Different brake levers for Brompton

[littlegreyrabbit]

Mine is an older Brompton with non-adjustable brake levers. I have small hands and arthritis in both of them and I've tried brake levers on a new Trek which I can work just with my little fingers - however apparently they are for V brakes and won't fit the Brompton. Does anyone know of any levers which will fit the Brompton and be really easy to use please? (I have seen the new levers on the new Brompton but, although they are adjustable, they don't seem better enough to get them changed).
Also I've been looking at bar ends and see that Ergon grips have been recommended in old threads, are these still the best or have better ones come in in the intervening time? Thanks for any help.

[TonyR]

The Shimano BL-R550 are probably the best replacement and not expensive.
http://www.evanscycles.com/products/shi ... s-ec039346

Ergon grips are good but watch the bar end bits because if they are too long they can get in the way of folding.

[531colin]

the difference in the force required to operate the brakes on the Trek vs. the brompton brakes is liable to be due to the long, tortous cables on the Brompton, which are liable to damage with every fold. The greatest improvements in the Brompton brakes will likely come from good quality cables and pads.

[LollyKat]

What are the actual brakes themselves like? I fitted some new Brompton-specific dual pivot brakes which helped quite a lot.

[TonyR]

the difference in the force required to operate the brakes on the Trek vs. the brompton brakes is liable to be due to the long, tortous cables on the Brompton, which are liable to damage with every fold.

The front brake - which is the most important one for stopping - doesn't have long, tortuous cables and I find my Brompton stops as well as any of my big wheel rim braked bikes using the original cables, brakes etc plus new levers. I can do and have done stoppies on it.

[531colin]

The ones I'm familiar with have a cable that runs from the bars down below the brake, then loops up to meet the brake. Its this loop that fills with water and corrodes. My apologies if I'm out of date.

Unless the Brompton levers are longer cable pull than standard, I don't see why new levers would be an improvement?
I had forgotten about the dual pivot brakes until I read it above.

[TonyR]

No the cables still go in from the bottom but not with any small radius bends. A bellows off a V-brake fitted between the two arms of the caliper keeps all the water out. My cables are five and ten years old respectively on the two Brommies with no maintenance and no problems

[RickH]

All other things being equal, rim brakes on a small wheeled bike will be a bit less effective than a larger wheel. Think of it as using a disc brake with a smaller rotor.

Rick.

[Gunner]

I have a friend who has fitted the Shimano BL-R550 brake levers, they not only look good, but very efficient and spring loaded which should be more comfortable for you. We intend on fitting these ourselves to our Bromptons.

[littlegreyrabbit]

Thank you for all replies. It's not that the brakes don't work as such it's that actually using the levers is a problem - they are too far away from the handlebars and need a firmer grip that I can exert on them. Tony do you mean that you have just replaced the levers on your Brompton for some that, for you, work better? Sorry to be a bit dense on this everyone; I do understand about the length of the cables but does this mean that if I were to put the actual levers as on the Trek onto the Brompton they would or wouldn't work?

Re handlebar grips - I don't think I need to buy the Ergon ones as I've just measured the grips on my big bike and think they fit onto the Brompton.

[Orangey]

I've also got Shimano BL-R550 on my Brompton and they are much more solid than the old style Brompton levers. I don't know whether they are actually any easier to pull though. One thing I found when changing the levers was that the angle of the lever on the handlebar makes quite a difference to how usable it was. You could try rotating your brake levers more up towards horizontal and see if that helps (although watch for them clashing on the fork when you fold the bike).

The new levers for 2013 actually look significantly better than the old plastic ones (in that they are all metal) and I would guess will probably be very similar to the Shimano ones in terms of feeling solid.

For bar ends I had the old metal Ergon GC2's which fitted fine on my M-type, but I found the bar end part too short to be comfortable. I have since replaced the handlebars on my Brompton so that I could fit Ergon GR2's without scraping them on the ground when folded. If you have an S-type then GR2's should fit fine.

Not sure what the etiquette is on posting links to blogs, so mods please feel free to remove this, but this post has photos of my current combination of grips and levers, plus there are other posts about brake levers and bar ends that may be helpful (and are too long to repeat here).

[TonyR]

Thank you for all replies. It's not that the brakes don't work as such it's that actually using the levers is a problem - they are too far away from the handlebars and need a firmer grip that I can exert on them. Tony do you mean that you have just replaced the levers on your Brompton for some that, for you, work better? Sorry to be a bit dense on this everyone; I do understand about the length of the cables but does this mean that if I were to put the actual levers as on the Trek onto the Brompton they would or wouldn't work?

Re handlebar grips - I don't think I need to buy the Ergon ones as I've just measured the grips on my big bike and think they fit onto the Brompton.

I replaced my brake levers with them years ago on both Bromptons. Whether the Trek ones will work will depend on what sort they are. If they are activating V-brakes then no without a special and fiddley adapter but if they are activating caliper or cantilever brakes, then yes.

[xpc316e]

We have an older Brompton at work and the front brake lever broke. I took it home and tried to fit a spare Tektro lever I had in the spares box, but found that the Brompton handlebars are a non-standard diameter. Not to be beaten, I filed out the Tektro lever to make it fit, and the bike now has a brake which is much more effective. It also needed a new cable, as the nipple would not fit the Tektro lever. Lots of Bommie parts are Brompton specific, so beware.

[TonyR]

We have an older Brompton at work and the front brake lever broke. I took it home and tried to fit a spare Tektro lever I had in the spares box, but found that the Brompton handlebars are a non-standard diameter. Not to be beaten, I filed out the Tektro lever to make it fit, and the bike now has a brake which is much more effective. It also needed a new cable, as the nipple would not fit the Tektro lever. Lots of Bommie parts are Brompton specific, so beware.

Not true. The standard Shimano brake levers fit a standard Brompton handlebar which is a standard 22.2mm MTB/hybrid handlebar diameter. Which is why you can also fit standard gripshifts, bar grips, bar ends etc on them too. I don't know why your brake levers didn't fit but its not as a result of a non-standard bar diameter.

[duncankay]

Having fitted Shimano BL-R550s to my S-type Brompton, I'd say it probably isn't worth it. They're definitely better made than the old standard Brompton plastic brake levers, but I don't think the braking has improved and there are two downsides:

1. The bend in the cable as it comes into the lever is tighter (on Brompton's own levers the cable comes in at an angle to the handlebars rather than almost parallel as on the Shimanos) so the cable run is more prone to friction.
2. If you screw the brake adjuster out at all on the right hand lever, then it can end up scratching the front fork when you fold the bike up.

Note that these issues may not be true for an M-type handlebar.

I've found two things really improved the braking on my Brommie - fitting dual pivot brakes and fitting new Brompton brake cables. Although old cables can seem to be working fine, when you fit the new ones I've found the friction's reduced giving a lighter action on the brake lever.