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#1
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Auxiliary brake levers and V-brakes
I just bought a new Trek 520 touring bike,
and I had the bike shop put auxiliary brake levers on the tops. They are really mushy -- I can pull them back to the bars without a lot of effort. The front brake lever will stop the bike, but not nearly as well as the main brake lever. The back auxiliary lever is near useless. This bike has V-brakes. I read a bit about various sorts of brakes on Sheldon Brown's site and other places, and it seems to me this is a mechanical advantage issue, like using regular brake levers with V-brakes. Do they make more than one kind of auxiliary brake lever, or am I stuck with these? Are there any other options? As an aside, I picked this bike shop (College Park Bikes by the University of Maryland) because they had a good reputation. My impression now is that the manager(s) knew what they were doing, but the various kids who might have been doing most of the work do not. One of them even tried to tell me that he had read something that said you aren't supposed to ride with your hands on the hoods, because the brakes are only held on with one bolt, and if you put too much weight on them, they'll come loose. Thanks for any help. -- Durward McDonell |
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#2
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Auxiliary brake levers and V-brakes
durward wrote: I just bought a new Trek 520 touring bike, and I had the bike shop put auxiliary brake levers on the tops. They are really mushy -- I can pull them back to the bars without a lot of effort. The front brake lever will stop the bike, but not nearly as well as the main brake lever. The back auxiliary lever is near useless. There are aux levers that are vbrake compatible.Sounds like ya didn't get these. This bike has V-brakes. I read a bit about various sorts of brakes on Sheldon Brown's site and other places, and it seems to me this is a mechanical advantage issue, like using regular brake levers with V-brakes. Do they make more than one kind of auxiliary brake lever, or am I stuck with these? Are there any other options? As an aside, I picked this bike shop (College Park Bikes by the University of Maryland) because they had a good reputation. My impression now is that the manager(s) knew what they were doing, but the various kids who might have been doing most of the work do not. One of them even tried to tell me that he had read something that said you aren't supposed to ride with your hands on the hoods, because the brakes are only held on with one bolt, and if you put too much weight on them, they'll come loose. Thanks for any help. -- Durward McDonell |
#3
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Auxiliary brake levers and V-brakes
durward wrote: I just bought a new Trek 520 touring bike, and I had the bike shop put auxiliary brake levers on the tops. They are really mushy -- I can pull them back to the bars without a lot of effort. The front brake lever will stop the bike, but not nearly as well as the main brake lever. The back auxiliary lever is near useless. This bike has V-brakes. I read a bit about various sorts of brakes on Sheldon Brown's site and other places, and it seems to me this is a mechanical advantage issue, like using regular brake levers with V-brakes. Do they make more than one kind of auxiliary brake lever, or am I stuck with these? Are there any other options? As an aside, I picked this bike shop (College Park Bikes by the University of Maryland) because they had a good reputation. My impression now is that the manager(s) knew what they were doing, but the various kids who might have been doing most of the work do not. One of them even tried to tell me that he had read something that said you aren't supposed to ride with your hands on the hoods, because the brakes are only held on with one bolt, and if you put too much weight on them, they'll come loose. Gee, another unsupervised dum-ass kid inna bike shop- Thanks for any help. -- Durward McDonell |
#4
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Auxiliary brake levers and V-brakes
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#5
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Auxiliary brake levers and V-brakes
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