Originally Posted by
DaveSSS
Yes.
I was just commenting on the poor method you proposed for setting the lever position. It might work with a few brands of bars, by coincidence, but the brake lever ends have nothing to do with getting the brakes hood properly positioned. Putting the bars on a table top is not necessary when you can assure the same REACH to each of the brake hoods, using the method that I've prescribed, with the bar on the bike. If the bike is already built-up, you can take a test ride and make adjustments before taping the bars.
Even using shallow drop bars, like the Easton EC90-SLX3, the ends of my brake levers are above the bottom of the bars. The bars are not tipped up or down radically and the brake hoods have a very slight upward angle, with a very smooth transition onto the top of the bar. The brake levers were never used as a reference point in the setting process.
The bars shown have virtually no straight ends to project a line from. You can drawn a straight line from any two points and pretend that the ends of the brake levers are even with the bottom of the bars.
The LBS did exactly what I would expect. They rotated the bars down to correct the angle of the hooks and moved the levers up. There's now a modest V-shaped transition onto the top of the bar. You'd need a better picture of the bike from a a greater distance to see how much the brake hoods are actually tilted up.
The reason I asked the question Dave is that no one was making "absolutist" statements in this thread...
...not FBinNY, not Hillrider, nor I.
Table method provides a level reference across the bars to ensure even lever height starting at the bottom of the lower drops. With classic levers and some modern levers, as I carefully noted - it gets the levers in the "BALLPARK" position wise. As Hillrider correctly noted - some modern levers documentation recommend 2-3cm above the reference. Table method plus 2cm block achieves this.
Some LBSes will use a flat edge across the drops in lieu of the table method - goal is to ensure even height positioning of the levers - assuming the bars are straight to begin with.
References are simply that - references.
...yet you stepped in with:
"Placing the ends of the brake levers even with the bottom of the hooks is totally worthless and does nothing to make the brake hood fit the bar properly."
That's a flame thrower in a thread where no one was tossing around "right" or "wrong" statements.
=8-)