Quote Originally Posted by Muirenn View Post
I had these on my Schwinn Le Tour growing up in the late 70's and 80's. I've heard a couple of things since, mostly that they are called 'cheater' brakes, etc. And shouldn’t be used.
The ones you had on your bike at that time were quite different from the ones on the market today…. in those days they really were quite dangerous. We used to call them suicide levers as they often failed to stop the bike…

The interrupters of today do a much better job - they are inline in the brake cable rather than being a mechanical extension to the regular lever, but still they shouldn't be used in place of learning correct bike handling. There are more reasons than braking that you want to learn to ride in the drops, especially downhill or on fast corners.