Braking from hoods - Help!

oldwelshman

philwint wrote:

Rolf F wrote:

That still doesn't help with the enormous lever bodies though. I think there is only so much you can do with shims. That said, there is probably plenty of discussion to be found on the net with a bit of careful Googling as to whether the current levers are a substitute for the short reach design.

I'd probably not sufficiently considered small hands - mine are fairly large - so I gan wrap at least 3 finders round the lever from the hood.....

If that's your photo it looks as if your not actually on the hoods, more like grabbing and wrapping round the hoods like position you would hold on the drops.

cyberknight

Assuming your stem length /bike fit are ok and you have small reach why not just buy the shims for your levers rather than replacing the whole set up, £4
http://www.evanscycles.com/products/spe ... r-ec008424
http://www.tredz.co.uk/.Specialized-Sli ... =Froogle02

Edit , its early for me as i have just come off nights so i missed the bit about shims already posted.

philwint

oldwelshman wrote:

If that's your photo it looks as if your not actually on the hoods, more like grabbing and wrapping round the hoods like position you would hold on the drops.

Nope - that is my optimum hood braking possition. So yes for normal cruising I'd have my writs rolled in a little be more - to be more on top of and les beside the hood.

But for anything other than shaving a few mph off my speed, the above position is way better, and how my hands fall naturally anyway.

Pross

Fi31 are you trying to brake using the bottom of the lever? You may find you can manage better higher up the lever just below the hood. In most circumstances you can brake comfortably using just your index and middle fingers up there and whilst you don't have as much leverage the brakes should be effective. I know what you mean about feeling less stable on the drops as I'm the same despite riding for years. It doesn't help that it makes you more aero so when you are going downhill you go faster and have to brake harder!

climbingpixie

Fi31 wrote:

Hope someone can help? - I have a Trek female specific road bike and as i'm a relative newbie to road bikes I don't ride too often in the drops yet. When in drops, I can reach the brakes and pull the levers easily, but trying to brake from the hoods is near impossible for me. I seem to reach the levers, but can only pull on them with pinky/last two fingers and when I do its like a half hearted brake, which doesn't stop the bike when on a hill and i end up feeling major pain between my thumb and forefinger and actually having to put my feet down to help me stop - no use if i'm going to tackle a sportive in a few weeks and its got a big hill to descend (thats if I get up it in the first place!)
Guy in bike shop suggested spacers in hood section of brake, but its already got one of those, any ideas or suggestions to help please?

I had exactly the same problem with the Tiagra set up on my Giant Avail. I have really small hands and it felt as though the pivot point on the brakes was too low, so from the hoods I could only reach with my little fingers and the braking power was pretty rubbish. Downhills were ok as I would tend to be in the drops anyway (the brakes were shimmed so I could reach fine from there) but I was always pretty nervous commuting in case I needed to stop suddenly.

Not got much advice for you unfortunately, apart from to maybe try fiddling with the positioning of the hoods to see if that helps, or bring the brakes in closer to the rims so that you need less force to slow. The problem only went away for me when I changed from my Shimano triple to a SRAM compact groupset, the SRAM levers are easy to use and powerful from the hoods, even for a small handed person. An extreme solution but one to bear in mind if you ever decide to upgrade your groupset.

Jon_1976

I'd agree with all the replies, but the above one especially. Its seems to the design of the pivot and the length of the hoods on Shimano. I've got reasonably big hands and I found braking from the hoods on Shimano shifters (2300, Tiagra and 105) to require a lot of force. The shims only really make any difference in the drops. I swapped to Veloce levers on on one of my bikes and nearly went over the bars the first time I used the front brake.

itboffin

Rolf F wrote:

Canny lad wrote:

Disagree. I had a CX bike as my first road bike and the suicide levers helped a lot with my confidence whilst getting used to the bike. I had them removed after 6 months as they were getting in the way but I was a lot more confident by then.

You can pick Specialized levers up on ebay for buttons. Deffo worth a try. Good luck.

Are you sure you disagree?! What I said was that the problem is if you use those levers to avoid using the drops, you won't get the best out of the bike. Clearly that isn't what you did.

Incidentally, I doubt that you had suicide levers on your bike. I guess you had interrupter levers which are these:



Suicide levers are these: (a totally different thing and much less effective hence the name)

2nd pic is from dirtybartape.com

Rolf you dog

rolf_f

itboffin wrote:

Rolf F wrote:

Canny lad wrote:

Disagree. I had a CX bike as my first road bike and the suicide levers helped a lot with my confidence whilst getting used to the bike. I had them removed after 6 months as they were getting in the way but I was a lot more confident by then.

You can pick Specialized levers up on ebay for buttons. Deffo worth a try. Good luck.

Are you sure you disagree?! What I said was that the problem is if you use those levers to avoid using the drops, you won't get the best out of the bike. Clearly that isn't what you did.

Incidentally, I doubt that you had suicide levers on your bike. I guess you had interrupter levers which are these:



Suicide levers are these: (a totally different thing and much less effective hence the name)

2nd pic is from dirtybartape.com

Rolf you dog

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