Adapted drop brake levers on flat bars - hack or bodge?

[Stevers]

I've just fitted a set of Raleigh All-rounder flat bars to my 1966 Gillott Italo (that may also be a crime), the brake levers that were sent with the bars were the wrong ones, so to get it up and running I adapted a set of Weinmann drop bar levers that once had 'safety levers' so already had a lot of travel, and this I was able to increase further by judicious hacksawing and filing. I have ridden it, and they work really well, there is now plenty of travel, they're clearly well made and quite sleek looking, plus I can keep the original drop cables - but I'm not sure that I can live with them being drop bar levers...

Hack or bodge?

Obviously nothing is for ever, and it's easily reversible - unlike when I removed the lamp bracket braze-on and cable loops for the bar end shifters, before I brush painted it! :-/

Steve

 

[fossyant]

Looks good that.

 

[cheshirerob]

Hack.

Also if you watch a certain youtube channel I will follow with.......
Its just a nice (rather than super nice), as the valve stems and cranks are not aligned, although its a good none jaunty camera angle, the water bottle and saddle bag are in the picture 😃

 

[Stevers]

Thanks both! I tucked the far crank behind the down tube, but then lost interest and took the photos.

One of my 'mates' thinks it needs a basket! I think it needs a much longer stem, so that my hands are nearer where they would be on the tops of drop bars. It was Sheldon Brown with his all-rounder PX-3 that inspired me. He inverted the bars, but I'd slam the stem before doing that.

 

[Cycleops]

Dunno but that Gillott is gorgeous.

 

[Stevers]

Thank you. Allegedly a Ron Cooper, it was collected as a primed frame from Hilary Stone's emporium. It has the correct style of head badge, but it's not the original. There were traces of dark turquoise metallic paint, but that's well beyond my capabilities with a paint brush. Without history I felt it reasonable to give it a late 70s makeover in a nice bright solid colour - as I might have done when I was at Uni. Having removed all the tired primer I can say that the workmanship on it is top-notch, and I really like that style of drop shouldered fork - which I'm told is a pig to braze safely. Gears, hubs and crank are all from SunTour or SunTour associates and the brakes are Weinmann. A curved rear brake bridge would have been even better, but we can't have it all apparently! :-/

 

[TimWinters]

Brought back some fond memories. In the mid 90s I didn't have a lot of money, so I used to buy scrap road bikes from my local tip for £5 each. I did a similar conversion to make a utility bike. It was a nice bike. I changed the rear dropouts to 120mm and fitted scrap wheels from anther bike. It had Campag large flange hubs and of course it was converted to fixed gear, a long time before fixed was fashionable. My bike looked very similar to yours. I think mine was a Freddie Grubb frame. That bike looks really good, thanks for sharing.

 

[TimWinters]

Forgot to mention, definitely a hack!

 

[SkipdiverJohn]

A bodge is only a bodge if it's a modification that's been badly done. If you use some ingenuity to modify something, and manage to make a half decent job of it, then it's not a bodge. I would be happy with those brake levers, they don't look bad and presumably they work ok, which is the most important thing.

 

[raleighnut]

Nice

 

[Oldhippy]

If it works and you like it it matters not what anyone says or thinks.

 

[T4tomo]

On a purely mechanical basis, you have caliper levers for caliper brakes so all good. they also don't look too out of place with those bars, which are a minor crime on that bike, but if it works for you and means its more rideable for you then why not.

not sure about the yellow cables though