Brake lever mounted on stem ?
 

Came across a picture of a brake lever mounted on a threadless stem (front side of course). maybe were made to work together like that. any idea who makes that? sorry, but i forgot where i saw the pic.

like this?
http://i126.photobucket.com/albums/p...IdiotBrake.png
only idiots do something like that.

you don't need a special kind of brake to do that, just a little creativity. i imagine it's done either as a joke, or just as a way to stay street-legal; that kind of brake is going to be completely ineffective in an emergency.

saw it here in chicago. there's no "street legal" law regarding fixed gears and brakes (yet). this person's just a dumbass.

I thought there was a law in Illinois that you are required to have working brakes.

edit:
http://www.dot.state.il.us/bikemap/bikelaw.htm
If you go to what the law says, it says you are required to have brakes.

I think I know what picture the OP is talking about (but I can't remember where).

As I recall, the lever was positioned where most people put cross levers, right next to the stem. The only difference was that, instead of a clamp around the bars, someone figured out a mounting bracket that lined up with the two bolts on the faceplate of the stem. It's actually looked pretty good and functional. The only downside is that I don't think you would be able to adjust the rotational position of the lever at all.

As far as I know, that was an after market modification of some type of road lever. I think if a brake lever like that was actually manufactured, they would be much more common.

It's a chromed lever made by Dia Compe. As I recall, it took a bit of machining to make it work, but yeah, it was quite pretty.

Ben's Cycles has them: http://www.benscycle.net/index.php?m...oducts_id=3749

Or njsframes.blogspot.com.


Actually, now that I look at them, they're really just shiny new versions of old school cruiser brakes.