Originally Posted by
itsmoot
When I looked at auxillary, aka crosstop levers, they only worked with cantilever brakes since the folks mostly using them were cyclocross racers. There was one type available from Pauls Components that had an alternative pivot point to use with linear/v-brakes, but they were very expensive.
You'd want to do some checking because I haven't actually tried this, but it seems like one of the Travel Agents solutions (from Problem Solvers) might work. It's supposed to make regular brake levers work with v-brakes, and there's a model that works with disc brakes as well. With that installed, it seems like you might be able use the auxiliary brake levers regardless of what type of brakes you have.
But I'm glad you pointed out the potential incompatibility, because I wasn't aware.
My old drop bars had brakes like you describe. It nice to have some stopping power from both hand positions, but I found that in general the extension bar did not work as well as the lever. And if you found yourself in an emergency situation, you would always go for the brake lever at your fingertips, not the most efficient one (or at least I did), so sometimes they were a bit of a hazard. I'm hoping the modern solutions are a little more efficient.