jyl

For comfort on long rides, my favorite bikes have deep round drop bars with the ramps fairly flat, and long, flattish brake hoods.

Like this (everything is right, okay the bar could be a little deeper).



This one is close but not quite (bar is all wrong).



This one is also close but not quite (hoods are wrong).



The question is, how can I come closest to the first cockpit shown above (the "everything is right" bike), while still using vintage bits including non-aero levers?. What is the non-aero lever with the longest, flattest hood shape?

SJX426 

IMHO, not going to happen. I have been struggling with this too. The older cable out the top levers were just designed differently. It will be interesting to see if someone does come up with a combination though.

Classtime 

I don't think you can put your hands/wrists in that MTB extension position with vintage bars and levers. You could raise your bars and or get some with a shallower drop and ride more in the drops. The bars on your Raleigh are quite deep.

carbomb

The Mavic ones in this thread look interesting
https://www.bikeforums.net/classic-vi...-groupset.html

SJX426 

Those Mavic ones look good, but they are aero. The OP requested earlier, non-aero levers. This is the time when the design changed. Without the cable coming out of the top, aero lever design provided an opportunity to provide more hand support in the same space. Now they have made the body even longer and the mounting surface at an angle to the lever to allow for the lever to be mounted further up the radius of the bar. I think this provided another opportunity to change HB design too.

Not only that, the levers are no longer straight but are bent to the left or right with levers being design for the left or right side.

RobbieTunes

Appears you like level tops to the hoods. I'd not worry about the lower parts unless you ride them a lot.

Steamer

Bikes don't have cockpits.

Dylansbob 

Rando bars with whatever levers you like. The drops are parallel on most newer ones and they have such a long ramp for plenty of room. No need to be on the hoods with ramps like that.

3speedslow

Best I could work out for my work bike was an SR Modolo Anatomica bars with the cane creek SCR-5 levers. Not quite CV but long ramp and flat top hoods. Super comfy for long all day deliveries.

ThermionicScott 

With pre-aero levers, you get that dip in the transition area between the top of the bar and the top of the hood -- before wrapping the bars, you might try building up that area with a little duct tape or whatever to smooth the transition. Another thought might be to shim the top side of the clamping area to change the angle of the hoods, also easing the transition -- too much and that'll mess with your lever travel, though.

jyl

I never thought of that. I could either shim the upper part of the rear of the brake lever body, or take a Dremel and remove material from the lower part, or both, to change the angle at which the lever body clamps to the bar. (I guess one might not do this to NOS levers.) And then I could fashion a pad to further fill in the angle where lever body and bar meet. Hopefully the hoods will stretch enough to fit over the result, or with half hoods that's not an issue. I never run out of lever travel, because I'm OCD about brake adjustment.

So then the question is, do some vintage non aero levers have longer bodies than others. Time to get out the calipers.

Thanks for these suggestions. If my levers fail during an emergency stop and I die, you are all officially absolved of any responsibility. I hereby acknowledge the risk involved in modifying braking components!

ThermionicScott 

Removing material from the bottom of the clamping area had also crossed my mind, but I stopped short of suggesting it to others, just in case.

My first road bike had (has) aero levers and I was used to that comfort when branching out into bikes with non-aero levers. So I did try the tape with a modicum of success. I believe I'd done it around the time of this picture a few years ago, but my photographs are so consistently awful, it's hard to tell:

rccardr 

Shimano makes spacers that fit under the lever clamp on STI's, originally intended to bring the levers closer to the bar for riders with small hands. A pair of those oriented under the upper part of a non aero lever clamp might level out the top of the hoods...and the spacers are cheap.