Pukeskywalker

I'm going to be putting bullhorns on my road bike, which I use primarily for commuting in center-city philadelphia. Where should I put the brakes?

Most of my riding will be done on the flats, so jumping my hands down to the drops for braking could be an annoyance / slightly more dangerous.

But I will be using the drops when I'm riding fast/windy days. I could see wanting brakes on the drops for sudden stopping at fast speeds, but I am a very cautious rider and will likely not have to worry about this.

Leaning backwards during a emergency stop will help prevent front-flips, so having the brakes on the flats could be better for that situation.


Your opinions?

CCrew

Well, Bullhorns are basically the same as Tri base bars. I have mine on the ends of the bars. Prolly overkill for what you need, but nice levers:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0012MVMSY

spock

I have always found it more effective for the brakes to be on the end of bullhorns. When I lean forward I feel as if I have more control while braking. Actually I think you're more likely to flip if your hands are closer to the body because the angle of your torso vs. arms is lower. Higher angle or hands more to the front will enable you to have more resistance to the forward momentum. Centre of gravity is more forward, but your body is lower and even if centre of gravity is more to the back, it will cause your front wheel to lock-up sooner, because it carries less weight.

Anyhow, experiment for your-self. It's the best way to know for sure and don't bring yourself in situations where you have to brake so hard.

spock

If you wanna go cheep on bullhorns, get some old drops, cut them in the middle of the twist and use some old drop brakes and just turn them around. Something like this . Those kind of horns are shorter then the conventional ones, so you'll get to the brakes sooner since you're on flats most of the time.

JeffS

You seem to have answered your own question.

znomit

You can run them wherever you want, until you need them in an emergency and your hands are where the brakes aren't. I rarely use the horns, just for accelerating, run one brake on the flat and I have a coaster.
Bullhorns dont have "drops"

fuzz2050

why not both? you can run inverse brake levers, like the ones posted earlier (i'd buy the cheap Tektro copy), and then use a pair of interupter levers on the flats. You have easy braking from your primary position, and still have access when you're really truckin'

BarracksSi

Why not both?

Barend levers for the "points" of the horns (like on tri-TT bikes) and 'cross/interrupter levers for the flats.

BarracksSi

Jinx!

nowheels

what I do is I have one TT-lever for the front wheel and then cyclocross intrupter lever on the flat. Using a Soma bar..... this works pretty well for me in center city traffic

fuzz2050

you know what they say about great minds?

tarwheel 

I don't understand your question. Bullhorns don't have any drops. Do you mean bar ends?

I've got bullhorns on one of my bikes, and I use bar-end brakes because that's where I usually place my hands.

Pukeskywalker

Yeah I meant the bar ends

BarracksSi

FWIW, you can use cyclocross/interrupter levers on bar ends, too. Just thread the brake cable so the stud end sits in the lever. You'll also get the same amount of cable pull among all four brake levers.

tarwheel's setup looks like such an example, minus the second set of levers on the flats.