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Morning. I have just passed on a bike to someone with relateivly small hands. It has these brake levers, and they're giving her rather a stretch. I've not been able to identify where I might adjust them to shorten the reach, and (if I'm looking at the right product) have failed to persuade other parts of the internet to help me. Am I missing something, or is the reach fixed?
Thanks for your help.
Jon
IIRC the reach is 'fixed' but you can tweak it by moving the levers further round the bends.
You can also get shims that sit above the lever (at least for the newer shimano ones) that effectively stop the lever traveling all the way out, thus keeping them closer to the bars. Think they tend to be fitted to OE stuff on womens bikes, maybe give madison a ring?
had to do a similar thing for the wife's bike BD, I made shims out of artificial wine bottle corks, you can make them to a custom size then bond them to the flat surface on top of the lever mechanism
as spoon says you can also buy them (only for shimano i think, not campy)
That's very helpful, many thanks both.
as above - also you could try getting some bars with a different 'bend' in them that place the hand nearer the lever.
Yes shims for shimano only.
Had to swap levers over for my G/F and get shims.
Also Specialized makes shims for the levers. you can get them in a pair If you can find some or they come with a new womans bike, if the shop fits them so might be worth asking a local dealer.
as wwaswas said new pair of bars, there is woman bars out there!
Just get Campag or the similar Tektro shape levers as they're much better for small hands (not helpful I know).
Women's bars such as the now discontinued 3T Eva bar, getting the brake mounted on the best part of the drop to suit their hand size etc.
My SO uses Campag on all her drop bar bikes - so much better than the equivalent Sxxx offerings.