I cut off 1 inch behind bolt holes, then made two aluminum plates 1/8in thick and 7/8" tubing to go between areobars and held in place with the plates. Then it simply slides into the existing KH T handle sleeve. Another option would be to leave the aerobar intact if you wanted a place to rest your elbows.
Thanks to Gockie, I got the same Aerobars and have had them on my KH36 from day one learning to ride it.
After a couple of months trying to commute to work, 13.5km (8 miles) away, I am now riding to work with 125mm cranks 3 times a week, working from home Tues and Thu. I couldn’t think of riding without the aerobars.
Notice the bike computer which is in a place I cant read the screen because the cable to the sensor is too short. If I could read it, I would know my RPM.
Because I always wear Leatt 3DF body protector with elbow pads, I found I could get rid of the aerobar elbow rests, which gets my position lower and can adjust elbow location (for road camber). Eventually, I’ll get the Profile T2s, but they are a bit pricey.
I wanted to post an update to this. On my first attempted ride this week I discovered I had forgotten to deflate the tire and it exploded in the back of my car. I replaced the tube and tire and then on my next ride my brake hose finally broke. I’m not sure if it was because the hose is too short and flexed too much or if it suffered from impacts (or a combination of both). For the adjustments I moved the handle to a different (Mad4One) frame. I added a little bit of length to the PVC pipe on the bottom. I realized the hose is actually the same length so I would have the same issue. Ideally it would be a few inches longer so I could run it up the frame better (without this necessary shortcut), but I added a couple zip ties to try to reduce the tension on where it connects to the brake lever. The housing for the hose is pulled away a bit so I added some Gorilla tape but I need to look up to see what would be better to protect the tube inside.
Hi Waaalrus,
I don’t know if this would be counter-productive, but try turning the brake lever around and placing the mount behind the grip and the lever facing forward, you might then have enough brake line. ? or just put a 90 degree brake fitting at the line coming out of the lever, anyway I like that frame, it is so well put together in your set up.
LobbyBopster
If been thinking along the same line, changing the orientation of an Ursli-bar from horzontal to vertical.
my point of grip would be in the middle and no longer be placed out to one side, so I would not have to compensate for sideways offset force when pulling or pushing the handle
there would be better protection for the brake lever
I’ve never had issues with dismounting and mixing up with the handlebar, but then this would be even less of an issue since the profile is less catchy than some designs (T-bar)
I’m thinking about a design, where height of grip and distance to saddle would be adaptable
And in that context: has anyone ever experimented with thumb operated braking?
My idea was, pulling is done with the other four fingers, using one or two of them for controled braking is difficult to distinguish from the impulse of all 4 wanting to grip an pull when going through rough terrain.
Pushing could be done through good shape of grip, many tools like saws, power drills and other stuff have very good shapes as examples.
So, my thinking is to find out wether my thumb is doing something important already without me noticing it. If so, it wouldn’t work to use the thumb for braking.
If for my riding the thumb is so far unemployed, there would be enough strength for braking and propably good control to apply pressure aproprietly.
I’m courious to find a way to try this out, maybe changing brake-orientation 180°, but so far I havent started to go practical.
I would like to know if it is more intuitive to let my thumb do a differentiated job then braking with my index and/or middle finger.
The reverse brake lever technique that everyone uses seems super weird to me. I don’t know how people get leverage to pull up on the handle or manage to not crush their fingers. The 90 degree fitting sounds interesting but I would rip out the cable inside a week. I have some pretty hard UPDs and the handle has a tendency to twist in loose terrain. I’ve hit my knee a bunch of times with my handle as minimal and narrow as it is. My new wheel is only a couple weeks old and I’ve already knocked it out of true and tension.
P.S. I figured I might as well link to part 2 of my handle video.
I have purchased mine at my local bike (unicycle part supply) store, and several off of ebay. I even got one to fit my old coda brake lever off ebay. It will help to know the threads on the existing fitting, but most are already waiting there for you.
Update:
with a bunch of used bar ends and some cutting and readjusting I went today for my first ride with the brake in position for the thumb. I’m not yet satisfied with the setup, I need to visit the bike-shop for more material to experiment with, but in general it worked.
When I have a solution I’m ok with pictures will come.
My idea is to ride like this for maybe a month or two, so I will get used to this, and then change back to normal braking position to see what it will feel like in comparison.
I`m planning to move the grip closer to the saddle, but so far this is a setup I like to ride, with the material I have. It’s quite a puzzle with those bar ends and their odd angles and shapings to place things the way you want them to …
I wonder why you feel the need to use the “one” thumb that allows you to grip very solid to the handle instead of using one of the “four” (or more) fingers to operate the brake while your opposing thumb is left to do what it’s best at?
I can brake with any one or several of my four fingers with absolute control all while maintaining a solid grip on the handle.
While braking with your thumb, your grip is surely compromised.
Well, I’m not even near having absolute control, so I go for every help (or imagination of) I can find
Why I started this?
because I had the thought and wanted to know what it would be like
because at the moment for me it feels like gripping the bar for ride-control and working the lever with any of my 4 fingers for brake-control are conflicting activities. For the last months I felt somewhat stressed by this and found that for the practice I had the progress seemed little, so I would like to try a different approach.
Thanks for the comment about thumb braking and grip strength !
Made me think more into detail on that. To distinguish between base joint + the meaty part, wanting to optimise grip-design so this can maintain a firm hold on one side, and middle and distant joint to move for the brake lever. So I will keep that in mind when positioning the brake or thinking about other types of brake levers.