deedewu

I need a brake lever sized to fit a road drop bar (clamp diameter 24mm), and also having that quick release cable feature often seen on mountain bikes (see this, at bottom.) It can be any shape: cyclocross, aero shape, reverse TT type.

Does such a thing exist?

sivat

I don't think the campy style brake release is what he was talking about. He wants a road lever that uses a mountain style cable. I don't know of any. Out of curiosity, why do you need to be able to unhook the cable?

truckin

Actually, yes. The Cane Creek 200 TT brakes use mountain cables- boy was that annoying to find out when I was building up my TT bike. They're bar-end mounted, so if that would work for your application, you should be all set. I think I got mine for about $20-30.

deedewu

Yes, to clarify, I don't mean a quick release that opens up the caliper so you can release the wheel. I mean being able to disengage the entire brake cable from the lever. Sorry I don't know what this feature is called, that's why i included a link in the first post.

As for why, I want to be able to swap between flat bars and drop bars on my singlespeed bike. Unhooking the cable (tool-less) just seems a lot easier than having to undo the brake bolt and re-running the cables. Any help is appreciated!

deedewu

truckin - do the 200 TTs have that quick-cable release? And where does the brake cable routing go? I haven't actually seen these levers in person and I can't tell from the pictures online..

barba

I am not sure that such a product exists.

truckin

To use them as they come to you, you'd mount them in the ends of the bar facing forward along the bottom of the drops- not a terribly great place to have your (I assume) only brake levers. You may be able to modify them in some way; it's hard to suggest specifics without knowing more about your setup.

As to cable positioning, if you had the lever mounted in the end of the bar, the cable and housing would run along the bottom of the bar right to the lever body itself. The housing stops there and the cable continues into the lever assembly, where the MTB-style cable end fits into a standard MTB-type connector similar to your original link. Make sense? I don't know if this would work for you, but those are the only road-ish brake levers I know of that use MTB cables.

jsharr

You could put inline cable connectors on. Leave the levers on each bar and just have a quick disconnect in line.

https://www.loosescrews.com/index.cgi...d=345379228650

https://www.loosescrews.com/index.cgi...d=345379228650

barba

Why not just have a separate set of cables and housings attached to your spare bar? That is what I do.

roadfix

What you need are those old non-aero road levers. Cables can be disconnected at the lever.
The only problem is that standard mtn and road levers require different cable end nubs.......for the most part.

truckin

Yeah, I like the inline connector idea now that I understand what you're trying to do. That would be fairly simple and reliable.

deedewu

I just realized I forgot to mention--this is for a V-brake. With regard to setup, I have pic here:



Stem is 25.4, flat bar 25.4, and i have a pair of drops at 25.8 that I'd like to swap in time to time. The inline connectors is an interesting idea, but with the price as it is, I can't justify buying them. That is definitely along the lines of what I'm going for though, to leave levers on each bar and just disconnect the cable. It's just one step easier than having to re-route brake cable every time.

Also, I realize the field of possibilities has narrowed even smaller with the fact that I have v-brakes..

truckin

Yeah, the 200 TTs have a road cable-pull ratio, so they may not work for you. I have them hooked up to road brakes- I haven't done any testing with V-brakes.

jsharr

Have you made sure that drop bar levers have enought cable pull for your v brakes? If not, before spent any money, I would hook them up and see.
here is another inline separator taht is $11 each or 3 for $32.

https://www.precisiontandems.com/catframepart.htm

tellyho

You need V-brake specific drop levers. Not cheap. Or you can get some device that will adjust the pull ratio in line. I forget the name, but someone else will surely add it in.

roadfix

travel agent

truckin

Travel agent would solve the cable-pull problem. It would probably be as expensive or more so than buying inline cable connectors, though, so that might make the inlines the more economically efficient way to go.

bidaci

The dia-compe 287V is supposed to work with your brakes without a travel agent but I don't know what cable it uses. On tandems it is common to use V-brakes with road levers and a travel agent. But this would give to much mechanical advantage when switching back. You also have a stem incompatabilty between road and MTB bars.

Have you thought of something like this for a temp drop bar solution

deedewu

I thought about the travel agent option too, but with the travelagent, I'd have to undo the brake cable to go back to regular v-brake levers, which defeats my initial purpose of avoiding undoing the brake bolt. I'm starting to think there is no simple solution that can do all these things at once:

1) sized to fit road bar
2) allows cable disconnect
3) works with v-brake
4) accepts mtb style cable nub

and 5) looks okay

It's all sounding like too much trouble, so I'm just gonna stick with my flat bars on this bike I guess.

deedewu

and yes, I used to be a math nerd, so I like "elegant" solutions.. i'd rather not have inline separators and travel agents hanging all over my bike