4 Brake Levers

You want inline brake levers. They're made by Tektro, Paul Components, Salsa, Performance, and others, I'm sure. Here's a link to Performance's Forte Inline Levers.

Have seen them on Specialised and Harris Cyclery web sites.

simonmck said:

HI

I do a lot of distance touring and saw last year a review of extra brake levers that can just be added to the top tube of your handle bars, so you have 4 brake levers on your road bike bars. Can anyone tell me where/what to look for, and secondly are they any good. The ones I saw could be added pretty easy to a road bike. Ive seen em on Cyclo cross bikes, but not in any detail.

Cheers
Simon

I seem to remember these being quite common on less expensive bikes about 20 or so years ago, but I haven't seen them for a long time. My first bike had them, as did my parents bicycles. (my mom didn't want to give them up. My dad and I used to tease her and call them "sissy" bars 🙄 I seem to remember that they didn't have the same stopping power the regular levers have, so you still want to use the normal ones for quick stops or down hills, but otherwise they are fine.

Eden said:

I seem to remember these being quite common on less expensive bikes about 20 or so years ago, but I haven't seen them for a long time. My first bike had them, as did my parents bicycles. (my mom didn't want to give them up. My dad and I used to tease her and call them "sissy" bars 🙄 I seem to remember that they didn't have the same stopping power the regular levers have, so you still want to use the normal ones for quick stops or down hills, but otherwise they are fine.

They weren't the same The Old Sheot were called suicide levers.

Eden said:

I seem to remember these being quite common on less expensive bikes about 20 or so years ago, but I haven't seen them for a long time. My first bike had them, as did my parents bicycles. (my mom didn't want to give them up. My dad and I used to tease her and call them "sissy" bars 🙄 I seem to remember that they didn't have the same stopping power the regular levers have, so you still want to use the normal ones for quick stops or down hills, but otherwise they are fine.

Those were "suicide" levers - they worked by operating the main lever. These new kind are in-line and are very nice. Mostly I see cyclocross guys with them. There is some danger that you could endo by braking hard with the front while your center of gravity is too high.

DiabloScott said:

Those were "suicide" levers - they worked by operating the main lever. These new kind are in-line and are very nice. Mostly I see cyclocross guys with them. There is some danger that you could endo by braking hard with the front while your center of gravity is too high.

Great name, my first bike as a kid had these, and they where truly dangerous!.. I had more than a few accidents cos of them.. !

Cheers for the replies..
Simon

Hi Simon

Just read your post. See my post in the Cyclo Cross section ("Disc Disaster"😉. I have just had an unfortunate (e.g painful!) experience with these brakes (though that may be due to the combination of road brake levers and discs). I can support the other comments to your thread: the secondary levers are weaker, but fine if you are riding on the flat. Downhill you need the main levers and my experience is that these do not combine well with discs. The travel in the levers is excessive, the brakes bind (e.g. stay on even when levers are released) and after a short time (in my case 80 miles), fail completely. Avoid! 😠

Bar End Bertie

simonmck said:

HI

I do a lot of distance touring and saw last year a review of extra brake levers that can just be added to the top tube of your handle bars, so you have 4 brake levers on your road bike bars. Can anyone tell me where/what to look for, and secondly are they any good. The ones I saw could be added pretty easy to a road bike. Ive seen em on Cyclo cross bikes, but not in any detail.

Cheers
Simon

The Specialized Sequoia comes with "independent extension levers." My wife and two other women in our neighborhood own Sequoia Elites, and seem to like them very much. All three of them talk about how much they like having the extension brake levers. In fact, they talked one of the other husbands into retrofitting his bike with a set of the Performance inline brake levers.

I put one on my commuting bike. I just installed one for the front brake, I never use the back brake anyway. I had an accident once because I was on the top of the bars and couldn't reach the drops mounted brake levers in time. Hopefully this will prevent a recurrence.