Singlespeed & Fixed Gear - Nitto Bullhorn/Syntace Brake Lever Question

I'm still getting into this, still use a front brake. Just got aluminum Nitto Horns for my ride, bought a Syntace bar-end brake lever off ebay. Want to use em together. Problem is, the horns aren't intended for brakes at all, so I'd have to drill a hole into them to accomadate the brake cable. Does anyone out there use this setup? Would I be doing serious damage to the horns if I drilled into em? Is it really bad to run a brake line through bars without cable housing? Any suggestions?

just wrap the cable under the tape.
drillin's fer suckas

']just wrap the cable under the tape.
drillin's fer suckas

Ditto. Use electrical tape to attach the cable to the side of the bar where your hands won't be. Piece of cake.

Yeah, I hear you. Problem is, the Syntace Spacecontrol brakes are designed for inline cable routing, meaning that I can't run them outside the horns. So basically, I either drill a small hole into the horn or don't put em on. They're really nice levers tho, and I'd like to use em.

drill my son...or get new bars. Thems the choices.

you should make it stealth and figure out how to route the cable through the stem and down the fork, posibly hybrid a long reach brake and the pulleys from a freestyle bmx front brake (the kind that pull from the bottom instead of the top). You'd just have to drill through the back center of the bar so it matches with the hole in the stem, then drill a hole through the steer tube and route down like that. but then again this would only work for a threadless stem, a quill stem would be much more difficult...

wow, ok now I want to do this. I'm gonna go ahead and patend this as the "champ method" cause I'm the champ.

[QUOTE]wow, ok now I want to do this. I'm gonna go ahead and patend this as the "champ method" cause I'm the champ.

I'm sorry, but I would call this the 'chump method'. Introducing stress point in your bars, stem and forks may not be a good idea.
But then I dropped out after 3 years of mechanical engineering, so I'm no pro.

Are we forgetting that the bars are one of the most critical parts on your bike? Nobody likes broken bars, broken faces, broken backs, etc. and introducing weaknesses into the already thin walls of your aluminum handlebars is just asking for trouble. Now I'm sure there are people out there who have pierced their bars with no consequences as of yet, but it seems like a needless risk to take.

Drill holes in bars. Develop microscopic cracks near holes. Expand microscopic cracks through daily torquing and stressing of bars. Throw body weight on bars during critical skid-stop to avoid careening into traffic. Bars fail. Insert imagination here.

A rare moment of caution, but somebody had to say it.

pfft just weld them to the stem, DUH!!

yeah good point, i got caried away with hiding cables, it's something I enjoy doing. though welding a back plate to the bar (if there's space in the stem to accept it) would help prevent a crack from forming. But all in all, probably a bad idea.

what they said, and tape it to the bar so's it fits nice under your hand when you ride. Between the finger joints, etc. Test it out for feel. You won't notice it much once the bar's wrapped.

How about NO BRAKES!!!. Tape them don't drill so, if you break them it all on you. No Manufacter's defect there.

S/F,
CEYA!

I love you guys.

I once attached an REI safari bar to an Ovation XC bar with Cane Creek bar ends on a hybrid using black gaffer tape (the tape that keeps Tinsel City together). My idea was to provide a lot more hand positions for long rides on a hybrid. Resulting bizarre looking dual bars turned out not to be "Brilliant!" (think the Guinness cartoon characters in recent obnoxious TV ads ;-) This configuration might have worked on country roads, but in city traffic I had to keep desperately thrusting my hands between the dual bars to reach the brake levers. I did learn that 1-inch wide gaffer tape is very strong, is weather proof, and provides a great grip. Gaffer tape could securely mate (forever;-) your Nitto horn and Syntace bar ends/brake levers. If you want something really cool, you also gaffer-tape (over cork) the entire Nitto horn in Sunset Blvd red ;-)

:roflmao: :roflmao:

OH GOD NO!!! GAFFER TAPE!!! The bane of the AV world. I currently working a "top secret" job and they keep wanting us to wrap all our cables in gaffer's tape, it's the worst experience ever. strong stuff though...

you should make it stealth and figure out how to route the cable through the stem and down the fork, posibly hybrid a long reach brake and the pulleys from a freestyle bmx front brake (the kind that pull from the bottom instead of the top). You'd just have to drill through the back center of the bar so it matches with the hole in the stem, then drill a hole through the steer tube and route down like that. but then again this would only work for a threadless stem, a quill stem would be much more difficult...

wow, ok now I want to do this. I'm gonna go ahead and patend this as the "champ method" cause I'm the champ.

a potts mod stem bolt will make it work on a quill stem.

you should make it stealth and figure out how to route the cable through the stem and down the fork, posibly hybrid a long reach brake and the pulleys from a freestyle bmx front brake (the kind that pull from the bottom instead of the top). You'd just have to drill through the back center of the bar so it matches with the hole in the stem, then drill a hole through the steer tube and route down like that. but then again this would only work for a threadless stem, a quill stem would be much more difficult...

wow, ok now I want to do this. I'm gonna go ahead and patend this as the "champ method" cause I'm the champ.

cant be the champ if you are rockin a brake lever.

what if the brake lever sprayed oil out the back???



(sorry for the constant responses, I'm sitting around waiting for my clothes to get all clean...)

Get new brake levers that don't use internal cable routing.

Get new brake levers that don't use internal cable routing.

There you go talking sense again. You give this place a bad name.