What is your rim brake lever of choice?
Shimano Dura Ace BL-TT79, full stop. They look great, use carbon, and say “Dura Ace” on them. Tririg likes them because they have a stronger pull ratio.
What he said ^^^^
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tektro alu levers that came with the bike. possibly there are better ones around, but mine work and don’t see any reason to replace them
Shimano Dura Ace BL-TT79, full stop. They look great, use carbon, and say “Dura Ace” on them. Tririg likes them because they have a stronger pull ratio.
X2. I’ve had couple different kinds on my bikes. I haven’t even owned these levers, I was in my LBS and pulled the levers on a tt bike on the floor and was like “holy moly, my levers feel like shit compared to these, what are they”, and they were the TT79. And yes, I keep my brakes and cables in good proper shape so it’s not like my cables are old and brakes not centered or something and mine felt crappy bc of it. Those levers just felt much better to hold and pull.
Shimano Dura Ace BL-TT79, full stop. They look great, use carbon, and say “Dura Ace” on them. Tririg likes them because they have a stronger pull ratio.
X2. I’ve had couple different kinds on my bikes. I haven’t even owned these levers, I was in my LBS and pulled the levers on a tt bike on the floor and was like “holy moly, my levers feel like shit compared to these, what are they”, and they were the TT79. And yes, I keep my brakes and cables in good proper shape so it’s not like my cables are old and brakes not centered or something and mine felt crappy bc of it. Those levers just felt much better to hold and pull.
They are the best levers I’ve used as well.
They even make the rear brake on the Felt DA work great.
Echoing the Shimano BT 79 sentiments. They’re really good, or at least wayyyy better than the Sram options. And the 2 button di2 shifters have the exact same feel if you need di2 as well. Getting harder and harder to source for a reasonable price though.
I really like the Bontrager XXX Race Lite. They have a little trim dial built in. So you don’t need to go through the trouble of putting an inline barrel adjuster in. I like it with my TriRig front brake which doesn’t have the release cam for removing wheels. The dial lets me remove wheels or make small adjustments while still having a pristine cable path.
They’ve also got a really nice spring, not just depending on the brake. They give a really great, snappy brake feel. I hate squishy TT brakes.
I’m not a Bontrager guy generally, but I think they knocked it out of the park on this lever.
3TTT aero levers
Not great for stopping (good enough though, even on hilly courses), but very aero.
Cant go wrong with BL-T79. But the Bonti adjuster is great for many bikes and 3T is solid if your top priority is marginal gains
One thing to keep in mind is that different brake calipers can have different pull ratios so different brake calipers might work best with different brake levers.
That said, the Bontrager ones do seem to function quite well as stated above, and I’ve also heard many praise the Shimano ones (as also alluded to above). I also quite rate the ControlTech carbon levers, those are very nicely sculpted from both an aerodynamic and an ergonomic standpoint and seem to be quite good for both modulation and maximum force.
so what is up with everyone selling these individually?
Partly on me, but I just got shipped an individual lever (my fault because it says lever not “levers”) but they even shipped it in the box that has spots for TWO levers. Now I am noticing everyone online is only selling them as singles not a pair.
Are the Shimano levers really worth $300 over the SRAM options $60-160??
If I were a guessing man, I would guess that they only come packaged in pairs. And, people damaged a lever and only needed one replacement. So, they bought the pair and then sold the one they did not need.
Regarding “are they worth it,” there are four versions of these: Ultegra/DA and Mechanical/Di2. If you need Di2, then yeah, they are worth it over SRAM. I think that the Ultegra mechanical brake levers are not that expensive, and the incremental cost versus benefit to Dura Ace is probably not worth it, but totally a vanity thing. Same with the Di2 versions, except more expensive because Di2.
What is your rim brake lever of choice?
Profile Design 3/one because you can tighten the brake without having to remove the cable.
Pretty sure Profile Design has a reach adjust screw (as does Shimano), not a tension adjuster like Bontrager
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Pretty sure Profile Design has a reach adjust screw (as does Shimano), not a tension adjuster like Bontrager
Pretty sure that you’re wrong - I own a pair and I can detach them without removing the cable. 
I own them too…
Can you adjust cable tension without the lever moving? The Bonti lever has a barrel adjuster built in that let’s you do this. The Profile levers do not.
This is so often overlooked. Dura ace levers are great, but work shit on sram brakes and viceversa.
So far I’ve been happy with my cheap sram TT levers (with tririg omega X brakes)
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