strange Dia-Compe aero brake levers

Sounds like you have 287 V brake levers which pull more cable. Good for V
brakes and some canti's.

Seems to me that when used with road calipers you lose modulation.

Gary Jacobson
Rosendale, NY

"Dan Daniel" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I picked up a pair of Dia-compe aero brake levers at a garage sale
today. Now that I have them home, I am wondering what it is I really
bought.

The hoods and clamp look normal- black rubber, embossed R or L on one
side, Dia-compe on the other.

The levers look fine until you get to the pivot area.. There is a
black plastic semi-circle that wraps around the top a bit, held in
place by a small allen bolt. This bolt bottoms out before the plastic
piece is held still, so I wonder if there is a piece missing. The top
of the bolt has an unthreaded section, and it looks like a washer
(quick release lever??) would fit into a recess in the plastic piece.

This bolt also captures a large aluminum block that has a recess at
the top edge for the cable mushroom and a slot of the cable to go
through a hole in the base of the body.

This block pivots (when the bolt isn't holding it in place) around a
point about 3/4 inch beyond the lever pivot point.

At the pivot point there i a small set screw holding the axle (?) in
place.

The allen bolt for the clamp is tucked underneath the pivot point, and
it looks as if I will need to remove the lever in order to clamp the
body to the handlebars.

Any ideas? I have searched for photos/descriptions, etc. of Dia-Compe
levers but see nothing that looks similar. Are these usable as
standard aero brake levers on a road bike, or are they specifically
designed for another use?

Thanks for any help.

Gary Jacobson said:

Sounds like you have 287 V brake levers which pull more cable. Good for V
brakes and some canti's.

Seems to me that when used with road calipers you lose modulation.

Gary Jacobson
Rosendale, NY

OK, found them. The first couple of places I went for the 287-v had
the wrong picture.

Any idea if they will work with dual pivot brakes?

How about side pull brakes? I have an old pair of 105 standard reach
brakes that will fit on the bike.

I looked at photos on the web too, even though I have two pairs, and it
could be that there is a newer cleaner looking version. Or maybe the photos
I saw where the older cleaner looking version. I think that these extra
cable pull levers were once called 287 and the "V" came later when V brakes
became popular.

There's a spring in the lever which seems to easily break.
Just broke one yesterday, and a used set I bought had a broken spring. Not a
big deal if tension in the caliper spring is good. But I wish I could find
replacement springs anyway.

Gary Jacobson
Rosendale, NY

Gary Jacobson
Rosendale, NY

"Dan Daniel" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Gary Jacobson said:

Sounds like you have 287 V brake levers which pull more cable. Good for V
brakes and some canti's.

Seems to me that when used with road calipers you lose modulation.

Gary Jacobson
Rosendale, NY

OK, found them. The first couple of places I went for the 287-v had
the wrong picture.

Any idea if they will work with dual pivot brakes?

How about side pull brakes? I have an old pair of 105 standard reach
brakes that will fit on the bike.

Gary Jacobson said:

I looked at photos on the web too, even though I have two pairs, and it
could be that there is a newer cleaner looking version. Or maybe the photos
I saw where the older cleaner looking version. I think that these extra
cable pull levers were once called 287 and the "V" came later when V brakes
became popular.

There's a spring in the lever which seems to easily break.
Just broke one yesterday, and a used set I bought had a broken spring. Not a
big deal if tension in the caliper spring is good. But I wish I could find
replacement springs anyway.

Gary Jacobson
Rosendale, NY

Thanks for the help.

If the levers won't do much with dual or single pivot side pulls, I
might have a pair for sale very cheap 🙂 With working springs in
each!

Dan Daniel said:

If the levers won't do much with dual or single pivot side pulls, I
might have a pair for sale very cheap 🙂 With working springs in
each!

If these are the "V" levers (that is not entirely clear, there is a
similar non-V lever that will work fine on most sidepulls), then don't
sell them too cheaply. They are fairly expensive (around $40-$50 if
memory serves) and much in demand.

--

David L. Johnson

__o | We have a record of conquest, colonization and expansion
_`\(,_ | unequaled by any people in the Nineteenth Century. We are not to
(_)/ (_) | be curbed now. --Henry Cabot Lodge, 1895

Dan Daniel said:

I picked up a pair of Dia-compe aero brake levers at a garage sale
today. Now that I have them home, I am wondering what it is I really
bought.

The hoods and clamp look normal- black rubber, embossed R or L on one
side, Dia-compe on the other.

The levers look fine until you get to the pivot area.. There is a
black plastic semi-circle that wraps around the top a bit, held in
place by a small allen bolt. This bolt bottoms out before the plastic
piece is held still, so I wonder if there is a piece missing. The top
of the bolt has an unthreaded section, and it looks like a washer
(quick release lever??) would fit into a recess in the plastic piece.

This bolt also captures a large aluminum block that has a recess at
the top edge for the cable mushroom and a slot of the cable to go
through a hole in the base of the body.

This block pivots (when the bolt isn't holding it in place) around a
point about 3/4 inch beyond the lever pivot point.

At the pivot point there i a small set screw holding the axle (?) in
place.

The allen bolt for the clamp is tucked underneath the pivot point, and
it looks as if I will need to remove the lever in order to clamp the
body to the handlebars.

Any ideas? I have searched for photos/descriptions, etc. of Dia-Compe
levers but see nothing that looks similar. Are these usable as
standard aero brake levers on a road bike, or are they specifically
designed for another use?

Thanks for any help.

I am not sure but are you describing a set of tandem "dummy
levers"? Those have a very short blocky aluminum thing
where the lever blade would be. Those would not work as a
brake lever. Got a photo?
--
Andrew Muzi
www.yellowjersey.org
Open every day since 1 April, 1971

On Sun, 25 Apr 2004 22:13:20 -0500, A Muzi <[email hidden]>

Quoted message said:

I am not sure but are you describing a set of tandem "dummy
levers"? Those have a very short blocky aluminum thing
where the lever blade would be. Those would not work as a
brake lever. Got a photo?

These aren't tandem dummy blocks. Gary Jacobson's post led me to find
this photo-

http://www.cambriabike.com/road/brake_calipers_levers/images/dia_compe_287-v_aero_levers.jpg

I'll see if I can find any success stories on using them with dual
pivot or side pull brakes. I think that Rivendell used to have them on
their web site with a blurb about adding new life to old side pulls,
but then Rivendell often has blurbs that have as much to do with
getting rid of stock as it does with reality.

Gary Jacobson said:

Sounds like you have 287 V brake levers which pull more cable. Good for V
brakes and some canti's.

I concur. I just looked at my 287Vs and they sound very similar.

There's a photo and explanation of the difference between the 287 and 287V
here:

http://forums.roadbikereview.com/showthread.php?t=1977

Greg

Quoted message said:

Seems to me that when used with road calipers you lose modulation.

Gary Jacobson
Rosendale, NY

"Dan Daniel" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I picked up a pair of Dia-compe aero brake levers at a garage sale
today. Now that I have them home, I am wondering what it is I really
bought.

The hoods and clamp look normal- black rubber, embossed R or L on one
side, Dia-compe on the other.

The levers look fine until you get to the pivot area.. There is a
black plastic semi-circle that wraps around the top a bit, held in
place by a small allen bolt. This bolt bottoms out before the plastic
piece is held still, so I wonder if there is a piece missing. The top
of the bolt has an unthreaded section, and it looks like a washer
(quick release lever??) would fit into a recess in the plastic piece.

This bolt also captures a large aluminum block that has a recess at
the top edge for the cable mushroom and a slot of the cable to go
through a hole in the base of the body.

This block pivots (when the bolt isn't holding it in place) around a
point about 3/4 inch beyond the lever pivot point.

At the pivot point there i a small set screw holding the axle (?) in
place.

The allen bolt for the clamp is tucked underneath the pivot point, and
it looks as if I will need to remove the lever in order to clamp the
body to the handlebars.

Dan Daniel said:

I picked up a pair of Dia-compe aero brake levers at a garage sale
today. Now that I have them home, I am wondering what it is I really
bought.

From your description, I'd say they are 287-V levers:

http://tinyurl.com/yueea

These are designed to work only with v-brakes, as they pull too much
cable for caliper brakes.
--
terry morse Palo Alto, CA http://bike.terrymorse.com/