Cycling UK Forum

I've just fitted a straight bar to my old tourer instead of drops. I got a pair of new Tektro metal bodied levers on ebay for under £10 including postage, and they work fine with my caliper brakes. My son was so impressed he sent for a pair as well. Just search on cycling-bike parts-brake levers and you should find it.

Thanks chaps for your comments. That's the great thing about cycling, you learn something new nearly every day! I'm only using a 6 speed sprocket set with the original Stronglight double up front; I fitted a clamp-on cable backstop where the down tube shifters had been so the front outers from the shifters are about 500mm long and the rear outer from the chainstay stop about 400mm. It all seems to work quite well so perhaps I'll give it a couple of months riding to see if any problems occur.

Hi everybody
I've just refurbished an old tourer into an everyday runabout (i've got 2 other bikes, a roadie and a hybrid). I swapped the drop bars for a straight, fitted new sprocket set, new rear mech, indexed shifters on the bars instead of down tube shifters, and brake levers. I ordered new inner brake and gear cables on ebay, (i didn't realise that these were different thicknesses before), it seems the gear cables are usually 1.2mm and the brake cables are 1.5mm. I ordered brake outer cables and gear outer cables, the latter being more expensive for some reason, but when they arrived they had sent me the correct total length but all of the same type (brake outer). Anyway i fitted it all and it seems to work ok but was a bit miffed that they had charged more for the gear outers, so i left some negative feedback. My question; is it ok to use brake outer with gear inner, and indeed is gear outer different to brake outer or will it be detrimental so that I should change it? This all sounds a bit long-winded but I would be grateful for some technical know-how on the subject. Thanks for any help.

Hi everybody.
I have'nt posted before so this could be interesting.

I've got a 25 year old Orbit Gold Medal and want to upgrade it without spending too much.

Firstly it's got 27" wheels and rather than replace them I wondered if I could just change the nutted axles to quick release?

Gears are 36/48 front rings with 5 rear sprockets and down tube levers. I want to change the levers to perhaps thumb shifters on top of my drop handlebars, is this possible and would I need a band-on component where the existing levers are located to engage with the outer gear cables?

If I changed the drop bars to a straight bar I would need to put new brake levers on; are v-brake levers compatible with caliper brakes?

Advice would be gratefully received on these topics. Thanks.