Bosco Knuckle Clearance?

[Andrew Letton]

Hello Good Listers,

I have (55cm CroMo) Bosco bars and Shimano BL-R780 levers on my old Shogun kid-hauler/commuter, and I find that I just can't get the brake levers in a position that both works well for braking and gives clearance for my big knuckles when I have my hands on the top of the curve, forward of the levers.  I got in an "altercation" with a car a month ago (they turned in front of me, and I slammed into the side of their car at speed) and while my fractured shoulder and torn MCL are healing, I'd like to complete the bike repairs, so it's ready to ride when I am. The left brake lever suffered some damage, so I'm looking at replacing these with levers that have more knuckle clearance between the bars and the adjusters. The two levers that look promising online are the Paul Love Levers and the IRD Cafam levers, but I'm open to other long-pull candidates.

If you have Love Levers, the Cafams, or some other lever you think would be a good candidate, would you mind measuring the distance from the adjuster to the handlebar (assuming a straight bar, for consistency) and reporting back here?  The dimension on these Shimano levers is about 28mm.

Thanks in advance,

Andrew in Sydney

[Carl G]

Here's an example of the Paul Love levers mounted on bullmoose bars (apologies for the poor lighting). 

Good luck with the healing & repairs!

[Richard Rose]

Here is my measurement - Paul Love Levers on Bosco. 44mm.

Sent from my iPhone

On Nov 13, 2023, at 8:04 PM, Andrew Letton <let...@flash.net> wrote:



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[Richard Rose]

Sent from my iPhone

On Nov 13, 2023, at 9:16 PM, Richard Rose <rmro...@gmail.com> wrote:

Here is my measurement - Paul Love Levers on Bosco. 44mm.

[Mackenzy Albright]

Hi Andrew - I am picky about my brake levers. I don't like a lot of length on the barrel adjustor side as well as I don't like a bolt that interferes with setting your hand on the levers. A lot of modern V brake levers have both of these things. Paul's are way out of my price range. I got a pair of litepro levers off AliExpress and they're wonderful. Not quite as much pizazz as Paul's, but they leave lots knuckle room and smooth tops. If you have the pocket change I'd definitely get Paul's. 

[DavidP]

Hi Andrew,

I have short pull BL-R550s on my Boscos, they seem to have about the same clearance as your levers.

My most common hand position is with one finger ahead of the lever body and the rest draped over the body or on the lever, but I do also grip fully ahead of the lever with the heel of my palm on the lever clamp.

My levers are set at an angle where the bodies are hidden by the bars when riding and they don't contact my knuckles. I wonder if your shifter positions are also causing your hands to need to be rotated out more, lowering your knuckles?





A big consideration for me when selecting brake levers is if the clamp has any protrusions as I like to be able to rest parts of my hand over the clamp.

I have another bike set up with Ortho bars and Diacompe MX-2 levers that can be set to either short or long pull. These are pretty nice levers and not expensive.

-Dave

On Friday, November 17, 2023 at 4:20:15 PM UTC-5 iamkeith wrote:

Here's a pucture of my boscos with VO city levers.. again, these solve the knuckle clearance issue, but wouldn't work with long/linear pull brakes, unless you used a travel agent.  I still prefer cantis because of the flexibility in using them with fat tires + fenders + racks, but understand why everybody else doesn't feel similarly.

On Wednesday, November 15, 2023 at 11:45:55 PM UTC-7 iamkeith wrote:

Oh - maybe never mind.  You said long-pull.  Oh, well, I'll take a picture anyway, in case it helps someone else..

On Wednesday, November 15, 2023 at 11:37:35 PM UTC-7 iamkeith wrote:

I have these Velo Orange levers on my bosco bar.  They work well.  I'll take a photo tomorrow, when it's light out:

https://velo-orange.com/collections/brake-levers/products/city-bike-brakes-levers

I'm not sure I'd say they're easy to operate from a forward position, on the curved part of the bar, though.  Prior to these, I tried dia compe guidonnet levers (shown here on the VO site, by coincidence), and they WERE operable from the curve as well as the straight section.  

https://velo-orange.blogspot.com/2009/08/guidonnet-levers.html?m=1

I didn't realize at the time, that I had the wrong version, meant for fatter road bar diameter bars, which was preventing me from fully clamping them,  and thus allowing the levers to rotate when operated from certain positions.  I thought it was a design flaw, and only after subsequently installing the city brake levers, realized that my error was just a clamp size.  I wish I'd figured it out and given them a more fair try -  but I do like both.  They both allow for full bar wrapping, like a drop bar or even better, and  solve the knuckle clearance issue.  Flat bar levers don't seem to make sense for these bars, to my thinking.  Plus, why spend more?!

One caution:  With the city bike lever, I did have to raise my bars a bit more than I prefer.  Otherwise, the end of the lever was aimed right at my top tube...  a dent and heartbreak waiting to happen.  (This only equated to about 1" of stem showing, above full insertion, but the bullmoose stem has a lot of rise built in.)

³