I am curious if anyone has experience with the Team version of the 3T Aero Brake Levers. I have seen some comments on the standard levers but was curious what people thought about the Team version before pulling the trigger.
http://www.3tcycling.com/accessories/aero-brakes
Haven’t used the 3T. Have the original Vision and Profile carbons. Both look more aero to me.
Here’s the Vision brake lever. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find a frontal picture.
That’s the newer Vision lever. The original were a tad narrower and had a point on the end that was a tad dangerous in the event of a crash.
I just got some to use with TriRig Omega brakes. The Omega works best with levers that pull a lot of cable, and I measured the 3T Pro as pulling more cable than any other lever I’ve measured, so I thought the Team version probably also pulls plenty of cable. It uses MTB cables, and I don’t have any of those lying around, so haven’t been able to measure the cable pull yet. The other option was Magura, which I already had as they came with a P5-3 frameset I bought. This is how the two look next to each other:
The 3T shape blends in nicely with the bar if you aren’t going to use bar tape. Also, the lever part has an aerofoil cross-section all the way apart from the small sphere on the end. My feeling is it’s unlikely to be less aero than the Magura lever, and I’d rather have the convenience of mechanical brakes for ease of installation.
I have the Vision levers. If you don’t brake much, they’re fine! That said, I really like them, but they are thin and short so if you’re use to a shimano type of brake lever you may not be comfortable with the lack of surface area. What’s nice is that I’ve developed a ‘feathering’ type of braking with them and just use my index fingers with a light touch.
Wow, those are expensive and ugly levers.
For the same money, I’d get the Profile Design ABS levers, which are very sleek looking and have a very strong return spring.
http://www.tririg.com/articles.php?id=2012_12_Profile_Design_ABS_Levers
How does the lever feel on your fingers? I’ve got Vision levers right now and these look like they might feel similar. I’ve tried the Profile Design levers and they feel … not good.
Steve,
I hadn’t seen the info about the Omegas working best with more cable pull. Can you point me to it?
Thanks!
I have these levers. Wouldnt want to do any long descents as they are tough on the hands… great for small braking (ie cornering)
It will be a while before I have them built onto a bike as I don’t have the rest of the bike yet, but they feel reasonably similar to Di2 levers, I’d say. Certainly a much nicer feel on the fingers than the 3T Pro levers. The bit that your fingers rest against when you pull on it has a flattened front.
I hadn’t seen the info about the Omegas working best with more cable pull. Can you point me to it?
The source of that info is my own testing. I have installed Omegas on several bikes now, and seen large differences in how well they work. With the USE R1 I ran out of cable pull, i.e. the lever reached full travel without satisfactory braking force having been achieved. On another bike I had used some Tektro levers that worked sort of okay but noticeably much worse than normal brakes with the same levers. I had pretty much given up on the Omegas and was planning to use Maguras from now on, but to my surprise, when I built a bike with Di2, the braking of the Omegas was absolutely fine with those levers. So I started measuring the cable pull of various levers by fully applying the brakes with the front wheel removed:
USE R1 10.7mm
Tektro 13.3mm (Don’t know what model they are)
Di2 >14.6mm (I can’t actually use the full travel to measure it)
3T Pro 16.3mm
The amount of cable pull at full travel seems to be directly related to my perception of how good the braking is when the levers are used with Omegas. I don’t yet have the right type of cable to measure the cable pull of the 3T Team levers, but my hope is that they will work similarly well to the Di2 levers while being more aero than the standard Dura Ace levers (which I’m told have the same cable pull as the Di2 levers).
Thanks for the explanation!
Steve, thank you! This is beautiful. I too am building up a P5 with Omega’s and have been fooling around with a few levers. This is super helpful.
Great, thanks for the info. I was planning to pair the 3T levers with Omegas, too, so this is really helpful.
I have had Omegas on several tri bikes now … A P4, a Shiv TT, a vintage old P3 aluminum and now a P5 Three. In all cases, I’ve used the Bontrager XXX lite aero brake levers. I know that Nick says the Omegas should not be used with in-line barrel adjusters (or he has said something like that), but I’ve found the Bontragers, with their built-in adjuster, do a marvelous job of removing all slack from the system so that even the slightest pull on the lever translates to movement of the brake pads. This also means you can eliminate any and all aggravating vibration from the brake levers if you have to ride/race/train on crappy roads like I do. They’re pricey, but they’re excellent aero stoppers and they’re very comfortable in the hands.
To add to my figures, I have now measured the 3T Team levers as having exactly the same cable pull as the 3T Pro:
USE R1 10.7mm
Tektro 13.3mm (Don’t know what model they are)
Di2 >14.6mm (I can’t actually use the full travel to measure it)
3T Pro 16.3mm
3T Team 16.3mm
I also got a friend to measure the cable pull of some Vision levers, and they were around 13mm.
Thanks again Steve, this is awesome and super helpful.