30 years of being in the biz. PLEASE for all that is good just walk away from trying to add disk brakes to a bike that was NEVER engineered for it.

[LEAKYSEALS951]

Originally Posted by nota

but he has a S-deore front hub unlikely to be found on a cheap bike like a huffie
the coaster brake rear is a puzzler tho with a good front hub

And this is what has the bike junkies enthralled..... The deore doesn't go on that fork. The original wheel had a steel washer with a tab that inserted into the hole in the stamped portion of the fork above the quick release. The Deore would have gone on a fork with lawyer tabs- so the peanut gallery MUST know if this was a crappy bike with a relatively good wheel, or a good bike that someome installed a crappy fork on.
From the OP's last comment, I'm retracting my huffy comment and going with the latter.

As for the fork being strong enough, I'm going to take a minority stance and say that although it's a POS, it will be fine.

The novelty of the motorized bike will wear off before the fork fails.
*Just barely*

This is not to say I support the OP's actions. What is happening here is a moral and ethical affront, but from my computer, like watching an ISIS beheading or the taliban blowing up some ancient shrine, I am powerless to do anything about it.

As an aside, I think I vaguely remember a warning that came with the cheap chinese engine NOT to mount these engines on certain low budget frames. I remember growing up in the 1970's, there were some really low budget frames from JC penney's etc.. that were so poorly joined together that they really would separate at the joints. They weren't so much joined as they were press fit, with perhaps a tack weld. Ughhh!!!!!

[aigel]

Problem is that when it fails, you may not be around to fix it ... because, unannounced, you will be going head first ... into whatever is coming up.

I had a boss before that called this type of saving money "dumb cheap". Too little savings compared to the risk.

YMMV - good luck!

G

[Porsche-O-Phile]

If done properly a weld is stronger than the surrounding metal. The key is it needs to be done properly - as in, the welder needs to know what the hell they're doing. Bikes are tricky since (among other things) they often incorporate odd alloys that are difficult to match, have varying thicknesses of metal, etc. I'd guess that in many cases of weld failure it isn't the weld that actually fails (although there are probably some of those too) but the point where the metal begins to transition from weld / repair to surrounding material. Maybe the OP is a good welder. I'm an okay welder who can tack a couple of non-critical pieces of metal together and that's about the extent of what I need to know how to do. I'd never trust myself to do anything critical or on which my life (or someone else's) might depend without a lot of additional research, training, practice, etc.

I read up on this a while back and the conclusion I've reached is that for a road or hybrid type bike a conversion to disk brakes is not really worth the extra cost, expense or effort. On a mountain / trail bike it might be if you're constantly bombing down hills in wet / sloppy conditions. At this point in my life I ride road much more than mountain and my mountain bike skills are decent but not great to the point where I'd see much benefit. I don't take as many stupid risks as I used to (I get to take all new stupid risks! ). Anyway, I'd look for a new fork with the setup already on it. As has been said above, why do you want to risk it? Is going face-first into who-knows-what at 30-35 mph worth it just to look "cutting edge". The answer should be a resounding "hell no". I used to ride down around Newport / Laguna Niguel all the time and there are very precious few situations anywhere near there that require the extra stopping power of disk brakes.

[patz]

OK, OK. I ordered up a new fork with a welded on bracket.