Im wondering if its possible to bend the lever arms on these 80s drop bar levers so the will work on straight touring bars?

No not really luckily there are TONS AND TONS of flat bar levers on the market designed for the purpose so no need to bend old aluminum which doesn't like to be bent. Considering this is for braking you want something you can trust and I would not trust 40+ year old aluminum that has been bent. I would highly recommend the Avid Speed Dial 7 levers for Long pull stuff especially really great levers.

Well I went ahead with it and threw caution to the wind. It turned out to be quite easy. Turns out if you heat them to just 300 degrees (about 5 seconds of heating with propane torch on medium power) you can bend them with not much force. I used a 7" piece of handlebar cutoff as an extension. I bent them out about 1.5 inches. They look amazing and work perfect. They are the stock levers from the 80s so I was going for that 80s drillium look. Couldnt be more pleased with the outcome. Now if I can figure a just as fast and easy way to turn stems downt to 21.1 aka .833, then I would really be getting somewhere.

Yeah... Not just bending them, but heating them. That's the ticket.

And lest anyone not recognize this as sarcasm, let me say that it was.

Yeah I wouldn't throw safety to the wind. These are brake levers, a very needed device to make sure you can stop. I am sure they look great but hopefully they don't snap on you because that would be bad.

I doubt that sort of aluminum was affected much by the heat or bending. If anything, it is softer now rather than brittle.

But I would have asked what your plan for the clamp diameter was going to be had I seen this yesterday. Dia Compe made a straight bar lever using the road style lever bodies, so you could find some and rob the clamps or swap the levers on the bodies.

i have the straight bar diacompe levers and clamps I just didnt like the looks or the feel. They felt springy. I used the stock drillium drop bar levers and stock clamps and braking is perfect. What is the advantage of using the straight bar clamps? I admit I hadnt considered the clamps or held them up side by side. Thats a good point. I also thought about drilling a hole in the steel bars and welding the clamp nut to the bars and just attaching the levers that way over handlebar foam. I havent decided yet. So far so good.

why would they snap? Is this just theory or can/has anyone actually duplicated this in real life by heating and bending aluminum brake levers. When I bent them i did not bend them back and forth at any time, just one direction. I also did not heat them excessively, only 300 deg. I did not quench them either I just allowed them to cool naturally. What is the real life basis for your strong warning to me? (Which i appreciate)

Aluminum especially that that has been treated does not like being bent. It typically will create stress risers that can cause failure. I am not a metallurgist but there are some people on the forum who are way more knowledgeable on that front.

in theory but has it ever happened in tests or in the wild? How much force is even being exerted? No where near its limit. I realize in theory yes it could conceivably bring down an airplane but realistically it should be easy to do a test and see how much force it takes compared to an unbent/heated lever. I do have an extra.

Unless there are pictures, it never really happened! Just like Strava.

Yes it has happened in test and in the wild. I have seen enough snapped levers and have bent some levers and seen them break.

That were heated to 300 degrees first? No you haven't.

simply from applying the brakes with the grip?

Yes and no not all of them did it right away.

I don't know if they were heated first though have heated one and haven't seen the customer but it was a brand new lever that had been crashed and was a small bend and I told them to keep a close eye on it. Most of the levers I have seen snapped are old and people tried to bend them back either at the shop or on their own.

I am sure you are going to say something as usual. Go for it. "Aluminum never breaks...super strong..."

I'm sure you are going to make some blanket statement that doesn't fit the facts: Oh, wait - you already did.

Heating a brake lever up to 300 - 200 less than heat treat temp for aluminum - and then straightening in the plane of the lever movement has about zero to do with a crashed lever, which usually get bent in impact at one point in a different plane.

And, even if the lever failed, you have two of them.

most tried to bend them back ..... right there. Of course bending them back will work harden the metal. Crashes. These levers were never previoysly damaged. I just heated them to 300 and slowly bent them in one direction and then let them cool. Heat again bend more. Let cool as needed to get the right travel. I think its fine.

You are good at knowing the facts you have made up in your head...

Yes that is different from most crashed levers...however some have just been bent in the process of doing something like this. People do that for different reasons some like this.

Yes, I just can't picture the mod...

What are we talking about here?

talking about using the original drop bar calipers on touring bars. Drop bar levers are curved so when putting them on straight bars there leaves very little range of motion to engage the brakes. The mod is the slightly heat the levers and "uncurve" them some so as to allow enough lever travel to engage the brakes. Advantage can keep original vintage style levers, and hoods, no need to spend $$ on levers that wont match style anyway, guaranteed compatible with existing stock calipers. Cons, in theory could weaken levers and cause sudden catastrophic snapping of levers while braking although in actuality there is no reports of this happening after doing the mod. However dead men tell no tales. So theres that.

Thanks now I get it (that's not what I pictured at all!)

That said I'm not sure the base (the brifter's "body") has the most ergonomic shape in this configuration...

It's not a brifter, it's a brake lever.

True, the shape is non-ergonomic on an upright bar, but that's because it was designed to be ergonomic on a drop bar.

It's immaterial, though. Most people riding upright-bar bikes never touch the body of the brake lever. Drop bars were invented for people who need multiple hand positions available, flat bars for those who don't.

correct the hoods are not needed for leaning on or providing an alternate hand position. Only the levers are used and are very ergonomically accessible in the configuration in the photo plus they look cool imo. I couldnt believe how easy it was to bend them with such little heat and virtually no deformity which I was also worried about. They look factory made.

its not that its not ergonomic on an upright bar its simply curved toward the straight bar which leaves virtually no lever travel to move the brake cable far enough to engage the brakes fully. Ergonomically it feels amazing. Very natural.