I’ve just bought a new dropper lever along with some new brakes, Guide RE. Also got a matchmaker bracket for integration. The gear shifter and brake side has had this arrangement for a few years.
First ride out, and it feels a little cramped around the dropper and brake lever area so I wondered if I have everything set too far out. This might be a consequence of not having had the sharpest brakes so a tendency to two finger brake.
Curious how far inboard people run their brakes, what sort of distance from the edge of the grip (not collar) to the brake clamp. I will have a tinker around I think and see if I can get them in so that I can (hopefully) one finger brake and just hook the end of the lever. Also probably need to wind them in a bit so they are easier to reach.
Measurements +/- 1mm will be sufficient….
35mm gap to inner edge of lever clamp. Code R.
Dunno. Set up, altered, tweaked and left. About 10mm maybe 15mm. Hope tech 3s
About 15mm IIRC. XT M8000.
12mm between the collar of my DeathGrip to the clamp of my Dominions (with SRAM G2s it was 17mm). This puts the outboard edge of the lever's flat area 85mm from the end of the bar/grip at the contact point.
For context, I wear medium gloves and my hands are 85mm across the knuckles.
From the knuckle of my thumb to the tip.
5cm (but that includes 1cm collar), but am moving them a bit more outboard, and BBC moving the matchmaker shifter and dropper post lever one hole outwards in the near future.
I like the brakes out the way for deathgripping.
About 30mm ish looking at my SRAM guide equipped bike in front of me now.
I wouldn't suggest going off other people measurements though but adjust them until they feel right for YOU. Your hand size and preferred position on your grip plus your actual grip design will be different from other peoples.
Getting the brake lever reach setup right is a good first step - I do this before the above, as this adjusts how far inboard or outboard the end of the lever is in it's "extended" position.
Once reach is set then I set this up on at home on a new setup by loosening the brake clamp so it's easy to adjust, gripping the grip as close to "as when riding as possible" and then shuffling the brake lever left and right until it feels "just right". That gets them in the ballpark and sometimes is the final position, but usually I'll do some adjusting later on.
After the initial setup at home I'll ride it once with a mind to where they should be and then adjust to suit. Sometimes a couple of times through a ride as it's really easily adjusted on the trail side with a multi-tool.
After all the above I still end up thinking "that's not quite right" and giving a tweak of a mm or so one way or the other a few weeks later, so don't over-think this, just adjust as best you can then adjust as you go.
Not measured to the clamp as that varies by brake, but my lever blade overlaps the rubber of my grip by 30mm.
Not measured it but about this far
Dunno either but I can't get 'integrated' brake/shifter or dropper setups to work with hands so always end up with separate bar mount shifters and dropper levers
I started putting my brakes inboard of my shifters (no matchmakers), a long time ago, so my answer would be "however far they need to be, to allow for the shifters"
This puts the hook of the levers directly in line with my index fingers, for single finger braking and less fatigue when braking a lot.
This puts the hook of the levers directly in line with my index fingers, for single finger braking and less fatigue when braking a lot.
That's the key thing you probably want your finger and hand tendons pulling at a natural angle. Depending on your bar angle and hand construction, that might mean a 90 degree angle between the bar and your finger, or your finger pointing slightly towards the centre of the bike. Looks like I prefer the latter, otherwise I'd have my levers/clamps half a finger's width closer to the grip:
This puts the outboard edge of the lever’s flat area 85mm from the end of the bar/grip at the contact point.
For context, I wear medium gloves and my hands are 85mm across the knuckles.
I just got a bike with i-spex shifters attacched to the levers and I don't think I like it. I want my shifters further in board than my levers so I don't knock my knuckles on them.
I just got a bike with i-spex shifters attacched to the levers and I don’t think I like it. I want my shifters further in board than my levers so I don’t knock my knuckles on them.
Similar issue here but I’ve got SRAM brakes with a Shimano clamp on shifter and can’t get the shifter far enough inboard to not hit my thumb. If I move it to the other side of the brake clamp it’s too far in. I’m not 100% sure problem solver clamps will fix it and I’d need a new shifter to try. Which = ££.
On my other bike my SRAM brake & shifter combo is perfect.
Similar issue here but I’ve got SRAM brakes with a Shimano clamp on shifter and can’t get the shifter far enough inboard to not hit my thumb.
Same combo as me but the other way round 🙂
Interesting measurements above, I thought 35mm mentioned was waaay more than I had but measured mine and it’s around 29mm. I’ve got Ergon grips which have quite a wide collar and I “think” the intention is that you grip them a little further out from the collar. They do a DH mushroom shape where I assume the intention that your snuff box butts up to the mushroom, so that would be closer still.
More tinkering needed, and probably need to get confidence in the brakes for just index finger braking.
Scratch my comment above. It's probably 25mm
Depends on brakes but assuming they’re nicely powerful I usually run em so my index finger rests on the brake level end where it kicks out.
usually ends up a thumb length from grip to clamp.
gices plenty of room for dropper and shifter if separate clamps but decent clearance and still reachable shifter and dropper is integrated
Full suss eeb with 800mm bars and Code R's - 36mm
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HT with 780mm bars and Hope Tech - 58mm
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Both feel right, but I've never really played about with them
I’ve just measured mine for the first time ever (normally just go by feel) and they are 28mm on the right and 31mm on the left apparently. I use a separate dropper clamp as I found matchmaker and (numerous different versions of) I-spec never managed to get my brakes and dropper in a position I liked them.
Maybe I’ll try moving them both to 31mm and see if I notice.
I do always measure my bars to get them central though. As I’ve seen too many over the years with off centre positional graphics.
Edit - SRAM brakes, shifter and Brand-X dropper lever.
The Magura guidance linked by Paton looks interesting, I may have a dabble at doing it by that book, rather than just feel, which I fear may not have been my best set up to date.
The Artist, those Hopes are very inboard, I thin you win the widest gap yet, but it does kind of look right, fro just hooking one finger around the lever.
https://magura.com/en/EUR/bicycle/tuning_parts/brake_levers/blockquote >
The Magura guidance linked by Paton looks interesting, I may have a dabble at doing it by that book, rather than just feel, which I fear may not have been my best set up to date.
Really good on the lateral positioning, but not sure about the saddle height determining angle - given you probably optimise for stood-up riding.
Hold your grips, point index finger out and put end of lever under the finger and do it up . I did a youtube video about it somewhere on my channel ukbikeskills
Mine are different on most of my bikes as I have a mix of iSpec B and EV (just what's been replaced or cheapest).. so for the levers to be in the same place is about 15mm difference.
“Hold your grips, point index finger out and put end of lever under the finger and do it up”
This is the truth!
30mm between brake clamp and grip clamp. If the brake lever was longer it would be more (or vice versa). If the grip was longer it would be less (or vice versa) because my hands are always as far out as possible on the grips.
24mm
Had a tinker tonight, wound the levers in a little so they weren’t too far out of reach and did as per Jedi suggested, loosened the clamps and just felt when they felt right. So they are now around 35mm from the end of the collar, quite a change for me. Out tomorrow night so we’ll see how this feels.
Brake levers always two finger widths away from grips.
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