I’m trying to build a vintage vibe bike out of an Airwalk Pista (pic 3). I’ll swap out the seat for a leather coloured one (pic 4) and swap out the flat bar for a silver chrome drop bar and wrap it in matching brown grip tape (pic 5). Now I’m in a dilemma whether I should finish it off with silver chrome vintage dual pull brakes or brown aero brakes.
Of course with the vintage dual pull brakes, I’ll be getting braking whether I’m in flat bar position or drop bar position, though of course an issue is that I won’t be able to hide the cables with the grip tape wrapping; and also compared to the brown aero brakes, it’s only got the silver chrome to match the rest of the bike (chrome wheels, chrome seat post, chrome drop bar, chrome quill stem).
With the brown aero brakes, I’ll have the matching brown colour with the seat and grip tape. I’ll also be able to hide the cables to make it look clean. However, I’m not sure if it’ll give the same vintage vibe as the dual pull brakes, and of course I lack the versatility in positions where I can brake.
Feel free to share your opinions.
by Dragosfgv
8 Comments
Lots of words… suicide brakes??
The second pulls, horizontal, have much less braking power and also weaken the force that the regular brake levers can exert. Pretty maybe, but definitely not worthwhile.
I’d go aero levers. Riding on the hoods with that old style of brake lever isn’t comfortable, and the rear part is usually pretty weak for braking power.
1 is terrible. They were put on cheap bikes during the bike boom and sold to people who thought they wanted a road bike but didn’t actually use the drops. The top levers are barely functional and you can’t comfortably ride on the hoods.
I’d say the only reason to use them is for a period-correct restoration, but nobody would bother trying to restore the cheap bikes these were used on.
Whatever as long as you get the free bubble wrap.
I actually have those old brakes on a vintage Schwinn I ride around on. The horizontal levers are worthless.
as someone who bought ali express vintage dual brakes. They were great for a couple weeks. I notice the part for the “inline” brake part on the vintage handles were pretty weak. After i crashed my bike (Nothing to do with the vintage brake levers) they broke. I bought regular aero brake levers along with an inline brake running a brake line from the aero brakes to the inline brake to the brakes themselves.
If you really want dual brake levers it’s possible to add separate levers to the tops that connect to the same cable. Don’t remember exactly how it works