hand brake levers

brentville · Aug 31, 2008

I am putting hand brakes from an old road bike on some smallish ape hanger handle bars. The brake levers are the hooded road bike ones and they don't seem to have a lot of room to move back and forth before the lever hits the bar. Is there a minimum travel distance that they must go to actually stop the bike? Is it trial and error and pull the cable tighter to find out if they have enough travel distance to stop the bike?

What about an "alternative" type of lever? What else has everyone used?

Thanks

Markm · Aug 31, 2008

probably wont work. I have an old one that will work if ya want it. PM me your address. Mark

Plays_with_toys · Aug 31, 2008

Just put the brake pads real close to the wheel, then you have to pull a shorter distance. From what I understand the mechanical advantage of road bike handles is less than the mechanical advantage of say, a mountain bike lever. So you will need to squeeze harder on the road bike brakes compared to similar mountain bike brake levers to get the same reaction force.

CCR · Sep 1, 2008

stopping is kind of important

i think the levers your talking about are for curved bars (10 speed style) and your trying to put them on apes that have straight bars ?

if so its best to have the right style levers, any bike shop should have some cheap, tho its probly cheaper to snag some from a discarded mountain bike im sure theres plenty of us here with some to spare if ya cant find some. but i would make sure it had straight levers on the bike

MadMick · Sep 1, 2008

All flat bar levers except those designed for V brakes will work with your side pull calipers. Actually V brake levers will work the brakes but will significantly reduce the mechanical advantage as they pull more cable so you have to pull on them much harder.

Markm · Sep 1, 2008

Markm said:
probably wont work. I have an old one that will work if ya want it. PM me your address. Mark

brentville · Sep 1, 2008

I'm going to try the road bike handles and see how they pull. I've got another idea for a lever to get more travel and hence more pull. If not, I'll go to the parts bin and see what mountain bike levers I can scrounge. All this because the kid who is getting the bike gets "confused" about pedaling "backwards" to use a coaster brake.