Dual brake levers?

[Tina]

Good to hear surfdude, I'm thinking the same, even just knowing it's there would make me feel a bit safer :-)

 

[shouldbeinbed]

I used the crosstop (aka interrupter levers, aka frog leg levers) on my cyclocross bike and found them fine for the type of braking you'd be doing whilst on the tops or on the hoods (up, flat or fairly gentle downhill), assumedly you'd be on the drops for a fast, steep downward slope so on the STI levers anyway.

these type are light years ahead of the old suicide levers (which basically were an inefficient means of remotely pressing on the drop levers) as the brake cable feeds through them and they act on it directly to pull the brakes on.
Its an easy enough job to retro-fit them but not knowing your fettling abilities & guessing from your first post (please don't take this as patronising) if you're not one for removing and replacing cables & setting brakes up, it would be sensible to have them fitted by someone else.

 

[vickster]

Although not a small woman and having a bike that fits, I can't get on with the shape of shimano hoods to brake from the hoods and relied on cross levers. SRAM hoods suit me much better, although I will still fit cross levers to my new bike with SRAM for extra security in traffic

 

[cbs]

My wife has similar issues, many of which went away when she upgraded her bike to one with Shimano 105 brakes. More recently, she had a complete bike fit, which included new, smaller bars and having the brake levers shimmed so that they are nearer the bars to start with. It's now even better, but she still isn't confident on long descents as she still finds it quite difficult to apply force to the levers.

The next step is to upgrade the cables (inner and outer) to reduce any friction, but that is a bar tape off job, so I'll put it off for now...

So, as someone has already said, make sure that the system you have is in good condition, replace brake blocks if necessary (actually on my first bike, I found that swapping for good quality blocks was a very worthwhile upgrade, so maybe do it anyway), check cables, etc. Shims will help, but if extra levers on the "tops" will help to give you confidence and encourage you to get out and ride, then do it!

 

[Leaway2]

I love 'em. Great for commuting in traffic. The light mounts, stop me using them in the winter though.

 

[Longshot]

The old style ones are a very bad idea, and know as "suicide levers" - because braking from the extension bits was marginal if not meticulously adjusted, and not great even then.

Pffft. They worked just fine. I had them for years with no problem at all.

 

[Tina]

Thanks for all the replies everyone! My bikes down in my bfs garage and will have a look at the weekend and report back!

 

[Tina]

It's good to hear the positive reports on your commuting with the levers and the wives! :-)