Trouble reaching brake lever

[Sherville]

Hi,

I recently bought my very first road bike. (I don't know anything about road bikes so please bear with me.)

I love everything about it except the brake levers.

I took it back to the bike shop and they charged me $50 to change the handle bars to put on some brakes that should make it easier for me to reach.
I got the bike home and went for a ride and I STILL don't have the power to squeeze the brake. The right hand break seems really easy to squeeze, but the left hand one is next to impossible for me to use.

I have to lower my hand to the drop bars in order to get any leverage.

I don't feel safe riding in traffic.

Is there anything else that can be done to help me?

I have small weak girl hands. Is it just a matter of using them until I gain some strength in my hands?

Thanks,
Amy

[Presto]

Go back to the shop. Show them the problem you are having.

Small hands don't magically grow, but good mechanics know how to solve problems.

[OakLeaf]

You'll always have more leverage from the drops, but you should be able to brake effectively from the hoods.

What concerns me is that you're okay with the right brake, but not with the left. What's the difference? Are they not installed in the same place on the bars? Is the left one sticking? When you're not on the bike and you squeeze the brake levers, does the left one take more force to squeeze than the right one? Or, do you have an injury on the left side that gives you weakness?

If they've got the levers set up crooked, or if the left (front) brake isn't working properly, that's a problem and they should fix it immediately with no charge to you.

[woohoo]

I'd say defnitely take it back to the workshop. I bought a second hand bike who's owner had one brake lever set up harder to pull than the other, and it made a huge difference to my confidence riding when I had it evened out. When you take it back, just ask them nicely to make the throw of both levers the same as the looser one - should be straightforward :)

[ny biker]

Not only take it back to the shop, but test ride it there before you go home, so you can try out whatever changes they make. Don't leave until you're happy with it.

[lunacycles]

assuming you have Shimano components, Specialized sells a shim you can install in the lever to bring the lever closer to the handlebar, reducing your fingers' reach. This is a no-brainer fix for any experienced mechanic.
I also find smaller hands prefer a bit more cable slack in the set up (meaning you pull more cable to apply the brakes), as it makes applying the brakes easier and more controllable for shorter fingers.

[Kiwi Stoker]

If all of the above suggestions fail....

install interupt levers on the tops of your handlebars. Not a great solution but at least you can ride your bike safely.

[Ginger]

I have tiny hands. The shims do bring the levers within reach for most situations, but I found that when I needed to brake hard on a fast downhill and my hands were on the hoods, I just didn't have quite enough finger length to brake comfortably. My LBS installed auxiliary levers, and although I don't use them much, I'm very glad they're there for those situations when I have difficulty.

[MartianDestiny]

Yup, take it back and make them fix it until it works.

Tell them the levers are uneven; sounds like one is adjusted tighter than the other and they can loosen that up for you.

Specialized doesn't make shims for all shimano levers (unfortunately), but some shimano levers also have an adjust screw (like on a mountain bike). Lots of shops don't know about this, but an experienced mechanic will find it if you push hard enough (took me 5 shops to find a mechanic that found it, he now does all my work ;) ).

I have tiny tiny hands. I have Specialized's largest shim in my brakes and Specialized Ruby bars. The bars don't help too much on the hoods though the short reach is nice (and I can still brake on the hoods), but I can really get a handful of brake in the drops which is a beautiful thing. The bars are what I call "short and normal" as opposed to the "short and shallow" that shops normally push on us tiny people. I found the short and shallow bars where so shallow I had no prayer of getting to my brakes in the drops GRRRRR.

I'm not sure what they did as a "fix" the first time, but if they installed new levers and or bars and you aren't happy with them they should work with you.

[fatbottomedgurl]

What are small weak girl hands? Come on! I remember getting a ticket when I was 15 on a moped (didn't have a permit yet) and the judge said it was dangerous for me to ride because I had small weak girl hands. My Dad got mad, he said any kid that can shovel manure for 3 hours a day can squeeze the brakes on a moped. The problem isn't your hands, it's the brakes. And if you think strength is an issue get a ball of therapy squeezey stuff and work out at you desk during the day.

BTW, I put compact bars and shims on my bike and it helped-but still a bit of a stretch on the hoods.

[sundial]

Shims--even Levi Leipheimer uses them. :cool:
Like FBG, I found it's still a little tough squeezing the breaks from the hoods. If you are really concerned about brakes, maybe consider putting on cheater breaks. That will give you another option for hand position and braking.

[madscot13]

You'll always have more leverage from the drops, but you should be able to brake effectively from the hoods.



I know that to be true from a physics standpoint, but I prefer braking from the tops of my hoods.

A little more slack could help, but when you are not biking how do the levers feel?

[NadiaMac]

different brake systems have different resistance in my experience. I have very small hands and find shimano to have too much resistance (plus the design of the hoods seems to require a bigger stretch when depressing the levers, which I think makes the resistance fell higher). I didn't have this experience with campy or sram. I use sram now, which has adjustable levers so you can adjust the reach closer to the bars. something to think about when you buy your next bike

[MartianDestiny]

I use sram now, which has adjustable levers so you can adjust the reach closer to the bars. something to think about when you buy your next bike

I'd agree, SRAM's hood profile is better, shorter at the least. But darn their new "double tap" system makes shifting a theater show in contortion (at least for me). No way I can comfortably operate their shifting mechanism with my hand size :(

[papaver]

This is what i've done on my mixte:

http://i229.photobucket.com/albums/ee261/fattiebert/IMG_2995.jpg

Maybe this can help.