Reddit reviews Tektro RL720 Cross Brake Lever Set
We found 6 Reddit comments about Tektro RL720 Cross Brake Lever Set. Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.
Hinged clampForged aluminum lever and bracketReach adjustment and return springTop mount lever with ergonomic designFor use with caliper or cantilever style brakes
You can improve things a little bit by sliding the saddle forward a bit. It's not a lot and you have to be careful that you don't go past any limit marks that might be on the rails.
You could get a major improvement by installing some interrupter levers (not a specific recommendation, just the first link on google). The installation will be a bit of a project but, it will let you brake comfortably from the flats. If you know how to replace a brake cable, installing interrupters should be trivial.
A much more major project would be swapping drop bars to flats. Since you've got down tube shifters rather than brifters, this wouldn't be too expensive all things considered but, still not particularly cheap.
Nice. If you've got exactly that bike, that version of 105 has a reach adjustment under the brake hood cover near the top. Just need a small allen key ... peel back the hood on top and turn clockwise to bring the lever in. You'll need to loosen the barrel adjuster on the brake to let some cable out as you bring the lever in.
With disk brakes you should have lots of braking power, so you shouldn't need too much force on the brake levers to stop effectively. A bit of adjustment and practice will have you stopping on a dime in no time.
Another thing to consider would be adding a pair of interrupter levers. This will allow you to brake from the flat-bar section, which can be nice to have for city riding. They are mounted on the bars close to the stem, and go inline on your brake cable. This gives you a "flat bar" style brake, as well as still leaving you the ability to brake from the hoods.
They make little in-line brake levers (sometimes called "cross levers") that you can add to a drop-bar road bike so that you can access the brakes from aerobars or some other position. Essentially, you cut the cable and install them in the middle of it, so both the original lever and the new little lever can pull on the brake cable.
That might give you some flexibility in placement and reach, although it doesn't help when riding with your hands on the hoods. You could put them on the horizontal top part of the bars, and use that as your "relaxed" riding position. Something like this. Or somewhere else entirely, if you can think of a better placement-- the nice thing about those is the flexibility.
Shimano also used to make a set of short-reach STI levers that we put on my wife's road bike (more than ten years ago) for similar reasons-- but I'm not sure if they still make those now that the normal levers can be adjusted directly as /u/sitdownrando-r points out. Nor am I entirely sure they'd address your problem, since it's just the hood height that's the problem, not the reach from the drops.
Edit: A spendier option occurred to me: the new electronic shifters allow you to add little shift "buttons" wherever you want. If you used those to shift instead of combined brake-shift levers, you could then go find a brake-only lever option that fit your hands better. This is probably both complicated AND expensive, though.
Depends what you're used to riding and where you can store it.
If you can't store it inside, you'll need a 'beater,' meaning a bike that doesn't look appealing to thieves. For most people, the best deal is going to be a 90s "mountain" bike (something like this), which is essentially comparable to a hybrid, but with 26" wheels. It's a slower-riding bike, but with the advantage of better brakes, a more upright riding position, and thicker tires for fewer flats.
If you're used to riding faster road bikes, I'd get an 80s/90s road bike (something like this), and add cross-style brakes to it (i.e., a 2nd set of brake levers on the tops of the handlebars that let you brake while riding upright in traffic).
If you can lock your bike up indoors and/or want a faster bike, a newer hybrid or road bike is fine.
You can probably find plenty of turkey lever equipped bikes at your local dump (assuming yours allows for donation) if you want to go vintage.
Otherwise, the modern equivalent is called a “cross brake” or sometimes a cross lever. They are commonly used in cyclocross and are more hardy and effective than in the old days,
There is a model to fit every budget but here’s a cheap one
https://www.amazon.com/Tektro-RL720-Cross-Brake-Lever/dp/B0090X36Y0
Lever/dp/B0090X36Y0)
Then we'll talk about an upvote