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@RgrahamH
I've decided that I hate old bikes! :o)
Nothing is ever straightforward on a 70 year old bike, not for me anyway! A few weeks ago @Big_Block went way beyond the call of duty in order to get a pair of his repro ShockStops, literally half way round the world, to me before Eroica Britannia. I was pleased as punch when they arrived and added them to my packing. I tried to fit them whilst I was at Eroica but I had recently rewrapped the handlebars and didn't want to take the wrapping off. I tried to fit them without removing the brake levers but, not wanting to damage them, I gave up. Pity as they would have been really useful on some of those hills.
Anyway, when I got back I found a nice GB Hiduminium stem and alloy handlebar set on ebay. They even had original Dare handlebar sleeves still fitted. Great I thought, I'll fit the ShockStops at the same time as I moved the brake levers to the new handlebars.
So today I fitted the new stem and handlebars and removed the levers form the old handlebars. Now one of the reasons I liked the new bars was because of the original Dare sleeves so I didn't want to damage or remove them. However the brake levers wouldn't fit over the sleeves to go onto the bars. Not a problem I thought, I'll just remove the straps that hold the levers on so that I can open them over the bars and then screw them back on again. If only life was so easy...
First, because I had fitted the ShockStops this made everything I did much trickier. Also, I found out that whereas with one brake lever it was easy to remove the brake cable as the hole that the pear fitting goes through is open on one side, on the other lever it is not open. Which means that I would have to thread the whole cable length back through the hole to remove it. Not a problem, but there are broken threads on the brake cable so if I remove it the chances are I won't be able to rethread it again (I known it needs replacing but I don't have a spare at the moment). So this cable simply added to the things in the way as I tried to refit the levers.
Another, and more intractable, problem was refitting the levers to the straps. There is a funny type of nut that is used to hook into either side of the strap and then the lever is screwed back into the nut. Getting the easier lever fitted back onto the strap was a nightmare as I had to use one pair of pliers to squeeze the strap over the nut, and with my other hand use a screwdriver to try and screw the lever into the nut. But eventually I managed it.
On the trickier side though it took forever to get the lever to fit onto the straps. However I finally managed it only to find that I was unable to tighten the lever sufficiently to fit securely onto the bars! After a number of re-fittings, each a nightmare, I compared both screws (without removing the other one) and saw that there was a washer fitted on the one I was having trouble with. Thinking about it, I went and bought some washers and added a couple to the screw to see if that would make it tighter. All it seemed to do was make it even more difficult to fit the lever onto the strap. Finally, however, I have managed to fit the lever and it does seem to be much tighter.
I can't believe I have spend over half a day fitting two brake levers!!