Differences in brake levers.
 

Might be a dumb question. But I have an early 90's cannondale road bike with shimano brake levers, and hoods. Not the dura ace shifter/brake levers. I didn't know if, or what the differences were between what I have and different models of levers? http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=201840

You have plain jane road bike brake levers on your 90's C'dale. Your shifters are separate on your downtube and sometimes on the bar ends. There are brifters (integrated shifter/brake lever) which are more common these days.

If you want better braking the usual place to start is Kool Stop pads.

However, if it's an entry level bike the brakes themselves may not be all that good.

One of the newer brake levers (like yours) has a more ergonomic shape, if that's what you're looking for.

If you are thinking about upgrades in general, the spacing at the rear wheel is important.
If it's 130mm, you're good.

jrawk1120, You have a touring frame using cantilever brakes. Those levers are generically called aero levers, non aero levers can't have the cables running under the bar tape. Aero levers are commonly used when integrated shifter/brake levers aren't used.

Brad

There are cable pull ratio differences , a leverage change, more leverage = less cable pull .
V brake is lower leverage in the hand lever, because you have higher leverage at the wheel

Is it possible to change this over to brifter style braking and shifting?

How many speed is the rear cog? I am assuming the rear spacing is 130mm

7, but I can change that out, cause I notice a lot of them are 8's

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...=STRK:MEWAX:IT

Is what I am getting at.

jrawk1120, Those integrated shifters won't work with the front derailleur unless it's from a Shimano road group. If the rear hub is original I'd guess that the freehub is too narrow to install an 8-10S cassette, this can be verified by whether there is a spacer between the cassette and the hub flange.

Brad