Anybody notice the small lever off the bottom of Hincapies right aero bar on his TT bike in the Tour of California prologue. Has to be a brake lever so he can brake from the aero position. Interesting.

I thought it looked like a couple of levers like skewer levers holding the stem on instead of socket head cap screws. I know that wouldn't be right but that's what it looked like to me when I saw it very briefly during the trial.

What's up with a 1.6 mile tt?

IWhat's up with a 1.6 mile tt?

It's what is called a prologue, and it's used to establish starting order for the first "real" stage of the race. Plus, if you look at the course profile, you might realize that it involves a pretty steep climb up to Coit Tower.

Anybody notice the small lever off the bottom of Hincapies right aero bar on his TT bike in the Tour of California prologue. Has to be a brake lever so he can brake from the aero position. Interesting.

Hed makes them. That's probably what George is using. Vision might have made one too at some point.

Cancellara ran one at worlds. If you go to FSA's website, to the Vision section, they have a gallery of CSC TT bikes, and several of them have them.

I'm curious to understand exactly how these are hooked up. Most of them look like the 'cross-top' interrupter levers, but I can't fathom how the cable routing would go to make these work. Anybody have any ideas?

Cancellara ran one at worlds. If you go to FSA's website, to the Vision section, they have a gallery of CSC TT bikes, and several of them have them.

I'm curious to understand exactly how these are hooked up. Most of them look like the 'cross-top' interrupter levers, but I can't fathom how the cable routing would go to make these work. Anybody have any ideas?


nuts. I was just looking at this earlier today. some company makes a little doohickey (whoa... firefox recognized that as a word) that splits cables... so you can have 2 levers activating one caliper.

The 3rd brake lever has been out for a few years (I think it came out when Lance won his 7th tour). Several teams have them, they make it so you can brake while still in the aero position while going into turns. CSC, I think, was the first to have them, with a custom brake lever from vision.

How it works is just like a cross in-line lever.

Hed is different, you use a different cable, with an adapter allowing two brake cables to go to one brake. Its less clean looking and the brake lever is more bulky..

How it works is just like a cross in-line lever.
so what you're saying is, the brake cable comes off the frame, goes out along the aerobars, turns 180 degrees in a very small radius, comes back down the aerobars, and out along the base bar to the regular brake lever?

Seems like it wouldn't work so well, mostly the tight bend in the cable at the end of the aerobars.

so what you're saying is, the brake cable comes off the frame, goes out along the aerobars, turns 180 degrees in a very small radius, comes back down the aerobars, and out along the base bar to the regular brake lever?

Seems like it wouldn't work so well, mostly the tight bend in the cable at the end of the aerobars.


It goes from the original brake lever, to the right extension, through the lever, and around to the left extension, then to either the front or back brake caliper:

http://img465.imageshack.us/img465/549/3rdbraketb4.jpg
http://www.cyclingnews.com/photos/2006/giro06/giro061/_TM_7552.jpg
http://www.cyclingnews.com/photos/2006/giro06/giro061/giro_stage1_finish_bd_20060506_180853.jpg
http://www.cyclingnews.com/photos/2006/giro06/giro061/DSC_0028.jpg

There are different ways in mounting it though, CSC has the best set up, IMO.

http://img465.imageshack.us/img465/549/3rdbraketb4.jpg
There's the missing link. I couldn't see that loop of cable in any other pic.

Thanks for clarifying that!

http://www.velonews.com/tech/report/articles/8100.0.html

First part of the article goes in depth about the CSC version.

TB

I don't think it's what George used, but Jtek makes a great version:

http://jtekengineering.com/AeroBrake.htm

I don't think it's what George used, but Jtek makes a great version:

http://jtekengineering.com/AeroBrake.htm


Its probably not what George used, he probably used a custom one.

I just did this to my new TT bike. The vision lever has a lip that I had to remove with my dremel, Braking is a little mushy, probably due to the brake cable I used. The loop is about 3 inches from the shifters. I need a longer inner cable, Longest I could find is about 8-10 inches short. Gonna call around, look for a tandem brake cable. Once I get a longer cable, will move the loop to the end of the bars. The cable end is tha same as derailuer cable, though FSA put "DO NOT USE SHIFTER CABLES" about 10X in the booklet. I imagine a der cable would break under braking forces.

Reason I did it, beacause I am trying to get used to staying in the aero bars. When I pass cross streets, I usually "cover the brake" due to the soccer moms on cell phones that like to run stop signs here in NJ. Being able to feather the rear brake is nice.

I can post pics if anyone is interested.

Bryan

I just did this to my new TT bike. The vision lever has a lip that I had to remove with my dremel, Braking is a little mushy, probably due to the brake cable I used. The loop is about 3 inches from the shifters. I need a longer inner cable, Longest I could find is about 8-10 inches short. Gonna call around, look for a tandem brake cable. Once I get a longer cable, will move the loop to the end of the bars. The cable end is tha same as derailuer cable, though FSA put "DO NOT USE SHIFTER CABLES" about 10X in the booklet. I imagine a der cable would break under braking forces.

Reason I did it, beacause I am trying to get used to staying in the aero bars. When I pass cross streets, I usually "cover the brake" due to the soccer moms on cell phones that like to run stop signs here in NJ. Being able to feather the rear brake is nice.

I can post pics if anyone is interested.

Bryan


Could you post pics? i'm interested in how it works.. I would like to do this too with a vision lever, but I'm not sure how too...

here are some pics....cable travels from rear caliper up the aero bar, loops around into one side of 3rd lever, then another cable is ran from 3rd lever to the primary brake lever. Once I get the longer inner cable (tandem brake cable), I may put the lever on the left side of the aero bar. Two reasons for that, 1) once in the big ring, only activity is usually shifting the rear. 2) looks like maybe a smoother run w/less loops.
Bryan

UPDATE

I picked up a tandem cable today, Re-inst cables. Changed the routing slightly.

Now the cable goes from the right brake lever to the left side of the aero bar.

Then routed to the end of the bar by the shifters, 180' turn down to third lever.

Housing then travels from back of third lever to the caliper.

Braking is excellent, as good as with only one lever.

Here are the final pics.

BTW, Trek includes them with their top TT bikes now. I think a lot of shops just don't install them because they're a hassle and braking is mushy.

chris