About nine months ago we were contacted by Scott McFarlin, he has a start up company who were focused on designing a universal disc brake caliper kit that should fit most current 20 & 24″ frames. (It’s important to note that they are specifically for Pro size frames and larger due to the disc hubs only being available in pro size). Things went quiet after that initial contact, but Scott returned this month and it’s full steam ahead.

We asked for some information and this is what Scott had to say (prices mentioned are in US dollars):

Up until now there has been attempts people have made through the years making one-off disc brake kits for their bikes.

I’m the first to bring it up to an almost production level. V-brakes have been around since 1995, a 20 year old design that needs to be replaced with something more efficient.

Sure v-brakes work but until one tries a hydraulic disc brake they won’t understand the improvements and benefits to be had for scrubbing speed, instead of too much braking when situations occur.

When I started testing my design over a year ago, the most asked question is the weight. All the kits vary slightly in weight but my heaviest kit when used in conjunction with the recommended Shimano XTR M987 brake weighs the same as a complete BOX v-brake system.

The disc hubs themselves weigh different and some offer even further weight lightening parts such as Titanium mounting bolts and large hollow flush mount axle kits.

A complete brake system (my kit, a hydraulic brake system, and a Stealth disc brake hub shell, if a customer already has a Stealth rear hub) starts at around $320 and goes up from there depending on the components chosen/needed (basically $100 more than a complete BOX v-brake system) so if you don’t already own a Stealth pro hub (price savings for switching internals to the disc hub shell as mentioned above) a disc brake hub would be needed and are the same price as the regular pro hubs from Onyx, Stealth, and Profile.

These kits are as off the shelf as can be without the need for any frame modifications or any machining needed. Production hydraulic disc brakes are in their infancy for bmx race bikes but this time I feel they are here to stay and be accepted with their advancements in brake technology and also to replace those 20 year old v-brakes. It’s the next evolution of mountain bike technology that slowly trickles down to the bmx bikes just like all the other parts accepted in recent years that are the standard parts seen on modern bmx race bikes. So far Yess bmx is the only other company that I’ve seen displaying a disc brake kit to be offered to the public and I’m sure there will be more companies soon to design their own but my kits already are designed to work with most of the disc hubs currently available and also work on most bmx race frames where as Yess has displayed their frame with one type of hub.

Until hearing from Scott I thought that BMX was going through another short run Disc brake fad, but this time around with big hitters like Profile, Stealth and Onyx getting behind it maybe the disc brake is here to stay. I’ve certainly be up for trying it out for myself.

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For more information

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