Disc Brakes

Has anyone attemped to install disc brakes on a Schwinn OCC bike frame. I am thinking of going this route as the chain is very close to the rear brake calipers. I did fabricate new mounts and moved them up to the top frame brace.That got the chain issue resolved. However cable just rubs the rear fender and there isn,t enough stopping power for me. I also want to retain the rear fender.

I'm sure if money and time is no object disc brakes could be installed on this bike. But unless the object of this is hydraulic brakes I wouldn't bother! I tried cable operated discs on my own bike and was completely underwhelmed at their pathetic stopping power and have returned to V brakes. My brother owns a chinese copy of the schwinn and if this the same as yours it comes with cheap pressed steel brake arms. These can be easily replaced with decent quality alloy arms and quality pads for not much money or effort. The cheap pressed arms flex quite a bit under load so you are not effectively getting the use of the whole force of the brake pad against the rim. This is compounded by the slack that seems to be designed in to the mounts of the V brakes so that you can end with less than 50% of the pad making contact when you need it most. There is one very simple substitution that I use on my own bike that greatly helps reduce pad knock-off under load. Before changing the arms over apply the brakes fully and push the bike forward watching the brake pads and see how much they will flex and twist in the direction of travel. Even with alloy arms I get 10-15 degrees of movement, ditto for the pressed steel ones. By the use of a simple shim almost all of this can be eliminated. Remove the allen head bolt that retains the arm noting how the flat washer sits ON TOP of the threaded mounting post. By simply changing this to a washer that has a hole large enough to fit OVER the threaded post it will now make direct contact with the arm preventing it sliding forward under load. The hard work here is getting the thickness of the shim correct so that the brake arm can still operate freely. I actually used some cheap chinese washers (as they are about half the thickness of good quality items) purchased at a 2 dollar shop and hand filed the excess to get the right thickness. With all this done you should get much greater clamping force as well as virtually no pad knock-off and should have far more effective braking and as a bonus the pads last much longer too. Who needs discs anyway? Good luck!

You can always weld a new placement fix for the calipers. They do
not have to be located a top rear wheel.
Fly

i would stick to the disk brake its not a motorcycle six piston stopping power but with all the issues to go through disk will benefit you.