Trouble reaching STI levers from brake hoods

[frogleggs]

I am a woman with small hands. My bike has STI levers (Tiagra). I can shift just fine, but braking is a bit of a problem. I can brake pretty easily with my hands in the drops, but I like to keep them on the brake hoods most of the time. When I try to brake from this position, I have a difficult time getting my fingers low enough on the lever to squeeze it with any force.

I searched for info on this before posting, and saw that some people have had success with Specialized slim shims. To me it sounds like these shims just change the angle of the lever, and I don't know if that would help me or not.

I'm a newbie, this is my first road bike. I bought it online and figured I could handle setting it up myself (I'm an engineer and enjoy this sort of thing). So far so good, except for this issue.

 

[phallenthoul]

you need a pair of these

or a handlebar with a curve designed for users who have small hands.
Deda has such a model, check it out.
http://www.dedaelementi.com/it/dettaglio.asp?articolo=142

 

[nerdag]

I can brake pretty easily with my hands in the drops, but I like to keep them on the brake hoods most of the time. When I try to brake from this position, I have a difficult time getting my fingers low enough on the lever to squeeze it with any force.

Shims won't solve that problem, as you've correctly alluded.

I have similarly small hands, and no amount of shimming would make it easier to grab the levers from the hoods. Changing bars won't help either, since its an inherent design problem with the lever that disadvantages small hands.

The only solution I managed to find was to switch to Campag ergos - its much easier to reach the levers from the hoods and drops. Campag levers give you more mechanical advantage, since the pivot is further away from the position that you grab the levers (both from the hoods and drops).

FWIW, you don't have to switch the entire drivetrain - since you're running a shimano 9 system, you can just buy ergo 10s, and use an alternate cable anchoring position. I do this myself shifting works fine.

See here:
http://www.hubbub.com/articles_ergopower.html

HTH,

n

 

[ToffoIsMe]

Shimano makes a few short reach levers for just this problem. Go talk to your LBS and they should be able to get you some. It will also be much cheaper than just switching everything over to campagnolo like an above user had said.

 

[nerdag]

Shimano makes a few short reach levers for just this problem. Go talk to your LBS and they should be able to get you some. It will also be much cheaper than just switching everything over to campagnolo like an above user had said.

Short reach levers don't solve the problem of getting enough force from the hoods - all they do is bring the lever closer to the bars in drops, which is not the OP's issue.

And I was only advocating changing only the shifters to Campag (yes, campag levers do work with some shimano combinations) - which in actual fact would be less expensive than buying new short-reach STI shifters.

n

 

[artemidorus]

I am a woman with small hands. My bike has STI levers (Tiagra). I can shift just fine, but braking is a bit of a problem. I can brake pretty easily with my hands in the drops, but I like to keep them on the brake hoods most of the time. When I try to brake from this position, I have a difficult time getting my fingers low enough on the lever to squeeze it with any force.

I searched for info on this before posting, and saw that some people have had success with Specialized slim shims. To me it sounds like these shims just change the angle of the lever, and I don't know if that would help me or not.

I'm a newbie, this is my first road bike. I bought it online and figured I could handle setting it up myself (I'm an engineer and enjoy this sort of thing). So far so good, except for this issue.

When I first started riding on the hoods, although I have big hands, I found that I wasn't trained for the grip strength required and took some weeks to get the slow-twitch strength up so that I could apply it repeatedly all day. Some of it was probably perception, in that I was used to very-high-mechanical-advantage v-brakes. Unfortunately, however, I don't think that Shimano care too much about people at either end of the build spectrum. One solution might be to get a custom-built or touring fork with cantilever bosses and run v-brake calipers with your current levers. Most people would say that you need to use a "Travel Agent" or equivalent with this combination, although my commuting bike front brake runs very well without one.

 

[frogleggs]

Thanks everyone for your advice. Today I noticed that a set of shims came with my bike, so I put those in and while it's not a total solution, it did help. At this point I'm not really ready to drop a few hundred bucks on new levers. I am still getting used to the bike in general, since I have only had mountain bikes in the past, so I think I'll give it a few weeks or months before I do anything drastic.

 

[pistole]

Thanks everyone for your advice. Today I noticed that a set of shims came with my bike, so I put those in and while it's not a total solution, it did help. At this point I'm not really ready to drop a few hundred bucks on new levers. I am still getting used to the bike in general, since I have only had mountain bikes in the past, so I think I'll give it a few weeks or months before I do anything drastic.

- hi.

- just carry on riding this setup.

- your hands will develop to be able to put enough strength into
the braking action whilst on the hoods.

.