OK, so I’m soft and ride with a brake. But tell me…
Has anyone used or seen one of these things?
http://fixedgearbikes.blogspot.com/2008/09/dia-compe-shot-lever.html
I like a brake on the right, and have half a dozen other bikes with the front brake on the right. But I also like to keep my right arm free to wave, indicate, gesticulate, flick the bird, pick my nose, scratch my balls etc. from time to time. Lastly, I’m planning a crack at bike polo soon and figure this could be handy.
Ta.
This lever remind me of those beetles…
I know this is an old post - but same topic, so why not:
A quick internet search on these levers says:
This brake lever is designed as a sub-braking system for Track Racing bicycles, and its braking performance is different from normal braking system.
Can anyone confirm the performance on these? I’m looking at buying one of those bolt on Keirin front brakes for my track frame - you can get the set with a crappy throw-away lever, or for about $10 more you can get it with this lever.
I like a front brake for those times you really need a front brake - so the ‘sub-braking’ aspect raises some concerns.
Two things - are you asking about the double-sided lever or the clamp-on brake caliper as well?
I’ve used one of the levers, it was pointless, but I haven’t ever used the clamp-on brake. ( it came with round fork bands instead of oval). It looks ok but the bands will mess up the paint on your forks pretty easily.
I think the “sub-braking” description comes mostly from both the less-strong-than-usual attachment of the caliper, but also applies if you use the short side of the lever, since the actual leverage is a bit poor.
The lever has some design issues. If you install it as intended, you end up with a short lever on one side, that takes a whole lot of force to work with one finger, and on the other side the longer lever is mostly inaccessible, being in front of the head stem. In other words whichever side you use, your hand must be almost up against the stem - not the best place for your hands if you’re using it in an emergency. Also, you inevitably end up with the brake cable running straight out where your hands would usually be on the tops of the drops.
I ended up switching it upside down, so I had one longer usable side and one pointless short side in front of the stem. Pointless. So I took it off and replaced it with a bmx-style one, similar to a Goldfinger.
as for polo, i think the best setup is to ride fixed, with a really low ratio, so you never need a brake anyway. with a 2:1 ratio you can usually skid without even getting out of the saddle, and you can think about hitting the ball instead of hitting the brakes. i run 39/20 and it works a treat.
My girls bike has a clamp on brake and like any brake it works fine if you get some decent brakepads.
Have used the shot lever before and it worked perfectly fine and had no issues with it being a sub-braking system lever. it does however make more sense when its turned upside down for some reason.
Ok thanks.
Yeah - I was asking about the lever rather than the brake itself. I’m getting the brake regardless - but just considering whether I should buy the brake that comes with the Shot lever or not.
I guess I’ll try it out, since I’m not really losing any money on it. And yeah - I’ll try it upside down, that seems better.
UPDATE: Brake delivered and fitted with the shot lever - I ordered it from Velogear and it was at my door at 9am the next morning. Awesome!
Pretty happy overall. The clamp on brake works quite well - I put some thin rubber strips below the clamps to prevent scratching. It would be better with a nicer caliper, but it looks like you could modify it and use whatever caliper you like pretty easily. Really you are just paying for the plate and clamps.
The shot lever stops reasonably well - not quite as smooth and effective as say a cross-top lever but it still stops. The way the cable is threaded through to engage both levers increases the friction and makes it a bit stiffer. The way it is designed, the long lever also has a bit of play before it engages the brake cable, but you get used to that aspect pretty quickly. I’ll probably keep it fitted in any case - it does the job fine and the full chrome looks suits my bike.
As described by etomato - I have it fitted to use the long lever as the standard for my right hand. This definitely seems preferable. In any case I can reach the short lever over my stem with my left hand with no problem.
that is indeed how i run mine:
Nice thread dredge, 12 years from the glory days of SOTB
Did you really join the forum just for this?
Consider these posts a public service - reminds us of the days of fast track bikes and hopeless braking.