Touring - Trekking bar break levers for a women (small hands)

Hi,
I would like to install a trekking bar on my girlfriend bike.
Now the bike have drop bar with matching break levers.
I would like to install a break lever that will fit her hands.
I am also thinking about putting 2 sets of levers, on on the straight and one on the sides. So this setup needs inline levers.
I'm looking for MTB like levers.
So the important thing is small reach break levers.
Can you please recommend levers for this setup?
Oh, and the breaks are cantis.

Thanks,
Kfir

Kfir,

One thing to consider, smaller brake levers mean she will have LESS leverage when applying the brakes. She will have to squeeze harder to apply the same braking force. This could be important on a loaded touring bike riding down a mountain pass.

Some flat bar brake levers have an adjustable stop so you can reduce the gap between the handle bar and the brake lever for those riders who have short fingers. The trade off here is you will have less brake shoe travel. You can compensate for this by making sure the rims are true and minimizing brake shoe clearance.

My statements above assume the bike has rim brakes not disc brakes.

Good luck,

Tom Moritz

Some flat bar brake levers have an adjustable stop so you can reduce the gap between the handle bar and the brake lever for those riders who have short fingers. The trade off here is you will have less brake shoe travel. You can compensate for this by making sure the rims are true and minimizing brake shoe clearance.

Good explanation, TM. But I would go beyond just saying SOME flat bar levers and say that MOST modern mtb brake levers have adjustable reach. Some (Avid SD-7 for sure, maybe others also) even have adjustable cable pull (which amounts to leverage) which can help to fine tune the balance between "bottoming out" your levers and not having enough hand strength.

My partner has small hands and limited flexibility in her wrists; she had fiddled around with a lot of
different set ups. Her bike is a small frame Cannondale T2000, what has worked best for her are
On-one Mary bars with grip shifters, Ergo grips and Tetkro brake levers (cannot recall which model) and salmon Koolstop pads on the canti brakes. She can ride comfortably with this set up for hrs at a time day after day. When she has to stop, she does easily.

Depending on what brakes your running on the bike-- BMX levers. Just make sure you have the right model for your type of brakes.

Also, don't worry about smaller levers having less leverage-- in the real world, it's just not really the case.