Trouble reaching brake lever

[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.
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.