Brake levers on tops - yay or nay?

dilatory

I am building a CX bike up for a bit of muddy fun, a few races and as a winter bike. I'll be running mini-v and will assemble next weekend, wondering whether it's worth adding levers to the tops? I've never ridden a cross bike before but only really use my tops on road bike when pootling about or on a long steady climb. Are they that useful?

antsmithmk

My opinion is no, not that useful. I've taken them off my boardman and can't remember wishing I had them back on...

FransJacques

Worst

Idea

Ever

Lose 'em

dilatory

Well I thought as much. Just wanted to make sure they weren't some super secret CX treasure. Will continue with build as planned.

tgotb

Unless you're going to do the Three Peaks, apparently.

Otherwise, no. Drops are for descending.

97th choice

If you are going to use the bike for commuting as well then they're pretty useful. But I haven't used them at all whilst racing ( only two races mind)

FransJacques

Commuting yes b/c a split second of reaction time counts.

Off-road they're dangerous. your hand are too close together to have any leverage and if you hit a root at an angle you'll lose it for sure. A regular bump can shake you off whereas in the drops your hands are more hemmed in.

I look at it this way, MTBs have migrated to super wide (73cm) bars so having levers 10cm apart is not optimal. However I noticed that a couple pro women use them.