burnfingers

Recently was sent a set of brake levers that seem to lack anything to hold the cable in place; There is no tensioner and there isn't even a slot to hold the end of the cable in place. What am I looking at here? Cheap junk, missing parts, some kind of manufacturing oops? I'd like to get a little input before talking to the guy that shipped them to me, any thoughts would be helpful.

to clarify, im asking about the lack of any kind of cable stop / mounting provisions for a cable stop.

burnfingers

wrk101

The rivet on the lever itself usually holds a cable mounting barrel. Its the one picture you don't have. Yes, these are really basic. Cable connects to the lever arm, not the lever housing. You are missing the cable stop that mounts on the lever body.

Singlespd

They look like normal vintage to me

burnfingers

to clarify, im specifically asking about the fact that there doesn't seem to be any kind of provision for a collar or cable stop on the levers. even a cheapy loose collar will sit down in a little grove to help keep it in place, note the pics, these dont have anything like that. im half tempted to tap them and add low profile tensioners, i was specifically looking for a very basic set to go with a project im working on, but these are just weird.

cyclotoine

yeah it looks like you need some kind of reducing ferrule. The reality is the hood on it originally probably just held the housing in place.

rhm

I think you actually want a barrel adjuster of some kind. It may have been incorporated into the hood.

Chombi

Uhmmm....what brand/model are the levers anyway??

rootboy 

Sounds right to me. Much like a later MAFAC hood.

What does that stamping on the front/top of the lever blade look like?

pastorbobnlnh 

They look like MAFAC levers, don't they?

dddd

If the calipers that these were meant to go with had adjusters, then a typical, dainty French stepped ferrule might have originally been included.

The large-diameter 2-step ferrule pictured above looks more like a Weinmann part, but these levers look like Mafac to my eye.

juvela

hello burnfingers,

there appears to be some sort of marking stamped into the upper front face of the lever proper. are you able to read it or could you post a picture of it? could prove a clue toward identification...

wrt mafac: cannot ever recall seeing a mafac lever for drop bar which was closed at the back so far down its length, terminating in a closed distal end. had thought about alfa but they are essentially copies of mafac and do not have a closed distal lever end either.

levers are likely going to turn out to be one of the marques we do not oft encounter...

burnfingers

Wish there was more to see, they are simply stamped F and R

rootboy 

New one on me.

lostarchitect 

I guess the F and R are for "front" and "rear?"

Salubrious

Aren't those a like mid-60s or so Universal?

rootboy 

That's what I thought upon viewing them. And then, thought…no, they wouldn't. Would they?
Why would it matter which side they used each lever on? But maybe there's a feature or detail
we can't see in the pics.

Strange and interesting items, OP.

rootboy 

No. Uni 61's had the adjusters up top. Mine do, anyway. I was thinking later model, maybe mid 70's,
but those stampings threw me. And those little bulbous lever tips are very distinctive, and quite weird.
They're cool looking.

burnfingers

that seems to be the logical guess, like i said i wish there was something more useful there.

side note, the 'hole' on the top is 4mm across; that's quite small for any ferrule i've seen aside from maybe a jagwire? but i just can't imagine that being the solution here, that would be nearly as unsupported as just letting the cable flop around loosely... unless you have some brakes with a serious return spring, the break cable tension is not going to hold things in place. besides, having the cut down the front means any forward movement of the cable, if NOT in some kind of ferrule or retainer, would lead to the brake cable simply popping out of place. hence my confusion, it genuinely does not seem to have any provisions for cable retention but clearly cannot be used without something to keep the cable end in place.

as to it appearing to have a MAFAC silhouette that's an excellent observation, but i believe most MAFAC levers were actually more or less flat across the 'top' and the 'rise' was part of the hood... so with the rise being metal, that doesn't seem to likely either; a hood with any kind of ferrule or tension adjuster would have to be extremely tall and quite dorky lol

juvela

thank you for the new image burnfingers,

the F and R twigged a memory. suspect they may be generic taiwan products that were sold in chain stores in "the bicycle department." such stores had displays of bicycle components packaged in heavy clear plastic bags.

"sometimes a feller can remember too much..."

burnfingers

Haha that could very well be the case here, but they still would need something to hold the cable. The only other markings are F-3 and 2F-1 inside the main bodys (mold stampings, not useful) although looking things over I did notice what almost looks like a wear pattern on the inside of the level body, its quite distinct on both but slightly different between them so I'm not sure if it's just a polishing mark or actually an indication that there used to be something there?

zukahn1 

They look mostley complete Mafac style or something similar. They are missing the small diameter barrel adjusters pretty typical of these type brakes as they where held in place by tension and the hoods. You should be able to get them to work fine if you can find a set of cable adjusters small enough to fit.

TugaDude

+1. Had similar and took them to my lbs that had multitudes of cable stops. Found a pair with the correct diameter and between tension of the housing/cable and the hoods, it worked just fine.

The Golden Boy 

They look normal to me- the cable stop cone sort of thing is held on by the cable tension on the housing pushing it onto the lever body from the spring tension on the brake. It generally won't show because it's in the brake hood.

When you get new "old" levers, the stop is in the hood. Used, old lever, the stops get lost- old cable sets used to have the cable stops included.

Dawes-man

They look very like MAFAC levers to me too but I've never seen them with R & L stamped on them.

In any case, you need a couple of adjusters like the one in this pic:

[IMG] Untitled by Dawes-man, on Flickr[/IMG]

It's from an old MAFAC hood. I use them on a couple of my bikes with non-MAFAC levers. They're very useful as they provide adjustment otherwise absent from the CLB calliper I have on the bike.

I got a few from a bike shop in Tokyo. They were in old, perished MAFAC hoods and they let me have them for free. I pulled them out of the hoods. Here's another bike I have them on but on this one the end is too large to go into the hole in the CLB levers - when I get round to it I'll take them off and sand them down a little to fit in:

[IMG] Reynolds Bailey bends & CLB A.L.P. levers by Dawes-man, on Flickr[/IMG]

Here's a pic of them in their original hoods - as you can see, they're mostly hidden by the hoods:

[IMG] Untitled by Dawes-man, on Flickr[/IMG]

A quick search brings up these on eBay - the hoods are shot but I reckon they're worth the BIN price for the adjusters:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/MAFAC-Brake-...item4d18cca71c

Hoods in good condition tend to be very expensive - these are $40 and look to me to be in average condition:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/1950s-1970s-...item338856aeef