FSR-Si":3nu625se said:
Maguras are far far better than any U brake imo, Best thing i ever did was bin off the U brake and fit the upside down Maguras on my GT, It made it such a nicer bike to ride.
Agreed, Maguras have better modulation than any U brake, as I said previously, though it all depends on whether you are able to fit them satisfactorily (or not....).
As you can see in the photo of FSR-Si's GT, the adaptors are absolutely as low as they can go on the U brake studs in order for the pads to be centred on the braking surface of the rim and I'm betting that GT has a wheel spindle/centre of brake boss dimension of
less than 314mm and a centre/centre dimension of
less than 92mm between the U brake studs.
So, while HS-33's may fit on a Trimble or some GT's, with nothing more than widening the slot a little, on U brake equipped Konas the slots need extending up as far as you dare (another 2mm) and also (only at the top) out towards the outside of the adaptor in a sort of "P" shape.
Plus also some material removed from where the slave cylinder contacts the bottom corner of the adaptor in order to be able to move the slave cylinder slightly further inboard.
And the results still aren't perfect, although the feel is better than the U brake......
But, set a U brake up with decent pad compound and best straddle cable length and for a rear brake there's not a lot wrong with them - getting decent modulation and "feel" is the tricky bit, they don't need a huge amount of power - it's a rear brake after all.
The problem with both HS-33's and U brakes is the amount of crap they collect.