Dropped Vbrake levers: why not

[A H B]

Surely a V brake compatible drop bar lever should be simple to make: just move the pivot to decrease leverage, provided has simple old fashioned non concealed cable entry at top. A buillt in 'Kelly mount' for ordinary down tube levers could provide integrated gear change?

[reohn2]

they could if they could sell enough to make it worth it.
thought about it many times but mr shimano,mr campagnolo& mr sram only do "mass" and mass price levels, if say a small firm got involved the price levels would probably much higher than sti's/ergo's and travelagents or similar and we all know how tight these cyclists are.

[Jim Crosskell]

What's wrong with Diacompe 287V's for drop bars. We have them fitted on a tandem with Avid single digit on the front and Suntour self energising cantelevers on the rear and it works well.

[reohn2]

no gear shifters to hand unless you fit kellys, which are good, certainly better than bar ends or dt's without the problems of sti's if they fail miles from nowhere,but no one makes the brake&gear lever combined only mr" mass."

[stefsmif]

Diacompe 287 V's are one answer but require your gear shifters to be located elsewhere. Alternatively try 'Travelagents' a replacement roller system for the brake noodle in which the cable from the brake wraps first around a small wheel before transferring to a larger wheel before reaching the brake. This multiplies the amount of cable pulled allowing the use of V-brakes. Another solution of a few years back was a brake booster for cantilevers which replaced the straddle wire with a lever arrangement which increased the cantilevers power, I think Tektro used to make it.

[A H B]

I think when Chris Juden reviewed the 287Vs he mentioned that the extra cable bends made them about the same performance as Cantilevers or V brakes with travel agents. Flat bar V levers are simple, why shouldnt drop ones be. Concealed cables dont seem very important to me especially if the extra curves reduce brake performance. Integrated gear and brake SIS seems to complicated to me.

[richardirving]

Couldn't agree more, but the gear change integration with drop bar levers as an after market accessory has been done so well in the past by Suntour - the Command shifter - still available on Ebay if you really hunt, but limited to 7 speed and only just indexes with Shimano cassettes. What we need is someone to knock these out for 8,9,10 speed; they are/were so much better than Kelly Takeoffs. I still use them and have hoarded extra NOS pairs over the years - which are Not For Sale

[reohn2]

we've got sti's/v's/t'agents on one tandem and kelly's canti's on the other . sti's win all round the braking power is awesome and the gears are a dream to use you need to carry a spare dt shifter in case an sti fails though,a very small weight penalty,but don't get me wrong the kelly/canti set up is very good. well yer pays yer money.......

[Beep!Beep!]

My Peugeot has standard Weinmann old fashioned drop levers NO daft side leverswith cantilever brakes and works fine. As long as the cable routing is done properly you should be able use most drop levers with most types of brake, check that the lever does not bang against the bars and it should be fine.

[CJ]

Tell him someone!

[TJ]

Beeper, sorry to burst your bubble, but normal drop bar levers don't pull enough cable for them to be used with 'V' type brakes.
Look at the SJSCycles website and then find the Dia-Compe 'V' brake specific levers for drop bars.

[Beep!Beep!]

Thinking afterwards something tells me you have buy the levers to match the brakes, so yes you are right but would still try it and if it does not work then it teaches you not to do it again. Funny how the Shimano Nexave levers for calipers are not unlike the V model ones, this new technology does confuse me no end!!!!

[stefsmif]

In an earlier message I mentioned a kit to increase the power of cantilever brakes but could not remember its name. Now thanks to 'thirdcrank' I've found it. The device is: Tektro Leverage Enhancement Hanger part:N1269A.
Mount this system into your cantilever brakes and it increases your braking power to closer to V-brake performance plus you can use non V-brake levers and thus use integrated drop brake/gear shifters.
What I don't understand is why Campag or Shimano dont make a v-brake compatable integrated drop lever/ gear shifter system due to the large number of cycle tourists and cyclocrossers who would benefit from and buy the technology ?