Biking_Lawyer

I am restoring an old (1980ish) panasonic villager for my girlfriend for her birthday. It was her bike in HS and she hasn't ridden it in 10+ years. She doesn't like to be bent over, so I was planning on replacing the drop bars with a set of nashbar mustache bars I have lying around. My question is what type of brake levers do I need to use. The brakes themselves are dia compe single pivot caliper brakes. Also, can I use the exisitng brake levers and simply remove the "suicide" cross lever, or do these need the cross lever to function properly? thanks. Any other suggestions are much appreciated.

dabac

You should be looking for levers that says "for short-pull, canti- or caliper brakes"

Well, sort of. Drop bar levers tends to bottom out against the bar before doing any decent braking if placed on a straight(section of ) bar. With a moustache bar you might still be able to use them if you put the levers in the bend at the front, and align the levers horizontally. Putting them on the straight parts and/or pointing down is a definite no-no. Whatever you do make sure to test them properly for travel and clearance before hitting the road.

Depends on the design. Some are held in place by their own screw, but one nasty version had the suicide lever riveted to the same axle that also held the primary lever in place. If nothing else it can always be hacksawed off.

Not on any of the models I've seen so far at least.

Make sure you replace the pads with some new ones as well. The old ones will be nastily dried out and uneffective. Kool-stop Salmon is often recommended.
For elegance it's hard to beat the aero/TT style brakes that are inserted into the bar ends with the levers pointing forward and the cable run internally or under the bar tape. Although a lever pointing forward will make it possible to snag something...

sfclearwater

Nashbar mustache bars have a clamp diameter of 25.4mm, so make sure that is the same as the stem you want to use. Measure the old bars if it is not printed on the stem itself.

As for the levers, the grip size of the Nashbar mustache is 23.8mm. This means that normal mountain bike levers won't work as they have a 22.2mm clamp. Most road bike levers are designed for 23.8mm bars and work fine on a mustache if mounted on the curve as a previous posted mentioned. I have seen people bend road levers so they can be mounted on the flat section of a bar, but for safety's sake it might be better to use cyclocross style levers on the flats. You can buy these with a 23.8mm clamp and use them as primary levers.

The reverse TT levers are a cool idea too.

Retro Grouch 

Your existing brake levers should work. You need to install them over the bend of the mustache bar or they won't have enough travel. You'll probably need to hacksaw off the end of the pivot/bushing that holds the suicide levers.

Good luck.

tellyho

Your girlfriend might find that she's no less bent over with the moustache bars. The reach to the brake levers (assuming you install them on the curve) will be about the same as to levers on normal drops. You might want to go with more of a swept back bar and mountain levers.

Biking_Lawyer

Thanks for the info all. After considering things, what I ideally would like to do is to install the mustache bars flipped, so they have a rise to them and install some form of straight lever on the bar ends---I could do the time trial lever thing, but can I also use one of those "back-up" levers used on the flat bars of modern road bikes? (I don't know the name for them, but I think they are the same as BMX levers and the brake levers all the young hipsters use as e-brakes on their fixies )