[mhickey79]

Found this gem at a friend's shop. I was impressed by the rear disc brake, and thought I'd share. For your viewing pleasure:

 

[DeeEight]

That's a Shimano disc brake... I used to own an NOS Shimano OilLite full hydraulic rear disc brake, the caliper was similar to that cable version and the rotor was identical. I traded it to Thorsten for a Magura Clara disc brake.

 

[misterdangerpants]

Ah, sweet memories. I had a disc brake on my bright orange Huffy 12-speed back in 1978.....

 

[First Flight]

10-12 years ago we bought close to 300 of those old Shimano disc brakes still in the original master cartons of 50. We've built them into all kinds of wheels over the years. They actually work surprising well with a good quality brake lever and lined cable housing.

 

[1 cog frog]

Interesting

How do they mount to the frame? Are there any special tabs needed? Maybe I could throw one on a klunker build? Jeff, what is the rear spacing? Do they stop any better than a drum brake?

frog

 

[First Flight]

 

[mechagouki]

1973 Schwinn Lemon Peeler with rear disc brake (available on '72 and '73 Krate series bikes), picture scanned from Liz Fried's excellent 1997 book entitled simply "Schwinn Stingray". Photo by Jeff Hackett.

Apologies for non-mtb content.

 

[Repack Rider]

The rarity of those "Krate" frames is due in part to the fact that they had that drum brake on the front. In the '70s you could get the bikes cheap at a garage sale, throw away everything but the front hub, drill eight more holes and build your klunker front wheel.

I don't know that I ever saw the disc brake version. Was that a limited production?

The reason the Krate bikes went out of production was because the CPSC didn't care much for the shifter between the rider's legs.

 

[mechagouki]

The discs were an option (unfortunately an expensive and unpopular one - $130 was a fortune to pay for a kid's bike in 1972) for just 2 years out of the 5 year original production run on Krates ('68-'73), after that, as CK points out, Ralph Nader and the CPSC put their fears for the fertility of male American youth into legislation and the Stik-Shift bikes were no more.

 

[muddybuddy]

Ralph Nader and the CPSC put their fears for the fertility of male American youth into legislation and the Stik-Shift bikes were no more.

All I have to say to that is natural selection.

By the way, those frames were also used pretty heavily in the early days of BMX before the purpose built frames started coming out.