Bicycle Mechanics - Can I disable the coaster brake on my sons 16" ?

My son has a Kent bmx style bike and he was hoping to give it a try down at the local bmx track tomorrow. I feel he is up to the task, however he often has problems with his coaster brake engaging when he dosn't want to and the fact that it dosn't have much room for modulation. I know from riding flatland that there are ways of converting old sun coaster hubs to freecoaster, and figured maybe there is some why of just disengaging the clutch mechanism, sort of like braking it. Thanks for the responses.

Does his bike have regular cable brakes? If not disengaging the only braking mechanism the bicycle has might be a bit dangerous don't you think?

That said, if you remove the coaster brake attatchment arm (doubt that is the propper name) which is the part that bolts to the chainstays, that should render the brake inopperable. Not exactly sure if that will work, but I know that arm has to be attatched for coaster brakes to work, so if you take it off....they shouldn't work. Hope my logic is correct.

Ray

Sorry, DeafLamb, but it is slightly more complicated. Disconnecting the brace to the frame won't deactivate the brake, but might cause the hub to rotate in the frame dropouts. Not terrible, but not effective either.

I don't know the proper answer either, and I hope someone will step up with info on how to defeat the sprag/ratchet/whatever mechanism in a coaster hub. I'm curious.

EDIT: Try this thread. Jonny B seems to have a method to deactivate coasters:
http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=33973&highlight=defeat+coaster+brake

Oh well...

I still don't think trying to deactivate the brake is the best idea in the world either...unless of course it has regular brakes.

Ray

Oh well...

I still don't think trying to deactivate the brake is the best idea in the world either...unless of course it has regular brakes.

Ray
You don't think dragging his feet will work just fine to stop him? :p

I appreciate your concern, but fortunately I'm just a concerned for my son's safety. I have many different brakes and levers from my own experienced years of riding. His bike does have provisions for universal brakes, so I will use these.

I have sourced a 16" BMX styled wheel that uses a standard BMX freewheel at a local shop. I am confident that my son has the strength and co-ordination to utilize a hand brake, so everything will work out fine. He has demonstrated this on other bikes. I just felt that a coaster break was more of a hazard than a help for him, and would be ever more so on a BMX track.
Thanks for the response everyone.
Regards,
robertBMX

EDIT: Try this thread. Jonny B seems to have a method to deactivate coasters:
http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=33973&highlight=defeat+coaster+brake

Thanks for the great link FlatTop. Too bad alot of the links were dead. I actually read the thread already and knew about the sun tour freecoaster. At one point I was considering one for my flatland bike, but unfortunately availability and axle size was an issue. Since details are a little sketchy with the modification I'm just going to stick with a free wheel, but fear not I will crack open the old hub and see what I can do just to satisfy my curiosity and learn a little more.
Thanks again.

Simple but radical way: take the wheel off, chop off the brake arm, put the wheel back on. Not reversible, but it works.

Just take the hub apart and remove the spring, brake wedges etc. and reassemble it w/out them. Try it on a junk bike first just to make sure.