At Brake Lever on Handlebars... adjuster, Gitane Grand Sport Mixte

[JanJ]

On Wife's ~1970 Gitane Grand Sport Mixte, with Mafac Racer Brakes, at the handlebar brake lever (Safety Brake levers, by the way).....

At the point where the brake cable enters the brake lever, is a cream colored plastic nipple that mates the cable shield to the brake lever assembly.. Not adjustable, just an interface from cable shield to brake assembly.....
The brake assembly does not contain plastic covers, just aluminum metal.

One cracked earlier this year, and I bought two loose pieces that look like this type:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-10-x-pcs-Bike-Bicycle-Brake-Cable-Adjuster-Screws-7mm-Barrel-/321459327548?pt=Cycling_Parts_Accessories&hash=item4ad878123c

They work, but look a bit 'oversize' and not as neat as I've seen on your pictures.... Yes, it looks 'out of place' or a Rube Goldberg repair..

I'd like to replace these with something that looks better.... So I ask the forum----

If I wanted to replace these plastic (Or metal in the case of my Peugeot) pieces with good looking metal adjustable (what do you call these things?) adapters..... What would you use?

Thanks, as usual.... Jan

[nfmisso]

For the safety of your wife, get ride of the suicide levers, replace the with aero levers and cross levers which have the cable adjusters.

Aero:
http://www.amazon.com/Tektro-RL340-Brake-Levers-Black/dp/B003U9ROKC/
http://www.amazon.com/XLC-Brake-Lever-Black-Silver/dp/B0030KZIVI/
http://www.amazon.com/Tektro-RL520-Brake-Levers-Linear/dp/B001IORJVU/
http://www.amazon.com/Origin8-Road-Bicycle-Levers-Standard/dp/B000AO9M7S/
XLC levers are nice, and I believe the narrowest ones out there.

Cross:
http://www.amazon.com/Tektro-RL726-Cross-Levers-Black/dp/B001F2Y32S/
http://www.amazon.com/Tektro-RL720-Cross-Brake-24-0-mm/dp/B0015HH6AE/
http://www.amazon.com/Tektro-RL721-Cross-Levers-31-8mm/dp/B001CK0FBQ/
http://www.amazon.com/Soma-Cross-Urban-Levers-Silver/dp/B00643YR2E/
http://www.amazon.com/Tektro-RL726-Cross-Brake-Silver/dp/B001PHZKOI/
http://www.amazon.com/Tektro-RL720-Cross-Levers-Black/dp/B001CK0FAW/
http://www.amazon.com/SunLite-13802-Type-Cross-Levers/dp/B000YBEIKI/
http://www.amazon.com/ORIGIN8-Torq-Lite-Cross-Levers/dp/B0046W0MDI/
http://www.amazon.com/Cane-Creek-Crosstop-Levers-26-0mm/dp/B001JI8SKG/
http://www.amazon.com/Soma-Cross-Urban-Levers-Black/dp/B005HRE2SM/

In both cases, make sure that you measure the handle bar diameter and get the correct size.

[cny-man]

Good luck Nigel - I detailed the deficiencies of extension/suicide levers previously, and the OP declined to take my advice to dispense with them.

[JanJ]

Yes, we declined to take advantage of the warnings. We did, however, reposition the seats, heights of seat & bars and such, so we were properly sitting on the bicycle... This information was from this site....

Neither my wife, nor I can fully bend down to grip the brakes as requested. I can, because I tried after first warning.... But that caused strain on neck in order to see forward...

The options left for us was to either replace thngs, or adapt.

We both feel comfortable with gripping the now rotated bars, and repositioning the shift levers to the stem complements this...

We do appreciate your concerns, though...

(12-20-2014, 08:02 PM)cny-man Wrote:  Good luck Nigel - I detailed the deficiencies of extension/suicide levers previously, and the OP declined to take my advice to dispense with them.

[JanJ]

If you remember all the comments that occurred after our post of the pictures of the bikes....
Every one of them has been addressed.... Once everything is finished, I hope to post new pics so you can see the differences in seating & bars position... as well as brake adjustments and other issues that (at the time), we did not understand.

Now if it would only be May!!!

[JanJ]

[attachment=5592]Later this afternoon, I Contacted an Ebay seller that has provided parts for the 'upgrade' a month ago... Sent him request, and he replied with 4 different pictures, 2 of which I never knew existed, duplicates of the same plastic piece that cracked on us.... and a grey picture that looked surprisingly like the plastic piece in 3rd picture....
After a couple more emails.... I find they are metal equivalents of the plastic pices... Getting them, and new cables, since I'll have to re-thread the brake cable through this new part...
When we re-positioned the shifter to the stem, we had to replace cables, so at this point I've got some yellowed white cables on the brakes, and shiny black cables on the shifters.... So as long as I've got to re-do the brake lines, Shiny black cables it is!!!
I still don't know the name of the part.... but here's what I'm fixing.....

[nfmisso]

Ferrule

[cradom]

^^ yes, ferrule and they should be metal. I personally wouldn't use cheap plastic ones. Ask your local bike shop for some.
And the cables on the back bike look a little strained. That's a sharp angle (or it's just the pic?).

[cny-man]

Old style brake levers were never designed to take cable adjusters, thus the adjusters look and work poorly with them. In fact road levers almost never come with them. If you're worried about keeping the vintage look that's not the way to do it. Brake cables very seldom need adjustment anyway, so there's little need to have the adjusters at the lever. Cable housing looks better when routed behind the handlebars, and generally works better on the front as well, especially with longer stems and brakes that take a hanger.

[JanJ]

I sent that same pix I posted to fellow who sold the parts (After I couldn't tell the difference between the plastic and metal pictures... And he immediately commented the same as you-all have done.. (Should not put cable adjusters on brake levels)..... He pointed out that it would cause cable to twist. He's sending metal ferrules, and new cables.

[JanJ]

Metal Ferrules are on their way!
The white-ish cables are the originals! I found a thread somewhere that would indicate I should want a closed hand width spacing between the bars and top of new brake cable angle.... That sound about right?

The black cables on the Gitane are the ones I added when I did the stem shifter change, and those cables lengths were based on the Peugeot stem shifter's measurements... and seem about right, I hope.

(12-23-2014, 09:29 AM)cradom Wrote:  ^^ yes, ferrule and they should be metal. I personally wouldn't use cheap plastic ones. Ask your local bike shop for some.
And the cables on the back bike look a little strained. That's a sharp angle (or it's just the pic?).

[JanJ]

Installed... (Kept white cable shields though). One less thing to be concerned about !

[cny-man]

(12-23-2014, 03:59 PM)JanJ Wrote:  Metal Ferrules are on their way!
The white-ish cables are the originals! I found a thread somewhere that would indicate I should want a closed hand width spacing between the bars and top of new brake cable angle.... That sound about right?

Sorry, no idea what you mean by "top of new brake cable angle."

[JanJ]

Sorry for late post...
That had to do with calculating the cable shield length when you have new over-length cable shields, and are cutting them to length. I found a site somewhere that said proper spacing is: a 'hand sized' gap between the bars and the top of the brake cable shield bend, so that an end to end handlebar turn ihas enough slack to prevent binding in brake cabling...

[cny-man]

The term is housing, not "cable shields." Hand sizes vary quite a bit, and can be measured in width or length, and I have never seen any such guideline. There's no "calculating involve - it's simply a gentle bend and enough to not cause binding when the handlebars are tuned. What I referred to was placement more than length - they're normally in back of the handlebars rather than in front.

[JanJ]

Housings it is then!!
I was going to use a fist, as that's the spacing size I found on the Gitane. I ended up re-using the existing 1970 housings, as they were still good on outside, and 'smooth' internally...

I've not found any catalog pix that matches the Gitane.