greengage

OK--it's been a really, really long time since I owned a ten-speed bike, but now I'm looking around for one for my daughter and I have a pretty basic question. My old bike (Raleigh, c. 1981, long gone, sadly) and most of the ten-speeds I remember had two sets of brake levers and a lot of the ones I'm seeing now only have one. I'd be happier if she had the two sets--one for each hand position--since as I remember it was always nice to have the option. If I end up buying a bike without the cross lever brakes, how difficult or expensive would it be to install them?

auchencrow

It would be reprehensible to put your daughter on a bike without both brakes - one front and the other rear.

I don't know what bikes you are looking at with only one - possibly one front brake with a rear coaster brake (all well and good) or possibly a "fixie" with no rear brake at all.

Bear in mind that though your front brake does most of the stopping, the rear is required to maintain stability and keep both wheels on the ground in a hard stop.

Installing a rear brake caliper can be problematic if the frame does not have the proper mounting provisions. Routing cable can be an issue as well with no cable guides.
I would recommend you seek out a bike with both front and rear brakes for safety's sake and the sake of your wallet.

SJX426 

Many have the view point that the second set of levers, often refferred to as "turkey" levers, to be unsafe as they are not as effective. They are frequently removed. My wifes Raleigh Mixte had them and she liked having the option too, but always paniced when she needed to stop fast as they did not provide enough force on the other lever they are attached to.

Zaphod Beeblebrox 

Its not hard. If its a new bike you're buying from a Local Bike Shop you can have them installed by the shop before you even pick it up.

The Cross-Levers of old (aka Turkey Levers, aka Suicide Levers) provide only a fraction of the stopping power that you can apply with the main lever. The new solution provides full stopping power and is quite a bit nicer than the old way, IMHO.

https://www.velo-orange.com/terlcrlealls.html


If you wanna install them yourself its pretty simple. Just pull out the inner cable, cut the cable housing where you want the lever to be, install the cross lever and put the housing and inner cable back in...adjust the calipers and you're set.

greengage

oh trust me, I know--a lovely girl my daughter worked with this summer hit her front brakes hard and flew over the handlebars, lost a front tooth and scratched up her face pretty badly and another kid, a serious cyclist, hit a patch of sand and broke his wrist. I'm a little paranoid about having her on a bike, actually. But I'm talking about the sets of levers--yes, I guess the "suicide" brakes and the regular brakes and I'm assuming that each set covers both front and rear wheels. I remember relying pretty heavily on the suicide set...also a lot of flying down hills with no brakes just to see how fast I could go. At least I always wore a helm...um, nevermind.

3speed

Unfortunately road bikes of today don't really come with the suicide levers (though they've always worked fine for me so I'm not sure why they're called that). However, one thing you might not realize if you haven't ridden since the days of suicide levers is that on the new levers you can brake effectively and comfortably from the top of the brake levers with your hands resting on top of the brake hoods. Go to the bike shop and feel a couple levers and maybe even see if they'll let you test ride a bike to see. With a newer road bike, there's really no need for suicide levers.

The only problem with the VO levers is that they don't provide the drop levers. They're basically just putting a set of BMX style levers on your road bars. No problem if that's what you want, but I think the OP would want his daughter to be able to brake from the drop as well.

randyjawa 

I assume that these are the brake levers that you are interested in...



These are just fine to use, provided that the wheels are true so that the brakes can be set up properly. Also, ensure that the "turkey levers" (not my choice of terms) do not hit the handlebars when used.

I don't know of anyone who has these for sale but if you wish, you are welcome to send me a private message regarding availability.

Hope this is a help.

liquefied

No. They're interrupter levers. They work in conjunction with drop levers. They are also far superior to turkey levers.

fietsbob

the Interruption is in the housing of the cable, the upper brake spreads the housing..

the brake levers must be the type that are running the brake cable under the tape.
Aka Aero levers, now very common most recent bikes will have that sort.

Dia Compe/Cane Creek, and Tektro both make a shorter reach lever most suitable for smaller hands..

theTurkeysuicide is just a long lever moving the other lever remotely. and it's length is its weakness, long and flexible..

Bianchigirll 

looks like auchencrow had a very out of chracter "blond moment" and I must admit I was thinking along the same lines of a single brake on the bike too while reading the post

actually if one looks around there were a few better quality sets of turkey levers available. I seem to recall a aero set of Exage quality too

greengage

wait a minute--buy a...new bike? What a concept! No--we're really looking strictly at CL and whatever we find I'll take it to my LBS to make sure it's safe to ride and in decent shape.

Randy--yes--those are the kind of brakes I remember but I don't see many of them around (I do live in a neighborhood full of fixies, though most of them seem to have at least one brake--we've had some horrifying bike accidents around here recently but I don't think any of them were blamed on brakeless bikes). And Zaphod--those VO brakes look and sound pretty terrific. We'll see what we come across--looking for something decent but not too fancy, since we're also in a high-theft zone and my kid is of the "I just left it for a minute while I went in to Dunkin's, I swear!" type.

auchencrow

I admit it !

3speed

I see. Sorry, I was just going off of what the picture showed and I've never seen these levers before. I'm surprised they don't put up a picture of them fully set up with drop levers. In that case thank you for posting them, because I've been looking for something that would serve the same purpose as turkey levers but be more effective. Those might be just the thing.

sciencemonster

I put one of these in for my wife and duaghter - just for the front brake. This ensures that they know how to use the front brake correctly - this way should they ever need to stop in an emergency, they will be trained to do it without flying over the bars. The boys, well, they just have to man it out.

Sprint75

Some suicide levers work great and some don't. I think when the consumer product safety commission started getting into the picture, they changed some of the designs so the levers would have less travel and fit a smaller hand span. But, that compromised the braking power considerably and doomed them to oblivion. For instance, I have a 1975 Schwinn and a 1976. In 76 they changed the levers to meet the new requirements and they don't work well at all. The 75's work perfectly, offer a lot of control (especially for adding a little drag on the rear wheel in tight quarters for better maneuvering), and they can lock the wheels at any speed if you want. The difference is about a centimeter of travel, but sometimes that's all it takes to kill a good thing. If you want to fit a bike with suicide levers, seek out an old Schwinn 10 speed 1975 or earlier and snag the brake levers.

SJX426 

Look around. In Portland there are a number of bike shops that have used parts. There are piles of the "turkey/suicide" levers in boxes. I have often wondered if they were more valuable as recycled aluminum!

wrk101

New Bike? Huh? What?

On a vintage bike, either find some take off levers at a co-op, from a fellow list member, or ebay. I usually toss them myself.

On a modern bike, the interrupters above are the way to go.

Grand Bois

I put interrupter levers on my daughter's bike by her request (demand). She always rides the tops. It meant buying new aero levers, but they were cheap.

I don't care what anybody says about turkey wings, in my experience they suck. I've been throwing them in the trash since the seventies.