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Hi all, it's been a while! Thought I'd pop back to ask the hive mind for help.
I've had a search and seen a few solutions but half of the ones mentioned are not available anymore and also people are using them in a different config than I'm likely to. So the crux of it -
I find my drop bars super uncomfy, so I've got myself some aero bullhorns which are ridiculously comfy. However I now have controls issues! I took my campag ergopwer controls and stuck them on the end of the bullhorns, they work OK but I can't get full brake travel and the routing of the cables is a mess so I was looking at alternatives. Ideally I'd have a clip-on brake and tube-end friction shifter, or vice-versa, but it seems these are impossible to find. Am I missing a product that might help here? I can't be the only one wanting to use shifters and brakes on a bullhorn. I have the optional clip-on extensions at the moment, and I don't care about controls on those, but I might end up running shifters on them and brakes on the outers at this rate!
Any advice/pointers? I've spotted the JTek aerobrakes, but they're apparently not primary brake capable as the leverage is poor.
I use bullhorns on my commuter with STI levers. The internal brake cable routing is pretty tight, but works well enough. They're 5600 i.e. external washing line gear cables. I don't think the later internally routed models would work as the gear cable angle is wrong.
To get a bit more brake lever travel, I've got a spacer between the back of the lever mount and the bar, so that it's mounted at an angle.
Have you considered running flat bar levers backwards (i.e. with the lever pointing forwards) ?
Shimano do a bullhorn lever + shifter in the metrea groupset, but I think it's hydro only as far as I know.
Cyclocross "cross top" brake levers should fit on the bullhorns if they're road bar diameter. Flat bar levers are different diameters though.
Accepted norm is reverse brake levers in the end of the bullhorns with bar-con shifters in the end of the aero extensions. Getting any form of integrated brake / gear shifter to work is going to be tricky as the gear cable needs to make a 90-degree, tight-radius bends. Electronic shifters and remote switches are the answer these days.
You should be able to make aero brake levers work ok and then at bar end shifters. The former were used before the modem style of plug in one were developed.
I have tri bar aero brakes I think they are this sort of thing on bullhorns. Being supertrendy I don't have gears
http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/tektro-tl720-aero-bar-brake-levers/rp-prod35542
Hmm thanks for the tips folks, I'll dig some more into these suggestions.
Looks like the metrea groupset is 1x only, so that rules that out. Most tri aeros are plug-type and I can't find clamp-on shifters, so I'm limited to "not really brakes" brakes and plug-type shifters. The bar top brakes is a good shout but I rarely ride on the tops and don't like having to shift bar position to brake - that's a recipe for disaster with my reaction times 🙂
I've got my STIs mounted on there just now. They fit, which is about all I can say for it, the cables come off in giant loops and it's really unpleasant to look at, but I can brake and shift.
I keep meaning to move this blog entry to the new website, but the archive.org version will have to do. Done this to a couple of bikes now and it works well and keeps the cables out of the way:
https://web.archive.org/web/20160214114059/http://www.ratracecycles.com:80/2011/10/a-neat-solution/
That is a nice solution but I can't find cane creek levers anywhere in 22.2 clamp diam just yet - I'll keep looking!
Do you not find the lack of cable outer retention means the inner catches on the lever body?