# Break leavers for small hands?



## edmoloco (Feb 18, 2004)

My wife says her break leavers are hard to reach. So she only can ride comfortably with one finger on the lever and doesn’t feel like she can get the breaking power she needs. Any one have a suggestion on some break leavers with a shorter or adjustable reach? Preferably something that works with cable not hydro.
Thanks for the advice.


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## smw (Jun 22, 2005)

edmoloco said:


> My wife says her break leavers are hard to reach. So she only can ride comfortably with one finger on the lever and doesn't feel like she can get the breaking power she needs. Any one have a suggestion on some break leavers with a shorter or adjustable reach? Preferably something that works with cable not hydro.
> Thanks for the advice.


Avid has adjustable brake levers for mechanicals.

Sean


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## Plum (Sep 14, 2004)

*Look inside the lever*

Most v-levers have a very, very small adjustment screw inside to position the lever closer to the bar. It is usually a recessed, 1 or 2 mm screw. My wife is using an old set of the pro-shift (precision billet) levers that have a thinner blade, more gooder for smaller digits.

I've found the Avid levers, especially the cheaper ones, to be on the chunky side, maybe not in weight so much, but just in the size of them. You might look into a PAUL love lever, or the older shimano XT or XTR stand alone levers, they seem to have smaller blades than some others, and any of those will be adjustable to be closer to the bar, easy to reach.

Another thing you might consider is where the levers are positioned on the bar, they might be too far inboard (towards the stem) for your wife to reach comfortably. I've had trouble with some shifter / lever setups in getting it to a comfortable place. If you have integrated shifter/levers, you're pretty well stuck..

Hope that helps.

Plum


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## dan0 (Oct 12, 2005)

xt levers are adjustable


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## bitflogger (Jan 12, 2004)

edmoloco said:


> My wife says her break leavers are hard to reach. So she only can ride comfortably with one finger on the lever and doesn't feel like she can get the breaking power she needs. Any one have a suggestion on some break leavers with a shorter or adjustable reach? Preferably something that works with cable not hydro.
> Thanks for the advice.


What are break levers for small hands? Something small people use to break things?


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## SHIVER ME TIMBERS (Jan 12, 2004)

move the lever further away from the grip...that way she grabs the end of the lever witch gives more force with less effort


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## mahgnillig (Mar 12, 2004)

I have very small hands (I wear women's XS gloves) and have found that the Avid levers are nicely adjustable. Even the cheap ones (mine are the FR 5s) are adjustable, and I have had no problems with them since I adjusted the reach to fit my hands.

- Jen.


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## Lutarious (Feb 8, 2005)

*Avid Ultimate*

I bought some ultimate levers for my tiny girl friend and she loves them. We tried the short reach levers for her Hayes hydraulics on the single speed, but were not so impressed.

Moving the lever in toward the middle of the bar really increases the power, which is nice when you have the reach adjusment all the way in. Remember that there's not much room for the lever to move, so you will need to adjust the modulation to full hard....


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## [email protected] (Aug 24, 2005)

*Love Levers*



edmoloco said:


> My wife says her break leavers are hard to reach. So she only can ride comfortably with one finger on the lever and doesn't feel like she can get the breaking power she needs. Any one have a suggestion on some break leavers with a shorter or adjustable reach? Preferably something that works with cable not hydro.
> Thanks for the advice.


I absolutely love the Paul Love Levers. They are small with excellent reach adjustment , great power and have a great warranty.


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## edmoloco (Feb 18, 2004)

*Thanks for all you help*

Thanks for all the advice, I picked up a set of Avid speed dial levers at a bike swap over the weekend.


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## namrita (Jun 1, 2005)

I need to do this adjustment to bring the levers in on my Avid Juicy brakes. Is that the only thing needed? Turn the little recessed screw? I assume tightening it would bring the lever in? Sorry, stupid question, but I'm not very mechanically inclined.


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## gmats (Apr 15, 2005)

namrita said:


> I need to do this adjustment to bring the levers in on my Avid Juicy brakes. Is that the only thing needed? Turn the little recessed screw? I assume tightening it would bring the lever in? Sorry, stupid question, but I'm not very mechanically inclined.


Yes, use a 2mm allen wrench to turn the screw.

aloha,
g


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## Mike T. (Dec 30, 2003)

bitflogger said:


> What are break levers for small hands? Something small people use to break things?


He prolly means "people who leave breaks".


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## CraigH (Dec 22, 2003)

Lutarious said:


> We tried the short reach levers for her Hayes hydraulics on the single speed, but were not so impressed.


Who makes those short reach levers?

My wife has Hayes Mag hydraulics on both her FR & XC bikes, she has never been happy with the reach on them, even when adjusted as close to the bar as possible.


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