Drift trike brake question

[Skater911]

I am building my first drift trike and I have most of he parts already. My question is on brake setups. I am using a front half of a bmx bike that has rim brakes and I bought rear mechanical disc brake kit.

The questions are: do I need the rear brake or is the front strong enough? If I do the rear brake, what is the easiest was to setup (meaning cables and any return springs if needed). I am going attach it to the bike normal hand brake lever. It came with a beaker to weld to the frame, but I couldn't find examples of the cable setup. Thanks

 

[Hellion]

I think you need a rear brake as a front brake caliper with the rubber pads is gonna get smoked doing all the work. Any chance you can add a front disc brake (hand operated) that are all the rage on mtn bikes?

I cannot recommend a rear brake setup because I don't know your trike's configuration. Someone else can though...

 

[itsid]

well the rear brake is more or less pointless really.
As soon as the rear wheels are sleeved with PVC it's about as effective
as putting your feet on the ground (wearing roller skates)

So front brake it is, the rear brake only works on non sleeved tyres
(or helps breaking traction to introduce a drift... that's why you see them on drift trikes )

Now.. rim brakes are not really good enough, as Hellion said,
the pads won't stand the abuse for very long, and the stopping power isn't exactly noteworthy as soon as you got some good forward momentum.

The thing is, the skinny front wheel does not provide much contact with the road,
So with a very good rim brake you might be able to break traction on the front wheel already
and if so, there is no upgrade needed..
but from the guts.. DISC brake is the much better option indeed.

Brakes on a drift trike are ineffective by nature
(skinny 'light' front wheel... sleeved rear wheels)

So if you want to stop that thing reliably and quickly,
you need to think outside of the box (no classical wheel brake approach)
back to feet on the ground.

a lever hand brake that pushes a reinforced section of car tyre to the ground perhaps.

if your foot pegs are chassis not wheel mounted,
because a spring loaded release to make them drop to the ground
(again with sections of car tyre as makeshift brakepads against the road)

something like that has a better chance of stopping a drift trike.

Personally.. I think a drift trike doesn't need more than a front brake (a reliable one that )
and enough room to not hit anything
(so where you ride is more important imho than how to stop for that matter )

'sid

 

[Skater911]

Thanks for the info so far. If I just do the front brake and convert to a disc brake setup, is it just changing the the wheel hub that will allow me to the able to add the disc. I am using a 20 inch wheel and haven't seen any bmx style that are disc brakes stock. I didn't mention this but it will be motorized with the 212 predator motor.

 

[weshole]

I ended up buying a used 26" big tire bike with disc brakes already installed. It is the best option for maximum contact patch and best possible brake force. I do have a rear disc brake as well for redundancy (when the sleeves are not on the tires).

 

[mckutzy]

BMX bikes don't have disc brakes, cause they would get damaged by tricks the riders do.
Discs are typically used in an agressive quick or panic stop situations. Downhill trail bike are a good example..