Originally Posted by
MrSpacely
Yes. On the cheap bikes I had I felt like I could almost snap a brake cable with the extension levers. Again, for me the issue was the amount of lever travel required. Imagine if the brake pedal in your car had 3-feet of travel. On my bikes I could pull the extension levers up and beyond the top of the bars which would press the real levers tightly against the bars easily bringing me to a stop but I couldn't keep my hands on the bars while doing it. I think they were a good idea with somewhat poor execution.
Maybe on some bikes the extension levers would strike the bars and not go past hence the suicide nickname?
If your primary levers were hitting the bar, then your problem was not with the secondary levers, but with adustment. You needed a
lot of slack taken out of the brakes, thats probably why so many hate(d) the secondary levers right there.