Choco bar / brake lever advice?

[iamkeith]

Does anyone have any experience with these L-shaped Dia Compe brake levers intended for bullhorn-style handlebars, but perhaps suitable for installation on a choco (or moustache) bars?   Do they work well (provide adequate leverage, easy to reach, enough movement  without bottoming out against the bar)?  Would they work with choco bars?  If so, would they work better installed one direction versus another?  It seems they could be installed with the hinge on the front section, forward of the bend, as easily as at the end.

https://www.euroasiaimports.com/productcart/pc/Dia-Compe-DC139-Brake-Lever-p14878.htm

I'm trying to replace one of my numerous moustache bars with a choco moose bar - mostly for the sake of variety, but partly because I thought they'd be almost identical with the exception of the primary and secondary grip positions being reversed - but it isn't quite working out that way.  

Because the choco doesn't bend forward before coming back, and because the fixed "stem" reach is effectively short, my hands want to rest at the curve even in my upright/relaxed body position - so basically like a moustache bar without a leaned-forward, aero, position and with the relaxed/default position being forward of the straight section where a normal brake lever would mount.  (Hope that makes sense)

Combined with the fact that it's difficult to even find straight bar brake levers at the moment  I'm wondering if these might work by giving me access to  the brakes from multiple grip locations.  I suppose I could try drop bar levers mounted forward of the curve, but that kind of defeats the point of getting rid of the moustache bar, when I could achieve something similar with a shorter stem.

[Patrick Moore]

I've not used the EAI's, but I did use similar levers -- looking at the photo in your link, I wouldn't be surprised is those I used were beefier and stiffer -- back in the early '90s when some biggish name made these for use with bar ends; I used them with Scott AT4 or related mtb bars with the "bar ends" part of the bar. 

From the straight part of the bar you'd 3-or-4-finger brake with your 3d, 4th, and 5th fingers pulling the straight part of the levers, but when you were holding the forward extensions you'd use your 4th, and 5th fingers to pull on the right-angled extensions. This worked, but only for speed modulation; you wouldn't lock the wheels from this position. I mean, they'd slow you down well, but not for panic stops.

Still and all, they were helpful, though, since I didn't use them long, they probably were not so very helpful that the simplicity and lighter weight of regular 2-finger levers weren't overall a better choice.

As for Moustache bars, I can't see the EAI levers being a great help, at least if your M-bars are like the very many I've used. IME and IMO, the best levers for M-bars are non-aero road bar levers installed somewhere along the forward-most arc of the bar, to be reachable from most riding positions. 

I can't speak to Choco bars, since I've not used them.

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Patrick Moore

Alburquerque, Nuevo Mexico, Etats Unis d'Amerique, Orbis Terrarum

[Patrick Moore]

I just thought of this practice, which might be of use for others.

I've installed road brake levers on many a "mountain bike" or "tourist" bar, at the curves, where the large diameter clamp can clamp firmly onto the curve; case in point, the (O! so exotically rare!) Shimano 600 AX levers on the MAP/Ahearne bar on the Monocog. Installed as usual on the curves, precisely placed so that (on this severely cut-down bar; don't gripe, I like it very much more than it its full width) I can brake from every place which I grasp the bar on -- from tippy-ends to gripping the brake lever bodies (this last using fingers 4 and 5). 

(Aside: Even tho' -- so I read -- these levers have very high MA and very low cable pull, they work just fine with my Road BB7s: pads are sufficiently far from rotors that there's no drag or even squeak, and the levers are firm and the braking solid -- helluvalot better than the $350+ Paul Touring/Neo Retro combo on the Matthews 2:1!! Secret: $15 and I'll tell you.)

[Joe Bernard]

Keith, 

I have these levers, bought from V-O to use with their Porteur bars but never got as far as hooking cables to brakes (I must have sold the bike). Here's a not-terribly-clear mockup of what you want to do on Billie Bars, I think it'll work. They're short-pull for canti or road and there's a ton of room for lever travel. If you put the clamp at the front of your Chocos you should be able to get the curve of the lever lined up with the curve in the bar. 

These are new, you can have them for $20 shipped if you don't already have a source, I'm never going to use them. 

Joe Bernard

[iamkeith]

Thanks so much, Joe.   I'll send you a PM.  It does look like these might work.

[Bill Lindsay]

Joe and Keith

Make sure between yourselves that the clamp diameter and bar diameter match.  The brakelevers pictured in the OP were probably 23.8mm (what Patrick Moore correctly referred to as "road levers").  The Choco bars that Keith is trying to fit will want a 22.2mm clamp diameter.  If Joe's levers are already 22.2, then you're good to go.  If Joe's levers are 23.8mm, then Keith will have to find other bands (totally doable) or fashion a shim arrangement.  That same "mismatch" is what Patrick Moore was describing when he found a bent part of his Ahearne bars that allow the "road" levers to mount securely.  That workaround works well when it does.

Bill Lindsay

El Cerrito, CA

[Dave S]

This is the stock set up for the 1994 Schwinn Criss Cross.

[Joe Bernard]

Good catch, Bill. Yep, mine are 23.8 and I think the Porteur bars I was going to use must have been, too..I didn't remember that either came in that size. Whoops! 

Joe Bernard

[iamkeith]

This is the stock set up for the 1994 Schwinn Criss Cross.

Fascinating.  Is that yours, or a picture from the web?  I wonder how that worked.   I think I'm going to try it with Joes , with the mount being forward  and shimmed as required to fit the bar, and will report back.

[Kainalu V. -Brooklyn NY]

If you want a weird idea for reach adjustment- https://groups.google.com/g/rbw-owners-bunch/c/l-lWV_Sk5b0/m/1TJk4jbca2gJ

It worked (for reach adjustment, not as a lamp)

-Kai

[iamkeith]

Thanks, that's good to keep in mind.  Thanks for reminding me of the "guidonnet" term, too.

[Dave S]

I do own one of these but that specific picture was "borrowed" from a current eBay auction.

Dave