Rene said that he: " just read one if Jan's articles explaining why they are much harder to use from the hoods as that position has a much shorter lever arm and braking is better from the drops"
Jan is absolutely right and it's all just math. The pivot for non-aero "traditional" brake levers is quite low. Of course, if Jan said "much harder" then that's a subjective thing. People have been using non-aero brakelevers for generations, and they've done just fine. "Harder" is an objective fact, and just comes down to the math. If your hands are strong enough, it doesn't matter, like Mark pointed out. If having a lighter touch on the levers is something you prefer, or is something that makes you feel safer, then absolutely do that. If having a firmer pull on the levers makes you feel more confident that you are in control, then absolutely do that. If both styles work and feel fine for you, then choose based on ergonomics (how it feels riding on the hoods) or aesthetics. One thing you might want to add, Rene, is how the braking will feel *relative to *the rest of your stable. I did a build recently with M.A.F.A.C. centerpulls and decided to use the stock brakelevers. The braking was plenty powerful, but the lever feel was so different from my other 10 bikes, that I switched out the levers. I decided it was more important to me that my many bikes feel relatively similar to each other, so my 'stop quick' grip on "Bike X" does not equal an "over the bars" grip on "Bike Y". I hope those thoughts help Bill Lindsay El Cerrito, CA -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
