Agree that there bar lever combinations also much depend on bars. I found the noodle to be less sensitive to brake lever choice as they have fairly long ramps to rest your hands on.
Shorter reach bars like the Salsa Cowchipper (my favorite drop over the past 2 years) are more sensitive to brake lever hoods as you usually rest your hands at least partially on the hoods. I very much prefer blocky, campy-esque hoods on those, on the noodles I seem fine with a greater diversity of levers. Clayton Scott HBG, CA On Tuesday, May 19, 2020 at 9:13:08 AM UTC-7, George Schick wrote: > > Part of the comfort issue here may be the bars themselves. One of my road > bikes is set up with noodle bars and Shimano 600 brake levers. I find this > combo to be "reasonably" comfortable - the bars are hawked as having "flat > ramps," i.e., smooth transition from the top of the bend onto the brake > lever hoods. And they pretty much do, but they also have this minor > "upsweep" where the bar makes its turn from the flats to the hooks that I > find kind of irritating. > > Far and away the most comfortable bars I've ever used are the Ritchey > Bio-Max. The have absolutely flat "flats" and after the bars make the turn > toward the hooks they are perfectly flat so there is a very straight > transition to the brake levers. My other road bike has these coupled with > the Tektro levers and I love it. But there are three problems with these > bars: 1) they are no longer made (though they may be found on eBay in > various widths), 2) they were only made with a black anodized finish, and > 3) most importantly, they can't be used with standard quill stems because > the turn from the flat part of the top of the hook to the bottom of the > hook is so sharp that a quill stem cannot be passed through it without > spreading the stem mounting jaws, a dangerous thing to do. The only way > around this was to either find a quill stem with a bolt-on bar mount or use > a threadless steering tube adapter and a threadless stem. > > > On Saturday, May 16, 2020 at 9:45:55 AM UTC-5, Erik Wright wrote: >> >> Howdy, >> >> I have a Roadini set up with 46cm Noodles. I'm using 9spd 105 brifters >> that I took off my old road bike, and I'm struggling to dial in the feel of >> the hoods. This is partially due to the lever / hood design (pretty boxy >> and bulky, don't like it that much), but I also can't work out the bar to >> hood transition, if that makes sense. I'd like a smooth transition from the >> top of the bar into the hood position of the lever, in effect creating a >> feel of the bullhorn handlebar. After many micro adjustments, I just can't >> get that with this lever/bar combo. Either the levers feel too close and >> create a harsh/abrupt transition to the hoods, or they're too far below the >> bend for my liking. >> >> I figured I'd switch to downtube shifters and go with the Tiagra BL-R400 >> that >> Riv sells >> <https://www.rivbike.com/collections/braking/products/shimano-tiagra-road-brake-levers-15091> >> >> and uses on most of their bikes, but wanted to check in and see if anyone >> here has a different lever that they *love* with Noodles. Brakes are >> Paul Racers, if that's a factor. >> >> Let's hear 'em! >> >> Erik, Philly >> >> p.s. Riv's out of stock with those Tiagra levers so if you have some in >> your bin that you'd like to get rid of, consider this a low key WTB post. >> > -- 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 view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rbw-owners-bunch/3a1d3257-26a0-4086-b587-90bc4aa1cd94%40googlegroups.com.
