Unfortunately I took a tumble on my bike the other day and I need new brake levers.
I don’t really fancy the Di2 since they look so freaking big and can’t possible to very aero. Obviously the gear changing ability is golden if you ride hilly courses but I’m fine without.
What are your favourite aero brake levers? It needs to fit the standard Felt IA bayonet.
I was looking a bit on the Shimano DA 7900 TT levers. They look very sleek.
I’ve also looked a bit at Campys aero carbon TT brakes which looks pretty sweet as well.
I’ve used TRP alloy and carbon brake levers in the past.
Have recently upgraded to the 6870 TT groupset hence using the di2 levers that came with it.
It feels to me that the TRP carbon levers were easier on the fingers in the long run, but I feel that the added bonus of the ability to change gears on the pursuit bars is really helpful (Especially coming out of corners & U-turns).
So answering your question, which ever levers u go with is very personal but I would definitely go with Carbon.
Vision crabclaw levers, original version. They are really uncomfortable on your fingers, and so discourage you from braking too much. Which helps you go faster.
I have been very happy with my TRP RL970 levers. Very comfortable and simply have a good feel. You can use them all day long and they will never bite into your hands.
Vision crabclaw levers, original version. They are really uncomfortable on your fingers, and so discourage you from braking too much. Which helps you go faster.
Do those fit standard bars? For some reason I thought not.
Vision makes (made???) an adaptor which lets the crab claws fit on virtually any base bar. I’m using them on the old Easton Attack TT bars, with no issues (with the adaptor).
The rattle doesn’t bother me at all. My body has enough rattles and funny noises coming from it as it is, one more noise is irrelevant.
The only downside to them is that they need the Vision brake cables, the head is smaller than standard. I know that some people have set them up with shift cables, but I don’t trust using shift cables to handle braking duties.
I still have some of those cables, they look like derailleur cables but the head of them is painted red. I too never trusted using the shift cable, too much risk to save a few bucks.
Don’t buy those. Please, I beg you don’t buy them. They are the worst brake levers I have ever used. When I used them with the TriRig Omegas, they did not pull enough cable to have confident braking power. I switched to Dura Ace levers and all the problems went away.
These are about the smallest cross section area ones that I could find which would fit standard bars. Their power is OK, not great, they do have a return spring, they require a different cable (MTB I think).
power is fine with those on tririg omegas, way more lever motion than needed. unlike the vision nes, they use standard mtn brake cables. also, cable is internal so you can rotate 90deg without worrying about housing,etc, if that is something you wanted to do(see photo of 3:18 100mi TTer
power is fine with those on tririg omegas, way more lever motion than needed. unlike the vision nes, they use standard mtn brake cables. also, cable is internal so you can rotate 90deg without worrying about housing,etc, if that is something you wanted to do(see photo of 3:18 100mi TTer
I have used them for a couple years with an omega front and I don’t worry at all on the flats. I have had a couple of “poop your pants” moments on some down hills, but that might just be because I have zero experience on fast technical descents. It also doesn’t help that my other brake is the legendary P4 rear brake.
There was one day in Hawaii last year on a training ride (off the course by accident) where I stupidly just kept climbing and climbing and climbing and eventually had no idea where the hell I was. I swear I climbed for 40 minutes or something, I saw a nice paved road with an awesome view that would take me back down toward the ocean and alii, so I figured what the hell. I think I made it all the way back down the 40 minute climb in about 4 minutes. I was horrified the whole time.
Whether or not it was the lever’s fault, I don’t know but seriously, I thought I was either going to crash and go flying off the island or cause my brakes to suddenly combust! I didn’t ride that way again!
