Originally Posted by
cupcrazy4
why do some older bikes' brake cables come out of the top of the levers, while some bikes have the cable come out of the inside of the lever? My old steel bike (now a fixed conversion) had the cables out the top and I hated it (not to mention the brakes had zero stopping power
), so I'm determined to buy a bike with cables on the inside of the levers.
When the cables come out inside the brake levers they call them "Aero Brake Levers", when the cable comes out the top its "Non-Aero". Really there is little performance difference between the two, the crappy Non-Aero brakes you experienced were likely the fault of some component other than the levers. Probably crappy or poorly adjusted calipers or crapped out brake pads.
The choice between the two is mostly aesthetic.