Just bought some Midge bars to replace the skinny flat stock bars on my Boardman commuter. Soon realised that I cant get the shifters & brake lever on..Doh!
I’ve forced the gear shifter on but will need a longer bolt to clamp it. Anybody know if I can just replace the brake levers, Avid BB5, with road levers?
Got my eye on some Tektro road levers from CRC but they may be all wrong with the way the Midge bars drop 😕

Assuming your BB5s are mountain not road BB5s (sounds likely), no, you can’t just fit standard road levers – standard road levers pull a different length of cable from MTB levers, so your brakes won’t work properly.

You have three choices:
change the mtb BB5s for road BB5s and get standard road levers;

get levers that fit road bars but pull the right amount of cable for mtb brakes – I know of only two, DiaCompe 287V (ugly and crude, but do the job – I have them on my Mungo bars pulling ordinary Shimano mtb disk brakes) or Tektro RL-520 (I’ve never seen a pair, but the interweb speaks highly of them);

get standard road levers and add a TravelAgent pulley device to change the amount of cable pulled by the levers.

If you don’t get on with the Midge bars and they’re black 25.4mm clamp, I’d take them off you second hand for £15…

fin – you can pick them up new for £15 at the moment.

As above. Road calipers are a better option than V levers, though obviously that’s a more costly solution. Also, not a great idea just to force the gear levers on to the bars, especially if you ever want to use them on a flat bar again.

‘Faux par’ faux pas.

igmc.

sti or bar end shifter would surely be a better option that a rapid fire shifter on a drop bar?