A
Andrew Lee
Guest
I was watching an old French movie on video last night that included scenes of a dropped bar bicycle
from the late 1950's. The brake levers on the bike were new to me and they made me think of the
dropped bar/flat bar braking discussion a couple of weeks ago (which I stayed out of... I'm happy
with the 5 positions that I use on my drop bars with 1980's Shimano aero brake levers and find the
flat bars with built in extensions a lot less comfortable on my mountain bike.) Some of you who
didn't like the braking on drop bars may or may not like this old setup.
The bars were standard drops. The brake levers attached below the tops of the bars near the stem,
looking a lot like the extra levers that some people put on cyclocross bikes except that they were
longer. The ends of the levers extended to the sides and then forwards a couple centimeters,
following the forward bend of the handlebars. The body of the levers were angled down maybe a little
more than the 45 degrees down from horizontal of my mountain bike. The braking positions were from
the tops (palm down position) and the upper bends (palms roughly facing each other) positions - 2 of
the 5 positions that I commonly ride in on my road bike and different from the 2 positions that I
have braking available from on my more modern (if you consider 1980's modern) bike. Like a track
bike, there are no brake hoods to use and no braking from the hooks or lower flats. They looked
pretty sturdy and had plenty of clearance to them to avoid bottoming out unlike the "suicide" lever
extensions on old "10-speeds" (which I frequently used on my first road bike and didn't mind, though
I knew their limitations).
from the late 1950's. The brake levers on the bike were new to me and they made me think of the
dropped bar/flat bar braking discussion a couple of weeks ago (which I stayed out of... I'm happy
with the 5 positions that I use on my drop bars with 1980's Shimano aero brake levers and find the
flat bars with built in extensions a lot less comfortable on my mountain bike.) Some of you who
didn't like the braking on drop bars may or may not like this old setup.
The bars were standard drops. The brake levers attached below the tops of the bars near the stem,
looking a lot like the extra levers that some people put on cyclocross bikes except that they were
longer. The ends of the levers extended to the sides and then forwards a couple centimeters,
following the forward bend of the handlebars. The body of the levers were angled down maybe a little
more than the 45 degrees down from horizontal of my mountain bike. The braking positions were from
the tops (palm down position) and the upper bends (palms roughly facing each other) positions - 2 of
the 5 positions that I commonly ride in on my road bike and different from the 2 positions that I
have braking available from on my more modern (if you consider 1980's modern) bike. Like a track
bike, there are no brake hoods to use and no braking from the hooks or lower flats. They looked
pretty sturdy and had plenty of clearance to them to avoid bottoming out unlike the "suicide" lever
extensions on old "10-speeds" (which I frequently used on my first road bike and didn't mind, though
I knew their limitations).