That's interesting. I do like to brake from the hoods, even when I'm using brake systems that weren't designed for it. I've got short fingers and sometimes have a hard time reaching the lever from the drops. Using Weinmann levers with Weinmann centerpulls and old pads on my Raleigh, I found this to be less than satisfactory. When I replaced the brakes with dual pivot Tektros, it went much better. I'm probably still going to switch to modern Tektro-clone levers for comfort.