craigdurkee

I recently got a kona paddy wagon.

I want to remove the rear brake, easy. But i have drop bars with the aero type levers.

If i take them off and put a brake on the cross bar, would i need to retape the bars or can th levers be removed without breaking the tape

Thanks

ryansexton

No, you have to retape. Tape is like 10 dollars, though.

*new*guy

you can reuse the tape, though. keep track of which length of tape came off which side of the bars--it will make reinstalling it much simpler. no need to trash tape just because you had to take it off the bars.

craigdurkee

cool thanks guys

idiq

Most cross-type levers are designed to be used in conjunction with a drop-bar brake.

Also, when re-taping the bars, you want the tape to be going 'outside'. If you're looking straight on at where the bar-end cap is, start the wrap with about 1/2" hanging off the end of the bar (I actually prefer more like half of the width of the tape), then wrap in a counter-clockwise direction heading up the bar.

craigdurkee

are the cross brakes effective on there own

Aeroplane

yeah, they will work fine. If I were you I'd just leave the stock levers on though, they give a good riding position.

idiq

Some are designed specifically to work in conjunction with the drop-levers, such as the Cane Creek. I personally do not think these levers work well on their own, but half the board will likely flame me and say they work fine for them. Others, such as the Paul Comp cross-levers are designed to work on their own, or in conjunction with a drop-bar brake. Even if ones such as the Cane Creek work fine, I would still go with something designed to work on its own rather than in-conjunction with another lever.

The reason many work poorly (IMO) is because they do not have room for the end of the cable to properly sit in the lever, rather, there is only room for the cable to go through - the end of the cable normally sits on the drop-bar lever. When you brake, the cross-lever will 'pull' the cable from that point to the brake back to stop.

evan_phi

just leave your brakes on, dummie.

Aeroplane

I'm not really clear on what you are saying here... but I've noticed no difference in the operation of cross levers with or without aero levers. It pulls the cable.

frymaster

i use the salsa cross lever on it's own and it works perfectly fine. you will want to spend a lot of time messing around with adjusting you cross lever, though. make sure you get it just the way you want it.

roadfix

Cross levers work well with dual pivot calipers. With single pivot calipers you need to squeeze a little harder and stopping power is so so.....

Flimflam

I put Tektro RL-720s on my road bike in conjunction with the drop levers on Shimano Exage calipers, work fine (in fact, I swear I feel more leverage on them than the drop levers). I have a Tektro something or other on my fixie (don't like the word? why care?) just on it's own with a cantilever brake and that works remarkably well.

deadforkinglast

Use "mountain bike" brake cables. The ends of those fit into the hole where the housing would go from a drop lever into the cross lever.

kringle

Agreed, keep them for the extra hand positions. You'll probably have to rig the disconnected brake lever up so it doesn't rattle though.

G60

is removing breaks the same thing as 'fixing'?

beatnik

I have c record levers i stuck a little bit of foam rubber to keep it from rattling you can zip tie them too
cheers

hockeyteeth

I was hoping you meant top tube.