Small hands and STI Levers

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

About glueing homemade shims in/on.....I'd be afraid they would fail and come off at a crucial moment when braking hard- that could be really dangerous. And you know they would fail just when you are using them hard. Glue is usually not a good permanent fix on a bike. Your life depends on your brakes working perfectly.

[Skierchickie]

Lisa - yeah - that did occur to me too. I think the right kind of epoxy would do the trick though - I'd have to be careful about that. It's possible I'll end up just biting the bullet and investing, but I'd sure rather not if something else would work just the same - especially if, as Eden says, there isn't much difference. It was the lady who did my bike fitting that suggested it, although it didn't sound like she was speaking from experience. We'll be going through there at the end of the month, and may have a chance to stop in and have her do a check-up - I wonder if I could move my shifters down a bit more (get them pointing down a little more). I just swapped out the stem & moved the bars to the right height tonight (per her recommendations), so my next ride may tell me a lot.

Thanks for the input!

[divingbiker]

I'm in the same spot, but I've got 2005 levers that already have a shim in them and they still aren't close enough. My LBS tried to glue in some shims but the glue didn't hold and they worked their way out.

So what I've got in there now is those felt circles that protect your floor from furniture legs. They're about 1/2 inch in diameter, and fit pretty nicely inside the lever, and will be easy to remove.

Not an elegant solution, but it's cheap and it's working for now.

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

I'm in the same spot, but I've got 2005 levers that already have a shim in them and they still aren't close enough. My LBS tried to glue in some shims but the glue didn't hold and they worked their way out.

So what I've got in there now is those felt circles that protect your floor from furniture legs. They're about 1/2 inch in diameter, and fit pretty nicely inside the lever, and will be easy to remove.

Not an elegant solution, but it's cheap and it's working for now.

I tried the epoxyed felt pad solution once....it came off and the felt pad thingy dropped into my hoods somewhere and got lost inside. Must be still in there somewhere.

[redrhodie]

My friend, who was in town teaching an alternative materials jewelry course at a local design school (RISD), glued my shims for me!!! They're not going anywhere now! I'll ask her what glue she used (it for sure was not epoxy), but more interesting was her technique. Her expertise is with rubber, so she knew to breathe hot air on the glue, as these types of glues set up better with some heat. She also shimmed the shims in place with a little piece of cardboard to give extra pressure during the curing process. The most important thing is getting as tight a fit as possible for the glue to hold well.

My shims are by Specialized, and they fit Ultegra shifters. They were taken off another bike at my LBS, so the glue patch they had come with was already used.

[ginny]

I have campy on my bianchi and I find the reach just perfect (both drops and hoods), of course, I don't have much experience with Shimano, so I'm not sure how useful my comment is...

[Flur]

I'm loving my campy too. The thumb lever is really easy to get to - I've not ridden with Shimano, but it SEEMS to me that pushing the Campy thumb lever is a lot easier than pulling in the inset lever on the Shimano. I also like the slimness of the hoods - they feel like the hoods on my old bike that had the shifters on the downlube. I don't really have small hands though...

[redrhodie]

The fancy glue my friend used was basically a different brand of crazy glue .
She spent 8 years studying in Germany for that?! Well, it worked, so I guess it was time well spent.

[Skierchickie]

That is good to know! Crazy Glue I can find. So the trick is in blowing on it at just the right temp? Maybe a hairdryer on low?

Now I just need to find out if the whole clearance thing/brake tweaking will work out. Thanks everyone!

Oh, and I'd love to try Campy someday, but it just isn't in the budget. There is always that lottery..... It is good to know there are better-fitting options out there.

[redrhodie]

That is good to know! Crazy Glue I can find. So the trick is in blowing on it at just the right temp? Maybe a hairdryer on low?

Yeah, she says it's the same glue as Crazy glue (cyanocrylat). She got hers in a model train store, but all super glues are basically the same. A hairdryer might be too hot. She just did it with her breath (just a couple of puffs, she wasn't there for like an hour or anything!), and it worked great. We let it dry overnight.

[Skierchickie]

I'm glad it only takes a couple of puffs - I get dizzy blowing up an air mattress.

[NbyNW]

All this talk about shims is fascinating -- the brake reach really is the one thing I would have changed on my long-lost little red bike.

Can you all post pictures of your shim setups? It would be very educational.

[alimey]

Another small hander here. I more or less solved my problem with a combination of bars (short reach & shallow drop - FSA wing pro compact - more comfy for me than the Ritchey Biomax). I also had a pair of short reach Ultegra levers. They came w/ 2 sets of shims - one narrow pair & one wide. So I installed the wide ones & they worked pretty well. Then I thought about it a bit & thought about installing both of them. I cut the locating nobble off the narrow pair & glued them onto the other pair. They seem to work pretty well.

But now that the new Dura Ace routes under the tape AND has reach adjustment I might have to try them out . . .