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Where do you usually ride?
On the drops, hoods?
If it is either of these use usual aero brake levers.
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I have drops and don't have proper hooded brakes and I find now that with most of my rides being extended rural rides I am always slowing down and riding on the tops so that I'm in close reach of the brake when there are junctions. I don't trust drivers so I always end up changing my hand position just incase. I'm going to order some proper road levers, new tape, cables etc. when I've got the money to do so. I'd say that the ideal would be to have both. Like a cross bike but then you have to weight that up against the aesthetics. I'm probably going to end up with a front and rear brake with front and rear road levers and a cross top front lever. It won't look as cool as it could but I could always take off bits and put on another set of bars if I want.
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on my bike, I rode with my hands on the tops, just in front of the levers, so they were in easy reach.
I just noticed that everyone I've seen with a fixed and one brake, had a small cross lever style brake, so I was wondering if this was just because it looks nicer. Does it look wierd with one drop brake? Not that this will stop me, I just wondered..... -
If you ride on the hoods, I'd be inclined to plump for bullhorns and a time trial lever, basically cos I think that one aero lever on a set of drops looks really weird. Two levers and one brake looks weirder still. Bullhorns strike a good balance between practicality and prettiness. You end up with a sort of simulated hoods position. It's not quite as comfy as the real deal, but unless you're planning on hours and hours in the saddle, it'll be just fine.
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in the bog?
you can can get ghost hoods from tandem specialists if you want to run 1 hooded lever, the advantage being is you gain another position on the drops.
i run a single cross lever, with the smallest possible clamp so i can ride hands in the middle comfortably, and very grippy (1.5gbp bricky) gloves and yoshida grips and in the hood position so i can ride there too. i only need the brake for fast stops (in traffic) so the middle is good for me, and the chain covers slow downs on less busy roads when i'm on the hooks.
btw. nitto noodles are the best since la84s
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you could always stick a bmx lever under the drop where you can reach it from your position...
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okay, thanks. I guess I just need to make a decision on this... I would prefer to have as little extra 'stuff' on my bike as possible, but if I don't want a cross brake in the middle and I continue to use drops, I guess I'll have to go with the ghost hood option.
Unless I try the bullhorns, but I haven't got any. Maybe I could use the hooded levers whilst I get used to my new ride then swop over to a single cross lever. -
If you use the drops, then don't go for bullhorns as that's exactly what they're lacking. Personally, I find it easier to navigate steep descents in the drops.
I currently run a dummy brake which looks fine, but I'm going to try out a BMX lever as I agree it looks cleaner. I don't use the brake much anyway and when I do, it's generally in traffic where I'm riding on the tops.
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I like the look of this.
http://velospace.org/node/4884
What sort of brake is that? Normal aero one upsidedown? -
Just an old drop bar lever, not an aero one but you can mount a aero one facing the other way (pointing towards you) at the end of the bars on the underside.
If you don't have a set of bull horns and do have a cheap set of drops you don't mind cutting consider flipping and chopping to make a nearly bull horn bar.
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the other advantage of a cross lever is that it very versatile (unlike the bmx and tt options) you can put it near the middle of any normal bar and on the end or behind the grip of most bull horns. they are also very light and have a much smaller clamp than the the goldfinger for example which means more room for your hands on the bars. they do pull a lot of cable because they are designed for v brakes, some people think this is not good (the people who make the overpriced paul lever) but this means if your calipers doesn't have a quick release you can still get you wheel out easily.
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nimhbus [quote]Soweto888 [quote]nimhbus two hoods with one dummy lever looks just fine..
We'll agree to disagree... :-P[/quote]
how can you tell one is a dummy, then, without first inspecting the backwheel? eh?[/quote]
Oh, a dummy hood AND lever... Hm, I'd never considered that. Doesn't the cableless lever rattle about when the road surface gets bad?
juliettyspaghetty Would it look wierd with just one of those?
I reckon it looks fine.
Which is more than can be said for the carpet. To be honest, I was thinking more about how my hands would feel on the bars when I decided to go for this sort of set up. It thought about going for drops with a dummy hood on the non-brake side. Then I got all worried about how the position of the brakeless left hand would feel radically different to that of the right. Now I still don't know if this would have upset me in the real world, but it caused no end of distress in my head.
I dunno. Maybe the best way to go about this is to experiment on other folks' bikes. Ask friendly strangers if you can test out their bars. It's the only way to know for sure.
TheBrick(Tommy)
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Another post about brake levers
Posted by
@Julio
I have searched through all the old threads but I'm still unsure about what to do.
I'm putting together my first fixed and I'd like to have a front brake on it.
I like the look of the dirty harry/ bmx style cross levers, but I never ride with my hands anywhere near this would be. I have drop bars, so I don't think its a good solution for me, even thought I think they look good.
Does anyone have any advice on what would be a good alternative to suit the way I ride? I want to try my bike out for the first time knowing I have a brake in a useful postion as I've never ridden fixed before.