Long story short I replaced my stock basebar (basic round alum) with a Profile Design Ozero bar I picked up here in the classifieds. Everything went fine until I went to reinstall the brake levers and now they don’t fit in the bullhorns. The just spin. They aren’t snug. Wrap with electrical tape? Are there shims I can order? Should I scrap the stock Tektros and pick up some SRAM levers (I don’t like this option very much)? I anticipated just about every way I could screw this up…except this. I’m a moron. Thankfully I can still spin on the trainer for now. It’s too cold to need brakes anyway.
I wouldn’t wrap with electrical tape as it will compress and your brakes will possibly come loose. - not good. Have you got a pic? Some compression mounts, such as the shimano bar end shifters, have a metal sleeve over the compression part to increase the diameter - you may need a sleeve.
I got it figured out. I’m sure there is a better design out there. This one ain’t so great.
You’ve got to run the housing, then put in the brake lever, tighten the brake lever, thread the cable through the allen bolt used to tighten the brake (it’s a hollow allen bolt). If the housing isn’t in the perfect position in the brake “funnel” it won’t work/you can’t get the cable to feed into the housing. It took 15 minutes of trial and error. In a perfect world you could have the cable and housing in place BEFORE tightening the brake in place. Not so with this set.
Thanks for helping me trouble shoot…now if only I hadn’t frayed the rear brake cable…Jag Wire here I come…ugh…the money hemorrhage never ends with this sport…
I feel your pain. I’ve just swapped-out my drop bars for a Ozero base bar and my brake levers sound pretty similar to yours. However, my problem is getting the cable to feed around the corner inside the base bar. I’ve tried using a magnet, but the corner is too tight for that. What’s the secret to achieving this - it seems impossible right now - any suggestions gratefully received. Thanks!
I feel your pain. I’ve just swapped-out my drop bars for a Ozero base bar and my brake levers sound pretty similar to yours. However, my problem is getting the cable to feed around the corner inside the base bar. I’ve tried using a magnet, but the corner is too tight for that. What’s the secret to achieving this - it seems impossible right now - any suggestions gratefully received. Thanks!
I’ve found it easiest to run a piece of cable from the bottom of the bar towards the front opening. Super easy to get the cable out the front this way. Then use this cable as a guide to run the housing through starting from the bottom towards the front. It’s a piece of cake to get the housing through if you have the cable as a guide. Then pull out your scrap cable piece and run the cables like you normally would.
Thanks for your reply. Like the original post, the levers have to be attached to the bars first because the cable runs down through the (hollow) allen key. So I’m trying to thread the cable down through the brake lever and out of the bar - then I can thread the outer over it from the bottom. But the problem is getting the cable to turn the sharp corner inside the base bar. As you can probably see on the image below, the handles go straight at the end giving the cable a nice little dead-end to sit in. I’m even beginning to question whether the handles are open to the horizontal sections or whether you HAVE to have some cable coming out the bottom of the grips? Has anybody got these exact bars and been able to run the cable through to the opening underneath near to where the stem attaches? Thanks again, Chris
I got it figured out. I’m sure there is a better design out there. This one ain’t so great.
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Thanks for helping me trouble shoot…now if only I hadn’t frayed the rear brake cable…Jag Wire here I come…ugh…the money hemorrhage never ends with this sport…
Are you a homeowner? Bikes are a piece of cake compared to a bath or kitchen remodel… no matter how straightforward a repair/upgrade might seem, it pretty much never goes as simply as it all should and you end up having to deal with some stupid/unforeseen issue (and the according additional time & expense). Such is the nature of things.
. It took 15 minutes of trial and error. In a perfect world you could have the cable and housing in place BEFORE tightening the brake in place. Not so with this set…
It only took 15 minutes? You lucky bastard. If you really want frustration, you can come work on my nosecone Shiv TT!
Thanks for your reply. Like the original post, the levers have to be attached to the bars first because the cable runs down through the (hollow) allen key. So I’m trying to thread the cable down through the brake lever and out of the bar - then I can thread the outer over it from the bottom. But the problem is getting the cable to turn the sharp corner inside the base bar. As you can probably see on the image below, the handles go straight at the end giving the cable a nice little dead-end to sit in. I’m even beginning to question whether the handles are open to the horizontal sections or whether you HAVE to have some cable coming out the bottom of the grips? Has anybody got these exact bars and been able to run the cable through to the opening underneath near to where the stem attaches? Thanks again, Chris
I have the exact same bars as you and what I described is what I did. Run the cable housing first. Then install the brake levers. If you run a guide cable (I used se scrap cable I had so I wasn’t messing with a long piece) from under the bar near where the stem clamps towards the lever opening it’s super easy. Just angle the cable as you’re threading it and it should just bump into the side and run right out.
Then keep that in place and run the housing along the same path. The cable will act as a guide so the housing can make the turn easily. Then thread the housing through the base bar. You can then back the housing up as you install your lever.
On my levers (profile design) the expander housing had a nook for the cable housing to rest into. So I put the housing into the nook and gently pressed lever into the base bar as I pulled out the cable being careful to not pull it out of the nook. Then I tightened the lever and finished running the cable housing to the brake and cut to size. Then I finally ran the brake cable.
Excellent - thank you! At least I know for sure then that there is a hole between the wing section and the handles… I’ll just have to persevere with threading a cable through like you suggest. Many thanks for taking the time to reply!
No problem. Happy to help. Come back if you have problems. But it shouldn’t be as bad as you’re imagining or having. Just requires a little patience. But honestly you should easily be able to have the base bar levers and cabling done in 15 min or less. 5 min max to run the cables.
