Auxiliary brake levers and V-brakes

[durward]

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 [email protected]

 

[Qui si parla Campagnolo]

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 [email protected]

 

[Qui si parla Campagnolo]

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 [email protected]

 

[durward]

> There are aux levers that are vbrake compatible.
> Sounds like ya didn't get these.

Thanks! Do you have any brand names, or a link I can
look at? I would like to be able to point to some when
I go back to the bike shop.

--
Durward McDonell [email protected]

 

[Qui si parla Campagnolo]

durward wrote:
> > There are aux levers that are vbrake compatible.
> > Sounds like ya didn't get these.
>
> Thanks! Do you have any brand names, or a link I can
> look at? I would like to be able to point to some when
> I go back to the bike shop.
>
> --
> Durward McDonell [email protected]

Tektro-