bore out brake lever clamps?



Hi,

I'm putting moustache bars on a bike currently set up with flat bars
and v-brakes. The moustache bars are MTB stem clamp diameter but road
lever diameter. This is a single-speed errand-runner/townie bike.

I was planning to replace the v-brakes with cantis and use road levers,
or else get some Dia Compe 287-Vs. (I'd rather not use travel agents
just to keep clutter to a minimum.) Obviously the current levers will
not fit on the larger diameter bar.

But now I'm tempted to take a round file and just bore out the v-brake
levers. It seems like I could file away enough material to make them
fit, and it looks like once they're on there they'd work fine in terms
of positioning. There's plenty of material in the clamp area so I
don't think they'd break. Anyone ever try such a thing? Any reason
not to? All this stuff's already there so it would be great if I could
make it work.

Opinions appreciated.
 
I did what you are suggesting, only with an older cantilever MTB brake
lever mounted on a set of Nitto mustache bars. I ground out some
material from the ID of the lever clamp with a dremel tool. It worked
just fine. The lever I used had plenty of material around the bar
clamp
 
<[email protected]> wrote: (clip) I ground out some material
from the ID of the lever clamp with a dremel tool. (clip)
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
A Dremel (or similar) tool is much preferable to a file, because: 1.) It
is a lot easier. 2.) It is almost impossible to hold a file parallel to
the axis of the clamp. You will wind up with a hole shaped like an
hourglass (I'm eggagerating), so the thing will tend to rock after it is
installed, no matter how much you tighten it.