abdon 

Over time everything gets sloppy. That's why you maintain your bike.

Do you actually use them? Because I have put thousands of miles on them without issue and with plenty of braking power. As a matter of fact I'm redoing a Specialized Expedition handlebar just to add them to that bike as well.

USAZorro

I'll grant you that some are better than others, but the vast majority of them have some amount of play in the pivots. Fixing the issue would involve disassembling them and replacing parts. Most often it would be the extensions, but sometimes it is the pivot, and sometimes the stops. I've seen this on dozens of bikes that I've acquired.

If they're satisfactory to you, I'm not trying to change your mind. I've never developed the riding position that would put my hands in the position to use them for more than a few seconds, so I'd not even be tempted to try. I just remove them, and have gotten pretty proficient in cutting down the frankenstein nubs that stick out once they're off.

icemilkcoffee 

I went to high school in the mid-late 80's, and I rode '10 speed' bikes with these turkey wing brake levers. This was around the time when people were switching over to MTB's, but lots of kids still rode these 10 speed bikes. Everyone rode with their hands on the tops. I don't think I had ever seen anyone riding on the hoods or the drops. We went everywhere riding those 10 speeds with these 'suicide levers'. The brakes worked just fine. Don't believe the scare stories.
Keep in mind that non-aero brake levers did not work well when braking from the hoods. So if you think you can get rid of the turkey wings and get better results by braking from the hoods- you will be sorely disappointed. These non-aero brake levers only really worked well on the drops.

RoadWearier

Amen to the last sentence. I also don't understand the kickstand hate if you aren't a competitive rider. I don't have one but I'm thinking of putting one on. I guarantee you this Raleigh Capri weighs around 30 lbs. Is the added weight of a kickstand REALLY going to matter? It will make parking my bike in the garage a lot easier and more stable. Ditto the bell. I ride ona lot of city MUPs and I'm tired of yelling "Left! Left!" And getting blank looks when I almost hit the clueless trying to pass them. I'm hoping a bell will help.

Eyes Roll

Tell your uncle that not only do I keep those safety levers, but I am also totally in love with them, and can't live without them.

smd4

I may not be a competitive rider, but that doesn’t mean I don’t have a high performance bike. I’d never put a kickstand or a bell on my Cinelli. Nor would I ever park it in the garage. I have a rear wheel stand that works fine.

RoadWearier

I don't have an expensive toy. I have a bike I use in the real world for real errands and occasional commutes. A kickstand would be very handy. As does a bell for where I ride. Like a lot of people I put my bike in a garage. Obviously you look down your nose at that. Does your bike have its own room? Do you tuck it into bed at night? Give it hot milk and kisses? You can worship your bike however you want. I ride mine and take care of it. I don't worship it.

smd4

Cool. I have an expensive toy, which I use for fun, not transportation. Yes, my bike has its own room, which it shares with the train and railroadiana. I don’t worship it, but I also don’t abuse it or hang unnecessary (for me) junk on it.

RoadWearier

Fair enough. I don't abuse my bike either. I keep it inside in a garage. Can we agree that people use their bikes for different things? And that maybe, just maybe, a kickstand may make sense for some and not for others?

smd4

I believe I’ve been consistent in expressing what I would and would not put on my own bike.

USAZorro

He passed in 1979 at age 41. He had childhood polio, and we strongly suspect the treatments he received had something to do with it.

Be careful out there, and don't let anything happen to your bike. We don't want anyone passing from either a road incident or lackastentionitis.

USAZorro

Seeing as I got my bikes from my uncle's shop, and they didn't have safety levers, My hand position was either in the drops, but much more likely on, or near the hoods. I had non-aero levers and have never had issues with hard braking while on the hoods. True, they don't have the same leverage as aero, but they are plenty good enough. Aside from two zero mph crashes when I was getting used to Look pedals, I've only had one crash on a 10 speed, and that was pedaling through a turn a bit too aggressively without realizing there was a bit of loose gravel on the pavement. Perhaps we had different brakes, or set them up differently, or have different hand strength.

RoadWearier

I like the turkey levers for what they are: a way to slow down/gradually stop a bike that's only going 12-14 mph without being in the drops or riding the hoods. Having said that, they are rattling and I had to go out of town the day I bought the bike so no time to investigate. Which part usually needs adjusting?

Eyes Roll

Tighten the brake cable and see if the play goes away. Loosen the nut where the brake cable goes through the pinch bolt, pull the brake cable with pliers to tighten it, and tighten the nut (at the same time you are pulling the brake cable with the pliers). Not having enough tension in the brake cable is one of the reasons why the brake levers are rattling.

Chuck M 

It is pointed out often that these levers were mostly on lower tiered bikes when that has nothing to do with their usefulness or effectiveness. I have a bike with Dia-Compe safety levers that are setup correctly and work well. When I was a kid I had a bike with cheap ones that I thought were going to fall off on their own.

I have no problem keeping safety levers, spoke protectors, stem shifters and reflectors on a bike to keep it original. I even recently put a kickstand on my Takara because it is handy and I had one on my Takara when I was a youth. That is more important to me than trying to impress strangers online by acting like a bike snob. Would I put safety levers or a kickstand on my Raleigh? No I wouldn't because that wouldn't be original. But if I wanted to, I wouldn't seek approval from anyone.

mirfi

RoadWearier, I grew up with the 'suicide levers' and felt comfortable using them. They were 'norma'l during the late 60's/early 70's bicycle boom. Then they 'went away'.

Then about ten years ago I saw BikesDirect was selling MotoBecane Fantom Cross 'CycloCross' bikes with kinda the same thing. I bought one. More out of curiosity than anything. Glad I did.

Being an old, fat, slow guy with back/neck/shoulder issues and riding mostly in a big urban environment they give me a more upright stance when I feel the need. And another hand position when touring.

If you like them and use them, great. And it's a cool vintage feature.

abdon 

No part of the bike should rattle, but most components are such simple mechanical devices that it is not hard to see how things are meant to run.

Watch out when you take the screw holding the lever, there is a hole inside of the threaded rod that holds a small spring (not shown in this pic). The fourth item from the right is what takes the slack, make sure it is not broken, too worn, or missing altogether. To the left of the lever is a washer and the rest is inside of the hood.

Vintage Schwinn

In 1969 when SCHWINN unleashed the New Safety Levers that now allowed anyone to ride the top bar, this made every Baby-Boomer that was at least 11 years old , suddenly want a ten speed. Sales of TEN SPEEDS exponentially took off, and everyone except the skinny, extremely nerdy Tour de France loving geeks that weren't hip and did not engage in other more popular American sports and teen-age activities of that time. Yeah between 1969 and at least 1976, ten speeds without safety levers were about as popular as flat top and white walled skin side marine haircuts or any wet head styles. Nobody except the nerds who were really into to it like the doofus geeks that are portrayed in 1979's Breaking Away movie, wanted anything exactly like TDF riders had. Normal ordinary folks who purchased 99% of the millions of ten speeds during the bike boom, specifically wanted the TURKEY LEVERS because they could ride the TOP BAR.
Most every manufacturer did offer them on many models within their product line during the early to mid seventies BECAUSE THEY WERE THE RAGE AT THAT TIME.
You had to have lived then during that time to understand. Sales of 10 Speeds skyrocketed when the turkey levers arrived on the scene. It was really far out man, and the 10 speed was the coolest thing on two wheels for anyone, male or female between 11 and 16, and they were the new favorite bicycle of college students and adults under 30.
They were just the "cool , In Style" bike of that time, I mean that you had the "racer look", but you could comfortably just ride the top bar. Hey, its probably like the incredibly good looking, racey looking 1968-1973 Corvette, though more and more people began to opt for the automatic transmission. I might be wrong but I believe that around the 1969 or 1970 model year is when the most ever manual transmission Corvettes were sold. Americans largely cared nothing about a true sports car and manually shifting gears , they simply wanted the racey appearance and cool factor of something that just had that right look, and enough on demand power to drive it out of control into at ditch or a tree, if they weren't careful.

Perhaps the best rock album ever, depending upon who you ask, Creedence Clearwater Revival's COSMOS FACTORY has the iconic photo with Doug Clifford's SCHWINN SUPER SPORT ten speed on the cover. It is a '69 or '70 SUPER SPORT as it has the turkey levers. Nobody on the planet sold as many records in 1969 & 1970 as Creedence Clearwater Revival did. ............Turkey Levers Ain't Goin' Out Of Style, Rollin Down To Memphis On The Schwinn That I Ride...........

bikemig 

Tightening and, over time, retightening kickstands will tend to flatten and deform the chainstays (assuming that is where they are mounted). Surly has a write up on this,

https://surlybikes.com/info_hole/spe..._haul_truckers

smd4

I dare say, when asked, you might be the only person on the planet who feels this way. Billboard ranks it as No. 413 in their top 500. Basically at the bottom of the list. I cannot find them on any top ten lists, let alone top 20 or 30.

mirfi

Creedence, per Wikipedia

The band's most prolific and successful period between 1969 and 1971 produced fourteen consecutive top 10 singles (many of which were double A-sides) and five consecutive top 10 albums in the United States – two of which, Green River (1969) and Cosmo's Factory (1970), reached number one. The band performed at the 1969 Woodstock festival in Upstate New York, and was the first major act signed to appear there.

Yeah, they were big. Go to some boomer local bar and just play a song, any CCR song, we know all the words.

smd4

Sure, know the songs. But the album certainly didn't age well. Even at No. 1, I doubt it was ever considered "the best rock album EVER."

smd4

Hey, hey, easy there, tiger! Relax! No one is trying to impress you or anyone else!

icemilkcoffee 

Same with the turkey wings. They have their limitations, but they worked good enough. If they didn't work, they wouldn't have sold by the millions. I am guessing turkey wing users outnumbered 'proper cyclists' 20:1 at that point in time.
BTW, nobody used the flexy tips of the turkey wings to brake. Mostly we braked close to the bend or right at the bend, where the wings are plenty rigid enough.

abdon 

I think several things did them in:

• Nobody on the tour de france was using them, therefore they were not cannon.
• They were inexpensive, which means every inexpensive bike got them. This is what also contributed to Suntour demise; their price point allowed them on cheap bikes and people associated them with cheap bikes.
• Changes in tastes. Like split windshields on cars, ubiquitous all the way to the 40's, you could not find one in the 50's and beyond.

I find it amusing that people who say they suck is for reasons that has to do with maintenance and not with functionality. I have five bikes with them (with a sixth one about to); none are sloppy, with too much travel, or unable to stop the bike as intended. Then again my brakes are adjusted so you would go flying over the handlebars if you slam on the brakes. I have a friend that did just that on a bike I lent him.