Disc brakes on an old bike

Going to show my ignorance of all things bikey now so please bear with me!!! I have been given an old (99-2000) Spesh Big Hit with a manitou front fork that has some old rusted V-brakes on it. Do i need to spruce them v-brakes up or can i fix disc brakes to a bike with no mounting disc points? I think I,ll have to go with new v-brakes unless anyone knows differently. Thanks all

Dude,

Your options that I know of to get disc brakes fitted are:

Front end:

1. Swap out the forks for a pair with disc mounts.

Rear end:

1. Get a frame builder to fit a mounting plate
2. Find a bolt on adpator. I have only ever seen one and that was on Big Gav's bike. Not sure if you can still get them or where from. It basically looked like it bolted onto the left rear V brake mount and ran a rod down the frame to the QR bracket. The disc mount was on the rod.


Hope this helps.

That sounds like the AtoZ adaptor, try the woolly hat shop.

Clarkes do a bracket for the frame too.

Craig and Jase, thanks for giving me some hope! I dont know what the woolly hat shop is, or Clarkes but will go and have a trawl now to see what I can find. Cheers guys.

Gav's isn't the A2Z as I thought.

A2Z here: http://stores.ebay.co.uk/Woolly-Hat-Shop_A2Z-Adaptors_W0QQcolZ4QQdirZ1QQfsubZ1830203QQftidZ2QQtZkm

If I remember what Gav's one is called I'll post details.

Jase, thanks loads for the link. just need to work out what I need now!!! At least I know there's a solution available. Have a great weekend.

tezza wrote:Jase, thanks loads for the link. just need to work out what I need now!!! At least I know there's a solution available. Have a great weekend.

XX Hello, I am very new here and unfortunately not British ;-). It could happen that my writing seems less sophisticated than others. Be prepared. Never the less I will try my very best. O.K. to the brake story – my opinion is to keep the rim brakes or try what I had used till the change to discs Maguras HS 33 the best hydraulic rim brake on the market. Since 1994 I own a Specialized Stumpy fully. This bike is not very common and was provided with rim brakes that I liked to change in discs. The fork was a 99 White Brothers where the lower tubes got replaced for tubes from the DS 3 – not too difficult. On the rear it has to be welded a self designed piece of aluminium to wear the brake callipers. Hard! For all this work I needed more than a year. I didn’t care that because I had not only one bike. If somebody is interested I will post photos.
May be you consider to ask Manitou for suitable spare parts to mount a disc at the fork. The A2Z is possible on rear but not actually smart. And don’t forget the costs for new hubs.
I am locking forward my visit of the Yorkshire dale in august.
http://www.magura.com/english/frameset/frameset.htm
http://www.magura.com/english/frameset/frameset.htm

Robike, thanks loads for the info. In fact thanks to everyone. Once I got the brakes cleaned (good old dishwasher!!) it turns out they are Avid Arch Rivals; I checked them on Chain Reaction and they seem to be pretty good brakes, the reviews all rave about them. Think I,ll keep them as they are for now. Could fit a post-mount disc to the fork but the rear would be a pain. Cheers again chaps, if I,m ever allowed back out ridng I,ll let you know how they are (why do new babies take up so much time!!!!)