Velo Orange Short Pull Brake levers

There is a serious crisis happening in the world today, and it has nothing to do with Taylor Swift’s recent break up.  Mountain bike style brake levers that use old fangled cables are on the way out.  They’re being replaced by brake levers that have a really icky fluid in them, with a propensity to leak out as the brake lever ages, covering your favorite copy of Bernie Sanders autobiography “Who needs gloves when you got Mittens?” with oily goo.  If this goo starts to leak out at home, it sucks.  If it starts to leak out on a ride, you are SOL, cause who has a rubber bladder (yuk) for a 2012 Shimano Deore brake lever just sitting around in thier saddle bag, along with a Torx 4.5 driver, very fresh mineral oil, a syringe, and a good youtube connection.  It’s like driving the Lancia Stratos Zero as your daily commuter.  If something breaks, you will never get to work.  Unlike the Stratos though, your bike breakdown excuse will just be lame and you will be fired.  

As we see it, there are only a handful of short pull brake levers out there any more that you can use for Cantilever / Short pull aka Road Disc Brakes / U - brakes / Sidepull Calipers / Centerpulls / Roller Cams / Link Cams / Mini V brakes.  

Here is the list:  Velo Orange Short Pull Brake Levers.  Paul Canti Levers. Diacompe SS-6. Impossible to find, very cheap feeling Shimano or Tektro units made for city bikes that spend 96% of their time hanging in a garage.  That’s it.  The only other folks who make nice ones only make a right hand lever, cause they’re for BMX.  

Here’s what’s good about the VO levers.  They come in black or silver.  Easy to install.  Easy to adjust.  Look decent.  Very light.  Under 100 bucks.  

Here’s what’s not awesome.  Pebbled finish isn’t as nice as a silky smooth machined or polished finish.  But that price tag…. Also, the hardware is small, so go easy on install, and if you have one, use a torque wrench.  It’s not like installing a Thomson breaky breaky seatpost, but you don’t wanna have your friend Grog adjust it with his bone club either.  

Not for use with normal V brakes, or mountain Disc brakes.  Wrong cable pull.