northerntier

I have a Deore v-brake on my Thorn, but am moving from a flat bar to drop bars. I want to keep the brakes, and I'd rather just use a cross lever rather than traditional drop-bar levers, but I can't seem to find any.

Most cross-brakes are for short-pull or cantilevers.

The Paul cross brakes work w/ v-brakes, but are made for the "bulge" part of the handlebar, i.e. either 26mm or 31mm.

I need a cross lever for a v-brake that clamps on the normal portion of a Nitto Noodle, which I think would be 24mm.

Note that I have seen:
https://www.bikeforums.net/showthread...ar-pull-brakes
so I'm a bit pessimistic, but surely there's some solution besides pricey Pauls, which have to be shimmed in any case because they aren't made for the non-bulge portion of the bar!?

??

Thanks!
pete

Doug64

Another solution would be to use "travel agent" with short reach levers.

My wife wanted V-brakes and Shimano STI shifters on her touring bike. The travel agents work well and have not been a problem.

joel52

Sounds consistent with what I found recently looking at a drop bar conversion. Handlebar diameter aside, I didn't find any manufacturers other than Paul that made long pull cross levers. I spent quite a bit of time looking and posted here on it.

My understanding is that your options are a travel agent to make short pull levers work or swapping out to short pull brakes.

Also, I don't know for sure, but would imagine some sort of shim is available or could be rigged pretty easily to make the Paul's work on a smaller diameter.

joel52

Yeah, that. One other thing I considered based on price was just a single Paul lever for my front brake since I use that alone 98% of the time. But I was planning to include drop bar levers as well.

Edit: Wait, you don't want brake levers on the drops at all? If so you wouldn't need cross levers that 'interrupt' the cable run between brake and drop bar brake lever. If you just wanted to brake up top you could just be looking for stand-alone MTB levers that fit your diameter bar.

I haven't looked but would bet there are more options in that case

fuzz2050

I know Rivendell used to have a set of cross levers that worked with V-brakes. They're gone now, but if you email them nicely, they might have a set hiding away, or at least point you in the right direction.

I'm also a bit confused by the desire for just cross brake levers; the hoods are where I spend most of the time. I suppose you could go for something like this but I'm fairly certain that those Guidonnet levers are only for cantilevers as well.

mikhalit

I do run a similar setup, *long* pull BB7 with Tektro 520 and Paul Cross levers. Absolutely right, Paul's levers need some sort of a shim for thin handlebars, but it should not be a problem to fabricate one, aluminium pipe 28mmx2mm or similar, cut in two pieces shall do the job.

Much cheaper long pull cross levers are Tektro's RL741, available from SJS cycles. I think this is what Rivendell used to sell in the past. The clamp diameter must be the same as Pauls though. I was waiting and waiting for them to appear in stock overthere, got the Pauls and in a couple of weeks the Tektros arrived finally...

northerntier

Thanks, I picked up a pair of these on ebay.

For the comment about ATB levers above, these are made for sinnier ATB handlebars. Easier to shim levers made for a bigger bar than try to re-bend well-made levers made for a skinnier bar.

pete