At 07:19 PM 10/14/2000 -0400, Sheldon Brown wrote:
>At 12:06 PM -0400 10/14/00, Steve Freides wrote:
>>A colleague riding a newly built-up fixed gear wants to know:
>>
>>>I have a set of Exage "Action"aero levers off a road bike with sidepull
>>>brakes, but I'm unsure if they will work with the Weinmann centerpull
>>>brakes...
A few years ago, I measured some levers and got the following mechanical advantage numbres: 3.16DiaCompe 3.85Weinmann Delta 3.01Weinmann Red-Dot 2.08Universal 61/68 4.18Sachs "Ergo" 2.69Shimano Mtn bike 2.35Shimano 105 road
Here's how to read it: At the one extreme, a Universal 61 or 68 lever will travel only 2.08 mm to get the brake cable to shorten 1 mm. This will feel very stiff, but it will move any brake far enough -- I think. At the other extreme, the Sachs "ergo" needs to move 4.18 mm to get a mm of cable. The measurement is easy to do, and maybe we can get Sheldon to post additional values on his site. Here's what I did: Disconnect the front brake cable. Now, pull the lever a standard amount (measured at the handlebar), and clamp the cable where it leaves the housing. Relax the brake lever, and see much cable emerges between your clamp and the housing end. The ratio of the standard lever movement to that number is what I reported above.
The bottom line is that I'd agree with Sheldon: you'll get a crisp feel using the Exage (like 105) with older center pulls, but it will take more hand pressure than with something like the ergo levers.
harvey "getting old for the vernier micrometer now" sachs