Hello All, After riding only mountain bikes for the past fifteen years I finally broke down and bought road bike. It's an '04 LeMond Buenos Aires, and so far I just love it. Now I'm thinking of joining one of the local clubs and perhaps even working up to doing a double century in time. Trouble is I'm used to my MTB and I'm finding that on the new road bike I like to ride with my hands up on the bar tops, which means I could lose precious time getting to the brakes for a panic stop. So I'm thinking of adding a set of "inline brake levers", aka "cyclocross levers". They're kind of like what used to be called "suicide brakes" on the old Schwin 10-speeds. This chap has a pair on his fixed gear bike, though they're a bit hard to see:
So are these worth adding to my road bike or will I just get used to the drop bars/brakes in time? Isn't it safer to have these if you're going to ride up on the bar tops? How about the snicker factor? Am I going to get laughed off the club rides? Thanks, Gordon Portland, Oregon
So are these worth adding to my road bike or will I just get used to the drop bars/brakes in time? Isn't it safer to have these if you're going to ride up on the bar tops? How about the snicker factor? Am I going to get laughed off the club rides?
They guy riding in front of you who has to stop quickly and doesn't get rear ended certainly isn't going to be laughing at them.
I got my wife a Specialized Sequoia Elite recently and it has top bar brakes that work with the shimano 105 shifter/brake combos. Go have a look at a shop and see what they did.
Try riding with your hands around the brake hoods. In the end, this was (at least to me) more comfortable than hands flat on the horizontal sections of the bars.
I also have a Specialized Sequoia Elite and have been thankful on many occasions that they had the insight to put the inline brake levers on this bike. They are probably made by Tektro.
