Swapping Brakes over

jamlala

I've got an opportunity to buy a cracking second hand Cannondale bike from Spain at a pretty decent price. 1 issue is that the brake levers are on the opposite side to the UK. My question how easy is this to swap over and roughly how much would it cost?
Many thanks in advance.

craker

Just the cables. If you're really careful you might not have to buy anything.

having thought it through slightly more, you'll have to retape your handlebars as you'll need to get the cables out from underneath the old tape.

jamlala

Thats brilliant thank you. I was just going to edit my question as it is a 105 triple, and I want to change it to a compact/double. Any thoughts on that one?

rolf_f

Or just switch to left front braking. Lots of us have - there's a lot to be said for it.

You'll need a new shifter for thecompact and probably a new front mech. Unless it's a truly great deal, I wouldn't bother with the bike if you are only going to immediately change half the components! Source the bike you actually want.

slowbike

Rolf F wrote:

Or just switch to left front braking. Lots of us have - there's a lot to be said for it.

You'll need a new shifter for thecompact and probably a new front mech. Unless it's a truly great deal, I wouldn't bother with the bike if you are only going to immediately change half the components! Source the bike you actually want.

You can get away with a triple mech on a double

rolf_f

Slowbike wrote:

Rolf F wrote:

Or just switch to left front braking. Lots of us have - there's a lot to be said for it.

You'll need a new shifter for thecompact and probably a new front mech. Unless it's a truly great deal, I wouldn't bother with the bike if you are only going to immediately change half the components! Source the bike you actually want.

You can get away with a triple mech on a double

You mean Shimano didn't deliberately engineer different pull ratios for double and triple? Oh dear - they are really losing their touch!

slowbike

Rolf F wrote:

Slowbike wrote:

Rolf F wrote:

Or just switch to left front braking. Lots of us have - there's a lot to be said for it.

You'll need a new shifter for thecompact and probably a new front mech. Unless it's a truly great deal, I wouldn't bother with the bike if you are only going to immediately change half the components! Source the bike you actually want.

You can get away with a triple mech on a double

You mean Shimano didn't deliberately engineer different pull ratios for double and triple? Oh dear - they are really losing their touch!

It seems to be so ...
I changed my wifes bike from a Sora 8speed Triple to a 105 compact - kept the band on front mech with a view to replacing it if required ... hasn't been required ... she has dropped the chain once though, so needs some adjustment ...

markhewitt1978

Rolf F wrote:

Or just switch to left front braking. Lots of us have - there's a lot to be said for it.

I rode a left front braking bike in Mallorca and I have to say I didn't have any trouble adapting to it. I'm thinking of switching my bike to left front when I do it's spring overhaul. Mostly because of the issue of downshifting and braking for junctions.

Best advice for the OP if you get the bike is to just ride it for a while and if you still don't like it, change it. Same for the triple/double thing, a lot of expense to change for not much benefit, keep the triple.

gozzy

You can use the triple shifter with a double as well, just make sure you set up the inner ring down shift as the redundant one.