I'm currently considering my first road bike purchase. I have ridden a few road bikes and one thing I have noticed is that using the brakes from the hoods is quite difficult, I just can't get the leverage that is possible from the drops. The levers I tested were Shimano 2300 and Shimano Tiagra. Do all levers have this problem? Or do the 105 or higher levers have improved performance from the hoods?
Braking from hoods
- Thread starter Borbus
- Start date
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corshamjim
New Member
- Location
- Corsham
It's simply not such a natural action twisting back a drop-barred brake lever from the hoods when compared with squeezing the brake lever on a flat barred bike. Subtle changes in bar angle and different brake block compounds may help, but the most positive braking is, imho, only ever going to be found with flat-bar style levers.
Having said that, back in the day, I was quite happy with the old-fashioned Weinemann 'suicide levers'.
Having said that, back in the day, I was quite happy with the old-fashioned Weinemann 'suicide levers'.
Fletch456
Guru
- Location
- North Hampshire
It may not be down to the levers, did you take a look at the handle bars on the different bikes - it may be the shape of them. You may or may not see a lot of variation in the bikes you're looking at but there is quite a lot of variation in the different shapes out there on various bikes / available in the after sales market. I've recently bought my first carbon bike, after riding aluminium and the different geometry combined with handle bars that have a much shallower drop mean I can reach the drops and brake and change gear from them for the first time.
That said I have Sora on the other bike and Ultegra on the new and the levers and hoods are both very different. On the Ultegra the lever starts out vertical but quickly deviates to point outwards and the hood itself is a lot softer and much more ergonomically shaped. The Sora bike is 6-7 years old but don't imagine it's changed in this area enough to be comparable to be like the new Ultegra. As a result the levers sit under my fingers when on the hoods, very naturally. Take a look at 105 - I tested a bike that had it last year and I don't know about the lever design but I remember the hood being very similar and know the two groupsets are pretty alike on some things.
david1701
Well-Known Member
- Location
- Bude, Cornwall
a lot of it is learning the new skill/muscle group. I posted this thread with the same thoughts but i'm now very confident on my brakes and happy to wear the pads out before I upgrade them. Today I didn't kill the dozy tourist who stepped out about 4 feet in front of me or the dog that tried to hump my front wheel 
Downward
Guru
- Location
- West Midlands
I find and I live on a steep hill that shifting your weight back on the seat improves your braking. Unless your braking from high speeds ( 30/35mph) + when your generally on your drops anyway riding 95% of the time on your hoods and braking isn't a problem.
Downward
Guru
- Location
- West Midlands
I have Tiagra's by the way. I change between the hybrid with disc brakes to Roadie and although the hybrid is more responsive to braking you learn how to brake with the road bike and weight shifting.
numbnuts
Legendary Member
- Location
- Gone over the hill and far away
We had this question a while back and my answer then was “big hands help” 
Fletch456
Guru
- Location
- North Hampshire
We had this question a while back and my answer then was “big hands help”
+1 for that and I'll add good forearm muscles. With my Sora I kept getting niggles in my forearms from the gear changes and barely had it whatsoever with the Ultegra.
PaulSecteur
No longer a Specialized fanboy
- Location
- Walsall, West Mids.
I have just fitted a new stem to my Tricross, and whe replacing the handlebars I tilted them back a bit, not much at all, but the effect is that I have more fingers lower down the brake lever, and with a bike like the tricross it all helps. Might be worth having a bit of a play with your bar position to see what improvements can be made.
