Hey brad,
I recently bought a pair of campy nuovo record levers with hoods. The gum hoods were in decent condition. On one, there was a tear in the hood, about 5mm. The other had a small crack. I was wondering why they were tearing. Campy, appeared to have made the hoods in such a way that when you squeeze the lever, it stresses part of the hood. Easy solution -- i cut away a small part of the hood so the lever can be squeezed freely without ever coming into contact with the hood itself.
The way I figure it -- if I didn't do that, the hoods would have eventually torn anyway, the tear getting larger with time. It amazes me that for all the well-designed parts of that same era, the hoods were the most faulty.
Aloha,
Matt Yee
Honolulu, HI
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: classicrendezvous-bounces@bikelist.org
[mailto:classicrendezvous-
>> bounces@bikelist.org] On Behalf Of brad stockwell
>> Sent: Wednesday, May 28, 2003 10:12 AM
>> To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org
>> Subject: [CR]Living with torn brake hoods
>>
>> HOODS, EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:
>>
>>
>>
>> Although NOS hoods look good on a showbike, a regularly ridden bike
needs
>> usable hoods for comfort. When looks are secondary I like to squeeze
the
>> maximum miles out of the cracked ones. My solution: glue the hoods
>> directly to the brake lever body with construction adhesive. I did
this
>> on my 1984 DeRosa, and it works like a voodoo charm!
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> HOODS, THE LONG TEDIOUS VERSION:
>>
>>
>>
>> I've had 2 kinds of problems with torn hoods.
>>
>>
>>
>> One problem is when relatively new Campy shield-logo hoods crack at
both
>> sides of the lever-blade opening. The shield-logo hoods seem
inherently
>> easier to tear than the stretchier world-logo versions, but post-77
>> "short reach" Campy levers exacerbate the problem because the hood is
>> essentially being pried open even when the lever is not actuated.
(The
>> pre-77 levers fit flush with the underside of the lever body when
closed
>> and present a more slender waist that puts less tension on the hood -
and
>> the hand.)
>>
>>
>>
>> Once torn, hand pressure on the hoods while riding tends to push them
>> forward into the lever hinge, where they tear more. After enough
tearing,
>> the hoods tend to shinny up the lever body away from the handlebar
>> connection - the brake-lever equivalent of high-water pants.
>>
>>
>>
>> I have had difficulty gluing such hoods back together with super glue
(or
>> anything else) because they are under tension, and the torn edges
must be
>> held together in good tear-alignment while the glue grabs - or else
they
>> immediately split again. It seems futile to remove the hoods to
effect
>> the repair, because removal and replacement of hoods produces
>> considerably more stress than anything else in a hood's life.
>>
>>
>>
>> Another problem case is 10-year-old Modolo hoods that stretch and
become
>> loose in their old age. Then when I grip the levers while
accelerating,
>> the hoods shift back and forth over the brake levers, like big socks
on
>> small feet. At the lower inside corner where there is a gap between
my
>> thumb and fingers the hood is subject to maximum stretch and it tears
>> there. Because they're loose I have no trouble gluing these back
together
>> - but since they don't fit snugly around the lever they soon tear
again
>> elsewhere.
>>
>>
>>
>> In these cases I don't so much care about the tears themselves, but
>> rather the fact that the hood doesn't sit properly on the lever,
doesn't
>> provide a reliable grip, and is no longer comfortable.
>>
>>
>>
>> So my new solution is: rather than trying to repair the tears, I
simply
>> glue the torn hood directly to the lever body using an adhesive
called
>> Sikka-Flex.
>>
>>
>>
>> Gluing the hoods directly to the lever body has some advantages. One
is
>> that it virtually elliminates what one might call the "hoop stress"
in
>> the hood. The hood has now become a coating on the lever which cannot
>> tear - all it can due is slowly abrade away. Another advantage is
that
>> the hood stays put - no more riding up.
>>
>>
>>
>> Sikka-Flex is available at ordinary hardware stores in the bin where
you
>> get the Silicone bathtub calk, and you need one of those $3 caulk
guns to
>> squirt it. But this stuff sticks to anything, and it comes in a grey
>> color to match the lever bodies, or a sand color to kinda match the
hoods.
>> I went with the grey. I unscrew the lever body from the bar clamp,
>> arrange the hood where I want it (I push it towards the base of the
lever
>> body so there will be decent handlebar-junction coverage) and then
stick
>> the adhesive in between the lever-body and hood with a small artist's
>> pallet knife. (Small knife, not small artist.) I let the adhesive
dry
>> overnight, then re-installed the levers.
>>
>>
>>
>> The hoods are still torn, but you can't tell from 3 feet away because
>> they sit on the lever body correctly.
>>
>>
>>
>> I haven't arrived at the end-of-life scenario for this protocol yet,
it's
>> only been a year since my DeRosa got the treatment. Based on my
>> experience with other adhesives I expect that it can be pealed
relatively
>> easily off of the metal lever body when the hoods are finally with
the
>> eternal. But I also suspect that those torn hoods may now last for
the
>> rest of my life.
>>
>>
>>
>> Brad Stockwell
>>
>> Palo Alto
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
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