Cross/interruptor levers
 

After working my way slowly through the entire Fixie Pictures thread, I've come to a conclusion. After I finish building the bike I'm working on now, I want to do one like some I saw there. Track frame, long steep track stem, Nitto track bars, everything silver.

Now, I live in England, and it is absolutely ILLEGAL to ride with no brakes here. You must have a front brake, even on a fix (or two brakes, with a freewheel). So I'll need to put a front brake on. Now, I hate the idea of spoiling the line of a bike like that with one brake lever on the drops, so I'm thinking, one of those cyclo cross interruptor levers on the flats would be the least noticeable. Thing is, I'm wondering, can they work on their own? I mean, when there is no ordinary lever further down? And also, anyone who uses them, how easy is it to shift quickly from the drops to grab them, if that's all there is to grab.....

All advice welcome, cos I want a CLEAN looking bike......

I use a Tektro rx-2. Pretty nice. Of course, it makes no difference if there's no other lever. I suppose a "road" brake cable end will fit into the recess that's designed to take the housing. These were designed for use with cantis, so they pull more cable than road levers. Which means you will have to pull the lever rather strongly and it will have a relatively short travel. I actually like that, though. Make sure you get the right clamp size for your bar.

anything designed for a caliper brake will work for something designed for a cantilever brake, and vice versa. not all levers are designed with the same amount of pull so it varies between manufactorers, but should still be usable. its linear pull brakes that will only accept linear pull levers.

Yeah, it ought to work with calipers. What about getting up to it from the drops, if it's the only lever you got? Anyone had any trouble with that? I guess you've always got the cranks.....

I've used a bmx lever, but I cut it down with a hacksaw so its more of a one finger trigger than a lever

For my long rides in the mountains I used to put a front brake on and mount a salsa cross lever to the top tube as an emergency brake. That keeps your bars nice and clean. I think I can dig up a pic if your interested.

yeah, you can see that on a lot of bikes, like this one:
http://fixedgeargallery.com/2005/july/Rob.htm

That's cool, thanks. Jfmckenna, I'd love to see that if you can find the pictures.

Not sure if this will help you, but I just recently put a Tektro inline cross lever on my fixie. It's the only brake and what I did was take a cable from an old mountain bike that had a metal stopper at one end, ran it through the lever, then into the cable housing, then to the brake. The brake works by the cross lever actually pushing the cable housing, causing the brake to close. It works really well. If you need pics let me know.

DT