I ride for recreation/fitness. I might consider a different type of bars, but will just wait and see. On my 84 Raleigh Marathon mixte (which will be for sale now!!), I was just about ready to consider changing the bars, but had not done so. I'd like to be able to keep my hands on the brake hoods, but I can't work the levers from there. It looks like maybe this bike has suicide levers (why do they call them that?).

This is probably really stupid, so please don't laugh. Is it possible to add a third chain ring so I have some really low gears? I'm getting older, and the hills are sometimes pretty tough for me. I had been looking at newer bikes that are triples, but of course they are mostly too expensive for me.