rumrunn6

I've seen new cyclocross bikes with these 2nd set of brake levers mounted on the top flat part of the drops. I neglected to look and /or ask how the additional cable is dealt with at the caliper ...

Since I'm thinking about changing the bars on a bike or two I've grown interested. Who knows maybe these can even be mounted on vertical MTB bar ends ...

BearSquirrel

Cross levers work not by pulling cable, but rather by pulling the housing which increases it's length. Basically, you split the normal housing run near the stem and run the cabling through the cross lever.

I think it would be impracticle to mount these to MTB bar ends as you would have to do a very crazy cable routing. The cross levers really need to be "on the way". If you REALLLLY wanted to do this (sounds like a bad idea), you would mount your normal levers on the bar ends and put the cross levers in place of the normal levers.

Be warned, if this is a modern MTB, you likely have V-brake levers. These have lower pull then road oriented cantilever levers. Cross levers are meant to work with road brakes.

rumrunn6

gotcha, thanks

flargle

Caliper


Cantilever


Caliper brake


Cantilever brake

jfmckenna

You can indeed mount cross levers as your only brake levers. Last year I ran my main cross bike with cross levers only. The ball end of the brake cable can be mounted in the lever.

fuzz2050

I think this sounds like an AWESOME idea, I just don't like flat bars (even with bar ends) and lack the bike to do this with. Crazy brake routing is always cool.

jonestr

inline brake levers pushing housing, they dont pull it.

rumrunn6

Here's my setup - I added the drop bar ends too. It looks freaky but works surprisingly well. Only thing is - it is a bit worrisome not having brake levers in the drops. I'm giving more thought to adding levers to the drops and then the cross levers to the straight bar.

Anyone post a step by step with pics for installing cross levers and what's involved?

AndrewP

https://www.parktool.com/repair/readhowto.asp?id=146 You may have a problem if the diameter of your staight bars are not the same as drop bars.

isotopesope

holy crap man, there's a lot going on with your setup.

if you mounted road levers to your clamp-on drops, you would have to deal with the housing transitioning from them to the cross levers, which would replace your current levers. with either aero (housing under the bar wrap) or non-aero (cable sticking out of the top of the lever) the routing would be supremely awkward. it would have to route from the drop lever, in front of your gripshifters and grips, then to your cross levers, before routing to your cable hanger. major bummer.

why not ditch all of it, get road handlebars, aero brake levers, a set of cross levers, and barend shifters? waaaay easier and smoother cable routing with no clamp-on tom foolery. you'd still have three hand positions, each with brake access as well.

rumrunn6

I know I know, I've got a drop bar waiting in the wings. Thanks for the heads up about the cable routing.

darksiderising

It's all relative.