Brake / Brifter Recommendations

[Jay]

Hi everyone - long explanation, thanks for reading.

I've been having some pain at the base of my thumb and the area between by thumb and index finger.  I've done some research but haven't had it assessed.  If I go a few days without riding, then I ride, the next day it's usually sore to the touch.  I do self-therapy on it using tips I've found online.  This helps, but I would like to see if this can be prevented.  When I ride multiple days, it's generally sore on the subsequent rides on the bike, and off the bike as well.  I'm 51 so it might be wear and tear (arthritis).

I have Apex brifters on my Fargo, which I've ridden exclusively Jan-Feb because the weather was lousy and the Roadini stayed home.  I don't like the Apex brifters, however, I did not have this pain at all.

I've been on the Roadini 4x in the last 8 days, and my hand started hurting a day after the second ride...and it's been sore ever since.  I recall I had this on and off last year, but I was trying alt bars on the Fargo and thought it was related to something with those bars / grips, now I'm thinking it's the Tektro RRL brake levers.  Thing is, I love the feel of these when I grip them, and I have thick bar tape with gel pad beneath so that's as good as that can be.  These levers are relatively small compared to modern day brifters, and I think the cause of the pain might come from my palm resting on the bars and not being fully engaged around the lever.  I say this because my friend has Sram Force electronic brifters and when I grip them, it's night and day, my whole hand is on the brighter and nothing is touching the bar.  I've noticed the same with my Ultregra brifters on my road bike that stays on the trainer.  The Sram on the Fargo is small in comparison, and just awkward, but it might actually be better for this hand problem then the Tektro.  I rode it last night and it's felt fine since then.  I really want to keep these Tektro levers as I love how they look, and feel, even though the feeling might be okay even though it's painful after (this doesn't make complete sense to me, how this can happen).

So I'm looking into other options.  I don't think there are large brake levers that are as large as Ultegra brifters, so I could keep the downtube shifters.  I could get 105 brifters as I'm using 11-sp 2x shimano road drivetrain.  What I don't like about these, is when I ride on the trails and use the brakes a lot (steep, technical-ish descents), how the lever wants to push in to shift when I'm just trying to brake; I would rather have one that stays put (like Sram).  The Tektro levers have been awesome as brakes on the trails.

[Patrick Moore]

There was a thread recently, I forget if on this list or the boblist, about riders buying old STI or Ergo levers and gutting the shifting bits to use them solely as (for them) very comfortable brake levers.

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Patrick Moore

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

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