OoshOosh

Hi there friends,
So I'm building a couple of bikes right now for myself and a friend, and the dude at my LBS was a complete ****** to me the other day when I asked him this question, so I'm hoping someone here can help me.

I want to put coaster brake wheelsets on both of the bikes I'm building. One is an old Schwinn Road bike, and the other is an early 90's Schwinn hard tail mt bike. I want to use 700c wheels..... Can I do this, concidering that I do not need the brakes to line up, as I'll have coasters? I assume this will be TOTALLY fine on the old road bike, because it has 27" rims on it now..... the Mt bike I'm not so sure of, as it has 26" on there..... the only reason I can think of tht it won't work is due to the brakes not working, but as I said, I don't need them now.....

Thoughts??

(P.s., I am not trying to be a wanna be hipster with this coaster brake action.... I *F*ed my hand REALLY badly mountain biking last season, and I can't pull a brake lever anymore.....)

elemental

Yes, a coaster brake rear wheel will work as long as the wheels fit. You may need to respace your coaster hub though, which is not a big deal. A 700c with skinny tires might fit the mountain bike - if a 700c wheel fits in the frame, you will be fine, though I don't think you'd have much tire clearance. I'm having a hard time picturing it, and I don't have any 26" mountain bikes to try it on.

Are you going to be running front brakes, or just the coasters in the back?

OoshOosh

I won't be able to run a hand brake in the front, as im certain that the 700c wheel will not line up with the pads.....

TheBikeRollsOn 

You could buy a longer reach front brake. What will you be using the bikes for. I would not trust a coaster brake by itself as an efficient braking mechanism.

Retro Grouch 

It's do-able.

My fixed gear conversion started life as a Raleigh Technium mountain bike. I laced up a set of 700c rims onto Surley hubs. The reflector hole in the (rigid) front fork turned out to be perfectly spaced for a normal reach 105 brake caliper. Since my bike is fixed gear, I don't use a rear brake.

I suspect you'll have rear spacing issues. Most mountain bikes have 135mm rear dropout spacing and most coaster brake hubs are 110mm. That's a whole inch of difference. Assuming your frames are aluminum I don't think you'll be successful in respacing them. You may run out of axle length if you try to respace the hub and you'll have to do something with the coaster brake torque arm.

Good luck.

JohnDThompson 

It will work, but keep in mind a single rear hub brake is not a very effective means of stopping a bicycle. There's a reason why you only find coaster brakes on children's bikes and low-end department store bikes that are unlikely to be ridden fast or often.

lz4005

Like others have said, as long as the rim fits on the bike, it should work.
You may have to build the wheels, though. There aren't many options for pre-made 700c rims laced to coaster hubs.

The other thing to think about is chain tension. You can't use a mechanical tensioner with coaster brakes, so you'll need either a magic gear or horizontal dropouts.

Did you mess up both hands? Not to belabor the point, but a front brake would be a good idea if you're going down any kind of hill and/or wet pavement with skinny high pressure tires. You could use a drum brake front wheel like I have on my coaster brake Steamroller. No problems with reach or mounting points.

They're on a lot more bikes than that. Aside from overheating from heavy use they work just fine. Like all rear brakes, they are safer when paired with a front brake.

hairnet

do the front brake too unless you'll be riding at the speed of a beach cruiser. I screwed my left wrist so I just run my front brake on to the right lever.

elemental

While coaster brakes are not particularly "in" right now, they have been used for all kinds of bikes. If they were only for kids' bikes, this hub wouldn't make much sense, since it alone looks like it'll be over $100.

Hub brakes do have some advantages, especially their performance in bad weather and ease of maintenance. They don't perform especially well because they can only be used as back brakes, which aren't very effective in the first place. I would have no problem using one instead of a caliper, and I am planning on building up a bike with an S2C hub as soon as I can get my hands on one (it will have a front caliper).

lz4005

Disc and drum brakes are also types of hub brakes.

JohnDThompson 

While coaster brakes will only work on a rear wheel, coaster brakes are only a subset of hub brakes. Disc and drum brakes are available for both front and rear wheels.

JohnDThompson 

Rear wheel brakes in general are limited in effectiveness by the traction on the rear wheel. Even cheap coaster brakes can lock up a rear wheel, and at that point you're at the maximum braking power possible. A fancier coaster brake will have the same limitation; about all you can hope for is that it will dissipate heat more effectively and thus maintain its relatively feeble braking power longer than a cheaper model.

robertv

Basically, if you're gonna be riding aggressively then a coaster brake might not be for you. A good coaster hub will still stand up to the abuse, it just won't stop you so fast. If traffic in your area is not very bike friendly and is dense and fast moving maybe a coaster brake won't be for you. If on the other hand traffic is reasonable and courteous to bike riders and you don't foresee yourself having to slam on the brakes when you get cut off or etc then go for it. Once you're used to it you'll be able to stop safely and fairly quickly even with just a coaster brake. Not as quickly as if you had a front brake, but pretty quickly nonetheless.

wroomwroomoops

This will work, also for the MTB, as long as your tire is skinny. Coaster brake-only bikes are quite popular in finland for urban cycling (but def not for any longer distance biking). Still, a from brake in addition to the coaster brake, is a really great advantage.

Did you eff up both hands in the accident? Any chance for recovery?