dogsridewith

What is the use or advantage of this brake lever? Where, and on what type of bars, is it placed?

(I also posted this in BMX forum, because that is the category it is catalogued in. Forum buddies thought it had something to do with FG.)

illdthedj

i have one on bullhorns...
i like it. allot of people seem to be putting it on wrong though....the long side goes across the stem (so you dont have to reach a bunch if you choose to use that hand for braking)
the two different lengths makes for one side being better for gradually taking off speed and the other for more abrupt stops.
i dunno, its quasi gimmicky but i like it, and think it looks cool on bullhorns because they kind of look like mini bullhorns ;p

markaitch

sorry to disagree with you, illdthedj, but my experience with this lever was very bad...

when i got possession of the fg/ss bike i am riding now it had no brakes & at first i was adamant that i had to put both f & r brakes on it. ran into problems finding a "set" that would work with the 2 different reaches on this bike & ended up riding with front only for the 1st time in my life.

so i tried 1 of those dia-compe shot levers back around the 1st of the year when i put bullhorns on. since i had been riding mountain bikes exclusively for the prior 20 years & was concerned about going out into the busy streets around my abode with only 1 brake, i thought the double-sided lever would be the ideal solution so i installed it on left side of stem to use the small lever with my left hand.

but i did not care for it at all!

the the way the cable hooks into the housing right where i tended to rest my left hand was extremely annoying & when braking with your right hand the cable attachment point actually rotates out further into your left hand's space. worst of all, while you can brake with either hand, you cannot use both hands at the same time, try adapting to that when you are used to 2 levers. it seemed like a good idea that just was not carried off very well. i even tried taking it apart & putting it together different ways to make it work better for me to no avail.

since i was not all that happy with the bullhorns anyway & swapped back to riser bars & the bike shop had already refused to let me return another brakeset they had special ordered for me, i considered myself lucky they exchanged that gran compe for a good old bmx style lever.

good luck whatever you choose...

jessesv

from bike radar

another product aimed towards the 'fixie' market, but you'd probably be better off with a cross lever or another proper bake setup if you're going to be relying on it heavily. otherwise, it doesn't look like a bad 'backup.'

markaitch

i can't help but wonder...
how can you trust that review? they have it installed wrong!

Scrodzilla

jessesv

https://somafab.blogspot.com/2008/09/...ear-bikes.html

brief write-up from soma

Scrodzilla

This is like saying "Fixed gear bikes are no good because I'm used to being able to coast and shift". Why would you ever need to use two hands to operate one brake?