disc brake protectors?

General Fixed Street
1

i’ve just gotten a new polo bike and it has disc brakes (so i don’t have to keep dealing with rubbing brakes from bent wheels). what can i do to stop them getting bent/people getting cut? one of the guys here made an aluminium plate for the rear, but he also welded on an extra disc tab to mount it, which i can’t do due to my frame being aluminium. i’m also not too keen on having something too rigid bolted on to the disc tab anyway, in case a hard whack bends the disc tab

2

I run disc brakes on my MTB and you wouldn’t believe how much of a pain in the arse those things are to run. If any one in Melbourne sees a kid in melbourne on a decent MTB with a high pitched squealling coming from the brakes thats me. They also like to get bent on their own accord.

3

Get someone with a TIG welder to mount a tab for you

4

HERE IS THE LINK to the second one. Commuter Cycles in Melbourne had something to do with it.

5

And yeah, you most certainly can weld mounts onto your aluminium frame. How else do they stick the tubes together and put cable guides etc on?

6

i’m using a computer monitor base at the moment which seems to work well.
the problem with welding onto aluminium is that it is soft unless you get it heat treated. i’ll probably get a new polo bike at some point, and i might consider a drum brake if i can get a hub not too expensive

7

You could also run 140mm rotar.

8

The blue bike with the stainless bash guard was made by me (I work at Commuter). Bike is custom polo bike… The disc it’s protecting is a 140mm little fella. The 3 mounting points are built into the frame and the guard is triangulated to make it super stiff for the weight. The guard itself sits as close as possible to the disc to avoid snagging / provide better protection whilst still being able to get the wheel in and out. One issue with it is that some people have heel clearance issues (as chainstays are really short), the next one I make will have a sleeker profile at the chainstay attachment.

For other disc guards… check out the ‘Disc Brake’ thread on LoBP… something like this:
http://www.leagueofbikepolo.com/forum/gear/brakes/2009/12/22/disc-brakes#comment-62484