Singlespeed & Fixed Gear - .chopped bullhorns.

so my friend just gave me Cane Creek Cross Stop brake lever with a shimano dual pivot alloy brake caliper and today it gave out on me. they worked alright for about two weeks or so but now after braking the pads dont go back to their original position. brakes are the thing i am worst at fixing so i took it to my LBS. they said that the setup will not really work on my fixie because it was not made for that kind of brake set-up. is my lbs full of ****? or are they really incompatible?

also, will TT style brake levers fit on chopped bullhorns? are there any other good brake setups for chopped handle bars?

thank you much for all your answers.

christopher.

It should work fine. It says right on the crosstop box that it works with road brakes and cantilevers. I can't tell you what's really wrong without looking at it, but it should be fixable.

TT levers should work on flop and chops, but I haven't ever tried.

put the lever closer to your stem and further away from the chopped end.

um...just take all the cable/housing out, lube it and put it back in, or replace it.

you can also mount a cross lever like a tt lever. it works quite well, tbh.

Is the caliper itself moving/rotating?

OR, is the caliper not releasing all the way and rubbing?

after a couple adjustments (and a new brake cable) the brakes were workings smoothly again.

i have sworn never to take it back to that same shop. trying to sell me an entire new set without even checking it out is pretty ****ty. also, when i was there the first time they were talking to this little kid about bikes, or rather the kid was talking to them. he couldnt have been more than 12-13 years old and obviously very excited to be interacting with mechanics in a shop. after the kid left they started saying a bunch of **** about how they do not have the time to talk to annoying kids about bicycles. i completely lost all respect for them.

thank you again for all the answers.

working at a bike shop should be fun. i can see how a lot of people would get bored or dislike a lot of customers, but seriously, you could be so much worse off. there are kids working in sweatshops all over the world; it's kind of sad to see people do things like try to make a sale from ignorance or talk behind customer's backs just because they need to feel better. i really like the bike shops i frequent, and most of it is because i like the workers and think they're cool, enthusiastic, and respectful.

will TT style brake levers fit on chopped bullhorns?

It probably depends on the bars what were chopped, but I've seen them not fit (makes sense, since the bend area needs to be stronger / thicker tubing). It might be possible to file the tube out or use a grinder wheel, but there would be such a fine line between 'not enough' and 'whoops, too much' that you might not want to bother.

Good setup for chopped bars would be aeros with bar plugs tapping the end of your chopped bars. Usually when people chop their drops and turn them into mock bullhorns then they don't save enough tubing or have a bad angle on the cut which does not allow for the aero(TT) brake to fit in. Interleave brakes (cross-tops) will work with all kinds of brakes, not only that they have a cable adjusting barrel on them to give a little more pull. Thing about interleave brakes is that they don't work on their own, and you need a normal brake be it TT or aero already setup. The reason being is that it doesnèt have a cable stop built into them and they just have a passthrough system.

For more setup tips on handlebars / interleave brakes / brake lever setups either hit the mechanics forum first or ask in the cross forum as cross lever setups are best answered by cross riders.

what you probably want is the ever so trendy SS / fixed setup of having a tektro 2 finger brake lever set up to a front brake. Small inconspicuous setup for front / rear / or both brake setups without weighing down your bike and making it look ugly and will give your bike that needed brake lever you want without having to add an additional lever on it.

Note, if you are just using interleaving brakes by themselves, that could be dangerous and could result in lower stopping power. I wouldnèt know nor would I dare to use them without a TT or aero brake lever to go with them.

Thing about interleave brakes is that they don't work on their own, and you need a normal brake be it TT or aero already setup. The reason being is that it doesnèt have a cable stop built into them and they just have a passthrough system.


Not if you remove the barrel adjuster and reverse-route the cable through the cross lever:

http://i124.photobucket.com/albums/p15/suntoryjim/canti2b.jpg

I have a dual cross-lever setup...the one on the bullhorn end uses a small washer to anchor the cable end (acting as a cable stop), and the lever on the flat is pass-through. Both pull the front canti.

Thing about interleave brakes is that they don't work on their own, and you need a normal brake be it TT or aero already setup. The reason being is that it doesnèt have a cable stop built into them and they just have a passthrough system.I think a LOT of folks can tell you that this isn't true... the knob at the end of road brake cable is larger that cable housing, and works fine with a cross-top lever alone.

I think a LOT of folks can tell you that this isn't true... the knob at the end of road brake cable is larger that cable housing, and works fine with a cross-top lever alone.


quoting what I said earlier that you must have missed also...



Note, if you are just using interleaving brakes by themselves, that could be dangerous and could result in lower stopping power. I wouldn't know nor would I dare to use them without a TT or aero brake lever to go with them.


james_swift... interesting setup / use of the cross lever. Still you are using one lever as a bar end and another as the interleave.... think you can set it up to use only the cross levers on the flats with no bar ends or aeros ?

Just doesn't look safe to me, nor is it a mod that I would be willing to try regardless if many people have tried it before and say it works... cause it works it doesn't mean its safe. Even at that a 2 finger brake does the exact same thing and IS made for that type of setup as a stand alone (as far as I understood the OP) still seeing from that pic above the cross lever is still used as an interleave BUT the other one was converted to a bar-end.

james_swift... interesting setup / use of the cross lever. Still you are using one lever as a bar end and another as the interleave.... think you can set it up to use only the cross levers on the flats with no bar ends or aeros ?


You mean like this?

http://i124.photobucket.com/albums/p15/suntoryjim/swift/swift01-02.jpg

^^the above is exactly what mine is :)

You mean like this?

http://i124.photobucket.com/albums/p15/suntoryjim/swift/swift01-02.jpg

well you got me impressed I didnèt thnk it was possible, but now seeing it, looks like an interesting mod... I dunno if I would trust it. But hey if it works for you and others... congrats.

looks like you had to use a pully to make the v-brake work on that bike... am I wrong?

well you got me impressed I didnèt thnk it was possible, but now seeing it, looks like an interesting mod... I dunno if I would trust it. But hey if it works for you and others... congrats.

looks like you had to use a pully to make the v-brake work on that bike... am I wrong?

Credit goes to the creative (and sometimes whacky) minds at fixedgeargallery.com. ;)

You're correct...due to the lever pull mismatch, I had to run a Travel Agent (pulley) to get the short-pull cross lever to work with the long-pull V-brake. Although it "worked", it just worked horribly (spongy brake feel), which is why I changed to a cantilever brake.

Paul Components makes a cross lever (http://cyclocrossworld.stores.yahoo.net/paulcomencnc.html) that has an adjustable pivot pin so that it can do both long and short pulls, but it's pricey and they're out of stock.