Starting to gather a few gems for my latest build, a Starway freemaster pro
I always like to try new things with my builds and after seeing a few Woody Itson trickstar roller cam brake builds on the museum i decided to have a go myself.... with an Oddy pitbull
The Woody's for reference
So the first issue is mounting the brake itself, as the pitbull is mounted with a traditional bolt the shaft inside the fork would have to straddle the bolt with enough clearance not to bind when in use.
In order to keep the shaft plumb and running smooth i bought a linear bearing. The shaft is 12mm diameter and the bearing is 12mm internaly and 21mm externally. The forks were 21mm at the top and tapered to just under 20mm where the break is mounted for some reason. Luckily i had already bought a beefy drill bit for another stem little project
so it was staightforward to bore out the tube to the depth i needed for the bearing
Next i made a little bracket out of a 50mm x 50mm piece of 2mm steel plate. Cut like a capital letter V and bent in the vice to mirror the pitbull wedge shape.
The type of bearing i used is an extra long one, 57mm, the standard ones are 32mm i think but i wanted the extra length to help keep everything running smooth
The shaft offered up to the plate and ground to the right angle
I made a little jig to keep everything square whle the JB Weld went off ( Once i knew everything lined up with the brake the joint was cleaned up and welded properly)
Once the shaft was cut to length i welded a small penny washer to the top to act as a stop for the pear end of a cable ( the pear fits nicely inside the shaft )
The final result looks alot cleaner without the cable and horrid plastic cable hanger that is stock with the pitbull
The cable will run through a barrel end mounted in the pots bolt of a freestyle stem and a modified Oddysey Knarp will attach the cable to the brake lever.
Just need to strip the pitbull now for a fresh coat of white paint and give the little pulley wheels a spot of grease
Thanks for looking guys, Clint