This may be a repeat, so forgive me if someone has asked this one already.

I have an older Ross Signature, which the original owner had safety levers installed on the brakes. The bike has the original Shimano levers still on it, as I removed the safety levers because they are clumsy on a road bike. Problem now is that the pivot bolt (or whatever the correct term would be) is much too long, and sticks out towards the inside of the bars. I covered it with bar tape, and the bars look like they have tumors. I admit, they are a good place to rest my thumbs, but I would prefer to have them gone. Any ideas? Can I possibly find shorter pivot thingies?

Yeah, you can. I suspect they are available from the usual suspects, though I found mine on a donor set of crash damged levers at the flea market.

Pretty sure back then Shimano was a dead ringer for Weinmann, one could get parts from them, or take them apart and cut the boss off, dress it with a file, at least then your thumb will not keep finding it.

I've got several bikes with levers like this. I just diassembeled them, then cut/filed/sanded off the excess length of the pivot piece (there is a line in the casting that marks where the pieces protrusion should end). Then I went to the LBS and picked up a set of the Dia-Compe non-aero brake lever hoods and put them on.

That's just what I do when I encounter a suicide lever set-up. Cheaper than buying new parts too.

I did the same as frankiej. One trick for cutting the pivot bolt - I put a screw through the hole in the pivot bolt and screwed it to the top of my sawhorse. This held the bolt down while I hacksawed it off.

Thanks for the tips. Time to break out the hacksaw and files.

Try an old timey LBS. When I wrenched at a shop, we took off the safety levers and replaced the pivot with one that was flush.

Thanks for starting this thread. Inspired me to remove the "safety" levers on two of my bikes. You gain a lot of throw in the levers by taking those off. Will make adjusting pads easier and probably improve braking/